Vandals prepare for Nevada

The Idaho men’s basketball team is starting to play better and it has a chance to show its improvement on ESPN2 on Wednesday night against Nevada (8 p.m. tipoff). Click below for a preview that you can find in the S-R tomorrow.

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MOSCOW, Idaho – In the days that followed the Idaho men’s basketball team’s 42-point throttling at Montana, coach Don Verlin admits there was a least a little bit of panic among his coaching staff.

“Yeah, we were worried about it,” he said. “But (how we’ve responded is) a credit to our players and our coaching staff.”

Since the late November loss to the Griz, the Vandals have won eight of 11 games – including three in a row, all against Western Athletic Conference teams.

Idaho (9-6, 3-1) will shoot for its fourth consecutive victory at 8:05 tonight when it hosts Nevada (4-12, 1-2) on ESPN2.

The Wolf Pack lost seven straight in nonconference play at one point and are 0-6 on the road. But they’ve gotten a boost from Duke transfer Olek Czyz, a 6-foot-7 forward averaging a WAC-best 24.7 points per game in conference play.

“Every year the WAC championship has gone through Nevada,” Verlin said. “I think they’ll figure in it again this year.”

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Here are some additional comments from Verlin, who I spoke to after Tuesday’s practice:

— “I’m very happy with the results of the last road trip. I thought our guys did a great job of fighting together in both games and finding a way to win both of those games was great. We’re still real inexperienced, and we’re going to have games where we’re going to be pretty good. But there are nights where we aren’t going to be quite as good. But the one thing this team has done that I’ve been so happy with is that they come to work everyday. They really pay attention, and they really have been trying to get better as a basketball team. One of things I’ve been telling them is do what you’re supposed to do and the score will take care of itself. So that’s been what I’ve been so happy with — they’ve just hung in there and fighting.”

— “We’ve been fortunate to win some games. To win at San Jose, we were very fortunate. That’s a game we probably shouldn’t have won. But we did a great job the last five minutes and found a way to win. I’m extremely excited with where we are at, and yes, I was very concerned after the Montana drubbing.”

— “(Nevada is) very talented. They’re just very young. I think they have three all-league type players at some time in their career. Dario Hunt has proven over his career that he’s a very good shot-blocker and can rebound and this year he’s really score his ball. Getting Olek Czyz eligible … he really helps them as far as another high-level player. The kid was recruited to Duke. And Malik Story’s a very talented young man also.”