Men’s basketball coach Don Verlin said he never worried about his team’s ability to score, and the Vandals’ 114-73 dismantling of NCAA Division III opponent Willamette Saturday night gave him no reason to be nervous.
In their second and final exhibition of the 2011 pre-season, Idaho exploited the Bearcats’ size and full-court press. Verlin however, is still worried about his squad’s defensive production, which he said needs to change before next week’s season-opener against Big West powerhouse Long Beach State.
“I thought we got beat on the ball way too much, I thought our help defense was way too slow,” Verlin said. “We did a few good things guarding their ball screens early in the game but we’ve got to do a better job guarding the basketball and it’s just going to take time.”
Despite an obvious size advantage, the Bearcats managed to penetrate the key, something Idaho hadn’t seen against Evergreen State, a team that relied heavily on three-point shooting.
If that wasn’t enough, Willamette applied defensive pressure with a full-court press. This proved to be ineffective against an athletic Vandal team that moved the ball well.
Defensive errors may be a result of the team’s newcomers still learning the Idaho system, something Verlin hoped they would have picked up faster.
“I know what we got on the horizon here with Long Beach and Montana, our next two road games,” he said. “We’re going to have to be on it defensively and we can’t make the errors we’ve been making but the new guys are trying their tails off, they’re working hard, we just have to get some of those details cleaned up.”
A game with 43 total fouls saw 66 combined free throw opportunities. The Vandals converted 26 of 35 from the charity stripe while Willamette was 23-31.
Four Idaho players were perfect from the line.
“We should be a good free throw shooting team, everything we’ve done this fall so far shows that as many free throws as we shoot, we should be good. I think this team should shoot 72, 74 percent,” Verlin said.
Verlin gave every player on the Vandal roster minutes Saturday night but sophomore Stephen Madison led the pack, scoring 23 points and adding eight rebounds.
Kyle Barone, Dazmond Starke and Deremy Geiger trailed with 14 points each. Barone, a preseason all-WAC second team honoree, grabbed 10 boards and was 6 for 7 from the free throw line.
Senior guard Landon Tatum led with eight assists while adding seven points and three steals.
The San Antonio native hopes to reduce his turnover count, which stood at three Saturday, but is excited about the offensive threat this year’s team poses.
“Having a lot of weapons, especially with shooters, it opens up the floor a whole lot more for us to drive,” Tatum said. “The way our shooters shot, it just feels like we’re passing for an open shot, you just think it’s going in. Especially Connor, Matt and Steve (Madison)…and then our drivers are able to get to the basket and if the big guy doesn’t help they can either get there for the lay-up or dish it off for an easier dunk.”
The men square off against Long Beach State Dec. 12 in Long Beach, Calif. The 49ers were the 2010-2011 regular season Big West champions and went 22-12.