Vandals attend to issues before tourney begins

Now that the Idaho Vandals are in the Big West Conference Tournament, they can go back to worrying about themselves.

Right now, that’s a time-consuming venture.

Idaho, losers of six straight and nine of its last 10, clinched a spot in the tournament when UC Riverside lost to Cal State Northridge on Thursday. Unless Idaho (8-20, 6-11 Big West) springs an upset tonight against Utah State (21-7, 12-5) at the Spectrum in Logan, the Vandals will likely be the last of eight seeds.

The Vandals knocked off Utah State in December, but the teams have gone in opposite directions of late. The Aggies have secured their sixth straight 20-win season, joining Arizona, Duke, Gonzaga, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Syracuse as the only schools with such a current streak.

Idaho has its first 20-loss season since Dave Farrar’s last season (6-21 in 2000-01). Following Saturday’s home loss to Long Beach State, Vandals seniors Anton Lyons and Dandrick Jones were critical of the underclassmen’s heart and effort.

“The only thing I can tell you is I haven’t done as good a job as I need to with preparing them to face the media with their emotions running high,” Perry said. “I know they love their teammates and I don’t think they meant that those kids haven’t played hard. It came out a lot worse than it is.”

Perry said Idaho looked “fatigued” in the second half against Long Beach State. The Vandals took a couple of days off earlier this week before preparing for Utah State.

“We’d guard well for 15-20 seconds, then break down when we had to have a stop,” Perry said. “We looked physically worn out.”

Not that they can expect any sympathy from the Aggies, who are bidding for second place and the accompanying bye into the tournament semifinals. The Aggies are 13-1 at home, the lone loss when they coughed up an eight-point lead in the last minute against Pacific.