Young Vandals
George Pfeifer is a basketball coach who is spending quite a bit of time wrestling with himself these days.
He wants Idaho to run a multi-faceted offense, full of counter moves and variation, but the Vandals must first develop a foundation to build upon. In his heart, he wants to play man-to-man defense with a few wrinkles, but he’s not sure that’s in the best interests of his team.
“I would like to tell you we are exactly where we would like to be at this stage,” Pfeifer said prior to Idaho’s exhibition opener last Friday. “We walked away from a scrimmage the other day not feeling very good about it, but one of my assistants said, ‘What do you expect? You have an entirely new team and brand new way of doing things.’ “
Idaho “can’t be vanilla,” Pfeifer said, “but when I tell you we have to be more diverse that’s hard because there’s a lot more to learn to do that.”
Those are just some of the issues Idaho’s first-year head coach is wrestling with as he tries to rejuvenate a program that went 4-25 last season.
Of the 16-player roster, only five were with the Vandals a year ago, and that includes forward Aaron Smith, who will redshirt, and forward Mitchell Johnson, who redshirted a year ago after being involved in a car accident. Johnson practiced recently for the first time after seven months of rehabilitation.
Keoni Watson, the top returning scorer at 10.4 points, and forwards Mike Kale and Desmond Nwoke are back. Kale has been a spectator at practice with a sore knee. Nwoke, on the other hand, is feeling better after his troublesome knees acted up most of last season.
“I’ve seen a maturity in Keoni’s play,” Pfeifer said. “I think he understands that every time the ball is in his hands he doesn’t have to hit a triple or a home run. I don’t think you’ll see the feast-or-famine games. I’ve seen a little more patience and understanding.”
Kale, when healthy, would probably be the starting center. Nwoke and 6-foot-10, 260-pound J.C. transfer Sebastien Taulbee are in the mix. Nwoke is “vastly improved,” Pfeifer said. “I’d be surprised if I see someone more put together than Taulbee. He gets better every day.”
True freshman O.J. Avworo and J.C. transfer Mario Mackey are candidates at point guard.
The wing and forward rotations are far from settled and figure to change when former North Idaho College standout Darin Nagle joins the team in mid-December. Among those in contention are Clyde Johnson, Miles Webb, Trevor Morris, Mitchell Johnson, Michael Crowell, David Jackson and Andrew Madsen.
Webb began his career at Minnesota before transferring to a junior college in North Dakota. He left there with an 18.7 scoring average and a top 100 ranking from Jucojunction.com. Morris made 40 percent of his 3-point attempts as a catch-and-shoot wing at Miles City C.C.
Crowell, both Johnsons and Madsen have played at least one year at a junior college. Crowell averaged 21.7 points and 11.3 rebounds at Central Arizona. Clyde Johnson had modest stats on a deep Northeastern team that went 30-4. Mitchell Johnson had 20 double-figures games at Franklin Pierce two years ago. Madsen, a former Lewiston Bengal, is a walk-on. The 6-8 Jackson joins Avworo as the team’s only freshmen.
“We lack some stature and size, so we have to exploit the fact that we have quickness,” Pfeifer said. “When we’re not throwing the ball away and we execute we shot the ball well.”