A primer for UI-Fresno State
Thankfully for the Idaho men's basketball team, it only had a couple days to reflect on Monday's heartbreaker against Boise State. Read on for more about upcoming games (including tonight vs. Fresno State at the Dome).
We also have a couple football-related links for you.
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Here's a blurb that appeared in the Four Corners page this morning, followed by a notebook item:
RECORD: 1-6 WAC, 8-10 overall
COMING UP: Tonight vs. Fresno State, 7:05 (SWX); Saturday at Seattle University, 7:10 p.m.
OUTLOOK: The Vandals, losers of six straight, don’t have much time to dwell on a crushing 77-67 overtime loss to rival Boise State on Monday. Their next assignment comes tonight at Cowan Spectrum versus Fresno State, which upended Nevada last week without leading scoring Paul George (ankle). The skilled swingman could miss another two weeks, but the Bulldogs (11-10, 4-3) have other scoring options – most notably 6-foot-9 Sylvester Seay (15.7 points per game). After FSU, Idaho travels to KeyArena on Saturday for the first of two dates in the next three weeks with Seattle University. The Redhawks are 9-12 after a 123-76 loss at Washington.
No Regrets
After Boise State pushed Monday’s game at Idaho into overtime with a 3-pointer at the buzzer, Vandals coach Don Verlin stuck firmly to his position that teams should not foul in the final seconds when up by three points.
“What you worry about in a situation like that is you foul him and he shoots a 3 and makes it,” Verlin said after the 77-67 loss to BSU. “That’s the only way you can lose the basketball game. So, no, I did not think about fouling (Anthony Thomas). My philosophy has always been, ‘Make them shoot a contested shot.’ ”
Thomas’ 3 would have been irrelevant had the Vandals not missed two free throws and committed three turnovers in the final 3 minutes of regulation. Two of those turnovers – on an errant pass and inbounds play – led to four BSU points in 12 seconds.
UI’s turnover problems have cropped up all year. It had 19 against BSU, despite Verlin going with more three-guard lineups to get more ball-handlers on the court at the same time.
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On to football, where Mike Iupati is making quite a bit of noise at the Senior Bowl. Here's a feature from the Seattle Times, a piece from the Dallas Morning News, and an article from the Detroit Free Press about Scott Linehan's take on Iupati.