Idaho Game Preview
Posted by kj on Friday, November 14th, 2008
Sunday. 6:00. The Breslin Center. BTN.
The Idaho Vandal are coming off a season in which they won just eight games. Their overall record was 8-21, with a 5-11 mark in WAC play. Those results actually reflected improvement, as they had won just 4 games overall in each of the two prior seasons.
Not surprisingly, the program has undergone some changes. They’ve brought in a new head coach, Don Verlin. Verlin was formerly an assistant at Utah State. On his basketball philosophy:
“I want our team to play a hard and physical style of man-to-man defense. We spent a lot of time in the preseason on our defense schemes. On offense we will play a pro-style set offense that is based on execution. We are hoping our defense will ignite our offense and we will be able to get up and down the floor,” Verlin said.
A quick look at the team’s tempo-free profile from last season would indicate a new philosophy can only be a good thing, as the team was uniformly bad in all phases of the game. The only areas where the team’s numbers approached being average were offensive rebounding (OReb% of 32.4%) and creating turnovers (DefTO% of 20.7%).
The program welcomes 12 new players, with just 5 players returning from last season. The team’s top six players from last season in terms of playing time have left the team (four through graduation). Their top returning scorer is 6′4″ senior guard Trevor Morris, who averaged 7.4 points game while playing in only 16 games.
The projected starting point guard is 6′2″ redshirt junior Mac Hopson, who transferred from Washington State prior to last season. Hopson averaged 4.2 points/game and shot .448 from 3-point range in his final season at Washington State.
Brandon Wiley, a 6′6″ juco transfer, may also be a key player. He appears to have been a versatile contributor at City College of San Fransicos, averaging 12.9 points. 8.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 2.3 blocks per game last season.
Idaho actually opens their season tonight, with a game against an NAIA team, Evergreen State. Playing two games in three days will presumably further limit the Vandals’ ability to keep up with MSU in a full court game. Verlin:
I don’t know if we can keep up with those guys or not. No, I can’t see us getting into a 100 to 95 game or something like that. They push it extremely hard. It looks like coach is using his depth and his bigs look like they can really run from the stuff I’ve seen on video. I’m not sure we can play that many possessions and be successful at Michigan State.
Sagarin (based on last year’s ratings obviously) says MSU by 29. If this game is close beyond the first 15 minutes or so, that’d be reason for concern. This is not the most exciting of openers, but the fact that the season is beginning is reason enough to be enthused (hence the excessively detailed game preview for a nonconference pushover).
GO GREEN!
Filed in game previewComments Off