Vandals Have Fattened Up On Big West ‘Cupcakes’
Idaho needn’t apologize for its five-game Big West Conference winning streak. But the Vandals would be wise not to dislocate their arms patting themselves on the back.
Idaho’s five victims have a combined conference record of 8-22. The Vandals beat four of the five at the Kibbie Dome.
UI visits Pacific on Thursday and Boise State on Saturday. Those two are a combined 8-4 in conference.
Still, compared to the five-game losing streak that preceded the recent success, the Vandals are playing a better brand of basketball.
“Every time we play, I see or hear, to this point, we’ve had it pretty easy,” UI coach Dave Farrar said. “Our two (league) losses to Santa Barbara and Long Beach both turn out to be pretty good losses.”
Those two clubs rule the Big West Western Division. Clever name, huh?
Tigers still have BMOC
Pacific’s Michael Olowokandi, who ate up the Vandals twice last season, has moved on to the NBA. Problem for opponents is the Tigers still have a quality center in Jason Williams, a 6-foot-7, 230-pound senior.
He’s averaging 16.4 points and 7.1 rebounds.
“Their big kid is still as dominant as anybody in the league,” Farrar said.
Bergersen on film
Sports Illustrated, which is doing an article on BSU’s Roberto Bergersen, had its photographer in Boise last Thursday to take snaps of the 6-foot-6 scoring machine during the Utah State game.
The photographer spent a day positioning 13 cameras around the BSU Pavilion, including behind the backboards and in the rafters. The photographer, who also shot the recent cover of Michael Jordan, operated the cameras via remote control and took few pictures with an actual camera in hand.
Idaho hopes to avoid getting posterized by Bergersen. Gordon Scott likely will draw the defensive assignment. Backups Josh Toal and Adam Miller also will see time on Bergersen, who leads the conference at 24.5 points per game. Scott is Idaho’s leading scorer at 14.3.
Sorry, brother
The Los Angeles Lakers held a week’s worth of practices at UC Santa Barbara. Alas, the practices were closed, meaning Gauchos guard Brandon Payton couldn’t provide brother Gary, the Seattle Sonics superstar, with a scouting report.
The Lakers’ last practice at UCSB was Tuesday. They did hold one open scrimmage.
Free-dumb
Nevada is threatening to shatter a dubious conference record. The Wolf Pack have made just 161 of 288 free throws for 55.9 percent.
New Mexico State (1993-94) and UNLV (1995-96) share the worst mark at 57.3. By the way, New Mexico State’s coach at the time, Neil McCarthy, wrote his master’s thesis on the mechanics of foul shooting.
Nevada suited up eight players last week against Idaho and Boise State and five were sub-.500 free-throw shooters. The Wolf Pack made 13 of 16 foul shots against Idaho, but just 10 of 24 two nights later at Boise.
Meanwhile, Cal Poly SLO tops the Big West at 75.5 percent. UC Santa Barbara holds the record at 77.2 in 1982-83. Still, Cal Poly is on pace for the best free-throwing since UC Irvine’s 76.8 in 1986-87.
Notes
Guard Avery Curry is seventh on Idaho’s all-time list with 78 made 3-pointers. He’s also seventh in 3s attempted (213) and ninth in steals (72). … Guard Rick Wozniak has played every second of Cal Poly’s last two games. … Utah State is tough to beat six days a week. But the Aggies, 9-8 overall, are only 1-6 on Saturdays. Idaho bombed the Aggies 77-58 on Saturday. … Nevada center Dimitrios Marmarinos, a native of Greece, turned down $200,000 to play in Europe.