Jim Meehan

If you were associated with Sandpoint High wrestling, Coeur d'Alene girls basketball and University of Idaho volleyball, you probably enjoyed Saturday night's Idaho Sports Banquet. Each of those respective teams brought home two awards from the 33rd annual banquet, which honored athletic excellence for 1994, at The Coeur d'Alene Resort.

Usually following North Idaho College baseball games, Cardinals' players armed with rakes filter out on the diamond to tidy up the field. In the aftermath of NIC's 10-3, 13-8 losses to Blue Mountain on "Blue Wednesday," Card coach Jack Bloxom instructed his players to "get the hell away from here."

Allen Iverson, Shawn Respert, Lewis Lofton. Pick out the name that didn't belong in the NCAA Tournament? Trick question: All showed they belong. Lofton, the former North Idaho College basketball standout from Centralia, Wash., played a prominent role as unheralded Weber State stunned Michigan State on Friday and narrowly lost to Georgetown on Sunday.

Josh Martin practices bunting - just in case. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

NIC coach Rollie Williams found new life in 1994-95. Photo by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Winning basketball titles never gets old for Mindy Young. Young was part of two state championship teams at Coeur d'Alene High and she racked up another on Saturday night as Ricks downed Utah Valley 70-63 for the Region 18 Tournament title at College of Southern Idaho's gym.

CSI's Mantia Callender (right) kept the title out of reach for North Idaho and Eddit Turney (left). Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

NIC rips Salt Lake, saunters into tonight's title game vs. CSI with more confidence than ever TWIN FALLS, Idaho It might have been North Idaho College's best performance in the 1990s. Fresh from a 108-85 thundering of Salt Lake in the Region 18 men's basketball tournament semifinals on Friday afternoon, Cardinals coach Rolly Williams pondered the question and grinned.

Last year North Idaho College held a players-only meeting the night before the Region 18 men's basketball tournament. Players said the usual rah-rah stuff. Then the meeting adjourned and several asked: "Which room is the party in?" NIC lost big the next day.

Region 18 women The North Idaho College women's basketball team was outshot, outrebounded, outhustled, outquicked and outplayed Wednesday afternoon. As a result, the seventh-seeded Cardinals are out of the Region 18 Tournament. NIC's bumpy season ended with a 91-62 blowout loss to sizzling Utah Valley in the first round of the tourney at College of Southern Idaho's gym.

About an hour before tipoff, Beth Palmer found out she wouldn't be allowed to play in North Idaho College's basketball game on Wednesday. She retreated to the locker room and cried. Then she returned to a seat behind NIC's bench, filling water bottles and watching helplessly as the Cardinals' season ended in a 91-62 defeat to Utah Valley at the Region 18 Tournament at College of Southern Idaho.

Following a Tuesday press conference promoting the Quarterback Classic to be held at the Coeur d'Alene Resort golf course this summer, Mark Rypien was running late to catch a flight to appear on Jim Rome's television show in Los Angeles.

Idaho's Shawn Dirden uses the no-look pass to throw off Weber State's Kirk Smith in the Vandal' 71-70 win over the Wildcats. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review

Weird setting. Weirder basketball game. The weirdest finish. Idaho recovered from a seven- point deficit with 1:12 remaining by forcing several rapid-fire turnovers and winning on senior guard Mark Leslie's fall-down, standup, fadeaway 18-footer with 4 seconds left.

The Big Sky Conference's next commissioner will not be Arnie Sgalio. Whether that was or wasn't a prudent decision, most concepts of professional decency were violated when Sgalio, who has dutifully served the Big Sky the last 16 years, was the last to learn he wasn't a finalist. That's incredibly shabby treatment, and nobody, least of all the popular assistant commissioner, deserves such brazen disrespect.

Eddie Turner (right) has come to grips with classwork. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

Idaho center Nate Gardner grabs one of his seven rebounds as Chad Coates (left) and James Jones provide backup. Photo by Molly O'Hara/The Spokesman-Review

Lewiston's Ryan Baerlocher tries to cut through LC's Kyle Miller (33) and Mike Thompson. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

Idaho volleyball coach Tom Hilbert interviewed on Monday and Tuesday for the vacant coaching job at the University of Virginia. Virginia, last in the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1994, is replacing Karen Uhler, who resigned for personal reasons. "I'm in a great situation at Idaho, but this was something I felt I needed to look at," Hilbert said. "It's very similar to Idaho when I first came here. The thing is Idaho is committed to a good program and I'm not sure if Virginia is ready to do that. That's a concern of mine."

The streak lives. North Idaho College, which hasn't lost a home men's basketball game to Ricks College since the 1969-70 season, extended the Vikings' misery for another year with an 89-75 victory on Friday night at Christianson Gym.

College women Somebody gave animated North Idaho College women's basketball coach Greg Crimp a "Crimp Smackomatic," a padded device he could use to take out his frustrations. Had he chosen to use the Smackomatic, positioned behind NIC's bench, it would probably be in shreds this morning.

Sandpoint's Carson Jeffries gains possession despite pressure from Post Falls' Tim Roberts (13). Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

1. Mindy Rice's ability to rise to the occasion has netted two-sport stardom at the University of Idaho Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review 2. As the season turns, Rice's hands are full. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review 3. Rice made an immediate impact in basketball. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review<

Mark Leslie didn't realize the throbbing pain in his shin until he was getting dressed in the locker room. Minutes earlier he had scored 10 of Idaho's last 11 points as the Vandals, the team that ignores logic, stopped Montana State 79-70 in Big Sky Conference men's basketball Saturday night at the Kibbie Dome.