Vandals get one more shot at Spartans

By almost any measure – wins, win-loss percentage, losses and length of losing streak – this has been one of the worst seasons, if not the worst, in the history of University of Idaho men’s basketball.

But it’s not over yet. In fact, the Vandals (3-26, 1-15 WAC) wouldn’t mind extending their season for a few days. No, they’re not gluttons for punishment. The Vandals would simply like to return to the win column again. They haven’t done so since Jan. 18th.

Idaho has lost 12 straight games, the longest current losing skid in the nation and the longest for the Vandals since the 1946-47 team dropped 14 in a row. Two of Idaho’s 12 consecutive losses have come against San Jose State, which provides the opposition in the first round of the WAC tournament tonight at 6:30 PST at the Pan American Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

The eighth-seeded Spartans (5-24, 4-12) beat No. 9 Idaho by three in Moscow in February and by five in San Jose in the regular-season finale Saturday.

“It’s very strange, I’m sure George (Pfeifer, Idaho’s coach) doesn’t think much of it either,” San Jose State coach George Nessman said last week. “It’s just a quirk of the schedule. That’s what happened to us last year. We lost to Utah State and turned around and played them again in the tournament. You just go forward and we’ll try to do the best we can.”

Idaho elected to return to Moscow on Saturday night rather than travel directly to Las Cruces. The Vandals played Hawaii in Honolulu on Thursday and Pfeifer wanted his players to sleep in their own beds.

“I don’t want to sound like I’m whining but it’s not the most ideal (scenario),” Pfeifer said. “We’re going to go into the last weekend to the farthest point away (Honolulu) and then go to the third farthest away (Las Cruces) and do that in a five-day period.”

With a stop in San Jose in between. The Vandals shot poorly (41 and 33 percent) in the two previous meetings with the Spartans. San Jose State put four players in double figures in both wins.

But numbers and stats aren’t Pfeifer’s primary concern.

“At times we look like we’ve shown growth,” Pfeifer said. “I think our energy level is the biggest key. We have to keep the kids rested. … When we don’t play on that edge we’re really not very good at all.”