Analysis

Vandals adjust, thrive in second year back in the Big Sky

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After two straight trips to the NCAA Tournament, the Vandals found themselves on the outside looking in.

In 2014, Idaho rejoined the Big Sky Conference in all sports but football. The charter member of the league left in 1996, spending most of the next 18 years in the Western Athletic Conference. The Idaho women’s basketball team won back-to-back WAC Tournament championships and advanced to the NCAA Tournament twice.

Idaho’s first year in the Big Sky, the Vandals stumbled. Reigning WAC Player of the Year Stacey Barr led the league by averaging 21.3 points per game but Idaho won just four of its first 12 Big Sky games. The Vandals finished 8-10 in the Big Sky, 14-15 overall and missed the Big Sky Tournament all together.

Idaho head coach Jon Newlee

Idaho head coach Jon Newlee

A year later, the Vandals are back on track and headed to the Big Dance for the third time in four seasons. Head coach Jon Newlee, a successful Big Sky coach during his six seasons at Idaho State before taking over in Moscow eight years ago, helped his team adjust to the contrast in styles and thrive. Idaho finished third in the regular season standings and got hot at the perfect time, winning three games in Reno to claim the Big Sky Tournament title and the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

“The biggest transition coming into this league was the physicality overall,” said Newlee, the two-time Big Sky Coach of the Year during his time at ISU. “In the WAC, we build a different type of team to win, more finesse. We weren’t as physical as we needed to be last year. We got pushed around. We realized that in the off-season, tried to get in the weight room more.”

Don Verlin and the Idaho men’s team struggled in their first season in the Big Sky as well. Despite featuring a senior backcourt of Mike Scott and Connor Hill, Idaho limped to the No. 8 seed in the Big Sky Tournament and lost in the first round.

A year later, the Vandal men, like their female counterparts, adjusted to the Big Sky. Junior point guard Perrion Callandret and sophomore swingman Victor Sanders each suffered mid-season injuries but UI was able to weather the storm and earn the No. 3 seed in the tournament. After a first-round bye, Idaho beat defending tournament champion Eastern Washington before taking Montana down to the wire in the semifinals. The 81-72 loss did not end Idaho’s season. The Vandals accepted a bid to the College Basketball Invitational. Idaho fell to Seattle U in the Emerald City but finished with its first 20-win season since 1993.

Idaho guard Perrion Callendret

Idaho guard Perrion Callendret

“The league we came from played with bigger, stronger guys around the rim,” Verlin said. “The thing that this league is really good with is there is a lot of really good coaches in this league. This league is very well coached, very well prepared. We had to adjust to the officiating a little bit but that’s part of it.”

Verlin remembers sitting on an airplane with an official earlier this season. The ref expressed to Verlin his genuine surprise with how good the Big Sky had become.

“I completely agree,” Verlin said last week. “There is good players in this conference, good coaches in this conference and this is the way it should be. A lot of the schools in the league have a lot of tradition and it’s been a long standing league. There is great tradition at Idaho, Montana, Montana State, Weber State. They are good jobs and good places to live.

“We are so excited to be back in the Big Sky. It’s the conference in terms of basketball that the University of Idaho should be in. The travel is a lot better than the league we came from. We are happy to be back in the league. We enjoy the regional rivalries of this league and it’s the league we should be in.”

In the WAC, Verlin’s Vandals played against teams like former WAC schools Boise State, Fresno State, Nevada, San Jose State and Utah State, programs with bruising, physical front lines. Under Verlin, Idaho has mostly been guard-oriented so transitioning back to the Big Sky in that aspect proved to be relatively easy.

“The thing I noticed is the shooters in this league,” Idaho senior Chris Sarbaugh said earlier this season. “There might be guys who were overlooked by bigger schools because they don’t have other elite skills or ability but they come in and work their butts off and become all-around players who just shoot the lights out. This year, I’ve also been impressed with the young players in this league, sophomores and freshmen. There are really good young players in this league.”

Idaho guard Victor Sanders

Idaho guard Victor Sanders

“We didn’t have to change our recruiting at all,” Verlin added.

Newlee has adjusted the way he recruits, adding two dynamic shooters in freshmen Mikayla Ferenz and Taylor Pierce. The Vandal women have also had to adjust to the way the league is officiated.

“It’s called different in this league,” Newlee said. “That really threw us off last year. We were expecting to get calls and we all of a sudden weren’t getting them. I thought we’d lose our composure at times. People were used to getting to the line and we weren’t and it steamrolled.”

Barr graduated but the rest of the core returned. First-team All-Big Sky forward Christina Salvatore, honorable mention All-Big Sky center Ali Forde and steady junior point guard Karlee Wilson made up the core. Then Newlee added the fearless freshmen.

“We are a much different team now,” Newlee said. “I have more depth now with my two freshmen being able to step up. I went from really a six and a half rotation to being able to go nine-deep and feel comfortable with that now. We’ve been able to do some things differently from a defensive standpoint in terms of pressure. Last year, if we got in foul trouble, it was over.”

Ferenz recently completed her coming out party. She drilled a Big Sky Tournament record 16 3-pointers and averaged nearly 23 points per game in earning tournament MVP honors as a rookie. Pierce was no slouch herself, helping Idaho to an overtime victory against Weber State by drilling a fall-away 3-pointer at the OT buzzer to lift the Vandals to victory.

Idaho guard Mikayla Ferenz

Idaho guard Mikayla Ferenz

Idaho takes the No. 16 seed in the West Regional into this week’s NCAA Tournament. The Vandals play top-seeded Baylor, a team that has advanced to five Final Fours since 2000. Although Newlee expressed disappointment in the seed, he is proud of the way his team adjusted in their second season back in the Big Sky.

“Different mentality coming into this year and our team knew it,” Newlee said. “Our team knew how the league is and we knew what we needed to do and we got it done.”

Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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