‘Bucket’ found his kicks with Vandals

As a senior at Lafollette High in Madison, Wis., David Dubois could have stayed close to home (Central Michigan), headed East (William & Mary), Southeast (Coastal Carolina) or West (Idaho).

He picked Idaho and an opportunity at immediate playing time. The 6-foot-5 true freshman has emerged as a starter, averaging 9.2 points and a team-high 4.5 rebounds. He’s made 46 percent of his shots from the field, second best among Vandals regulars.

Dubois was as close to home Tuesday as he’s going to get during the season when Idaho lost 71-64 to North Dakota State in Fargo.

Idaho’s next assignment is rival Boise State at 2 p.m. Saturday in Moscow, but Dubois first took a few minutes for this week’s Q & A.

S-R: First reaction when Idaho contacted you in the recruiting process?

DD: My first thing was, ‘Wow, Idaho, that’s a long way away.’ And potatoes. I never saw myself going that far away, but it turned out that I’m out here now.

S-R: The nickname ‘Bucket’ – where did that come from?

DD: That was from my family, just from playing basketball. When I was younger, my family gave it to me.

S-R: Try any other sports growing up?

DD: I was a middle blocker on my high school volleyball team. Volleyball was semipopular. Not every school had a team, but there were some good teams. It was fun.

S-R: You’re playing 4, or power forward, a lot, but you’re undersized in the WAC against guys who are 6-6 to 6-8. How do you compensate?

DD: I just try to do what I can. I use my quickness if they’re bigger because they’re usually not as quick. I try to use pump fakes and moves around the basket to get angles. Most of the time with taller people I try to be patient and not force it.

S-R: Perfect world, are you a 3 or 4?

DD: I can’t really say. I’m probably more of a 4 just because I grew up playing in the post, but if I needed to play 3, I could probably go out there and play it.

S-R: Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison has been on an incredible scoring pace. His lowest scoring game (15) of the season came against Idaho in the season opener. What did you try to do when you were guarding him?

DD: He’s an unbelievable scorer. He makes a lot of tough shots. I just tried to keep him in front of me and contest his shot, but we changed things up with zone and some other things.

S-R: You were used to winning more in high school and AAU ball. How are you dealing with a 3-13 record?

DD: It’s difficult, but that’s the game of basketball. We’re going through a rough period, and we just have to stick together and have each others’ backs and we’ll get out of it.