Former Mt. Spokane guard Ryan Lafferty embraces Idaho basketball: ‘I needed a fresh start’

Moscow, Idaho, may not have a lake or a ski resort. But it’s a nice town with a laid-back summer vibe and the University of Idaho providing social and cultural sizzle the rest of the year.

To hear a recent Spokane high school basketball standout tell it, though, the chief attraction of the place might as well be monastic.

“I want to get as good as I can be. I can improve here. There is a lack of distractions. I can work on getting my body healthy and lock in,” Ryan Lafferty said.

As a senior at Mt. Spokane in 2023-24, Lafferty was the Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association 3A Player of the Year and the Greater Spokane League MVP. He was named to the All-State first team and led the Wildcats to a third-place finish in the state tournament.

Lafferty acknowledges that growing up in Spokane he followed Gonzaga, and the University of Washington, where his parents Tyler and Kelly Lafferty went to school. When he was looking to further his basketball career, he gave neither of the Palouse teams, Idaho and Washington State, a second thought. He took his impressive resume to St. Thomas, a Summit League school in St. Paul, Minnesota.

As a freshman, playing behind sixth- and fifth-year veterans, he still managed to play 21 games. Last season was a different story. An ankle injury that required surgery ended his year after just 11 games.

“I needed a fresh start,” Lafferty said.

But “I am leaving a lot behind in St. Paul. My girlfriend still lives there,” he acknowledged.

Upon entering the transfer portal, Lafferty renewed ties with Idaho coach Alex Pribble, “who recruited me a little bit out of high school” and Stephen Madison, who starred at Idaho before going on to a pro career in the G League and overseas.

Madison is now the manager of Shoot 360 Spokane. Lafferty trained there and says Madison “is one of my closest mentors.”

Madison pointed him toward the Vandals, Lafferty said, and suggested he could make an immediate impact in Moscow.

Pribble, earlier this summer, said of Lafferty, a point guard, “he’s a phenomenal leader.”

At 6-5, Lafferty “has great positional size,” Pribble said. “He is great at getting in the post to make his teammates better, and he is great defensively.”

Lafferty’s impressions of Moscow are still being formed. Initially, he has been struck by what he sees as support for an Idaho program that won the Big Sky Conference Tournament last season and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

“It is a great community here in how committed everyone is. When I committed here, I got probably 100 texts from people who were so happy to see me back in the area,” he said.

Lafferty is serious when he talks about paring down his days in Moscow this summer to basketball. A typical day, he said, begins early with rehabilitation on his ankle followed by a team meeting, film session and practice.

“In mid-morning, we do weights. The rest of the day we are on our own.” But Lafferty said he goes for a second round of rehab, and “I try to get in at least one more workout.”

The Vandals’ ICCU Arena and supportive training and basketball staffs keep him focused.

“The only thing holding me back is my ankle. I would live in here if I could … the whole staff is so involved and hands-on.”

Only four players return from last year’s Big Sky tournament champion – redshirt freshman Will Jenson, redshirt junior Miles Klapper, senior Seth Joba, and redshirt junior Kristian Gonzalez, who, like Lafferty, is a guard who lost last season to injury.

Lafferty is impressed with “how close the four returners are. There is a good culture here on and off the court.”

Among the 12 newcomers, including himself, “I think this team has a lot of potential. We are big this year. We are strong, too. We are a physical team.”

Compared to what he faced in the Summit League “we are a lot more aggressive here on defense,” Lafferty said.

As a product of Spokane, now playing almost on his home turf, Lafferty would like to check off at least one more box in his college career, and in theory it could happen. The Vandals are barely 90 miles – a bus ride – from that team he grew up watching.

“I would do anything to play Gonzaga,” he said.