It took all of two minutes to truly realize how much this game meant to Idaho coach Don Verlin.
Less than two minutes into Idaho’s WAC Tournament quarterfinal pairing with Missouri-Kansas City, Verlin could be heard stomping his feet and screaming at the officials after an out-of-bounds call didn’t go Idaho’s way.
He got called for a technical foul — One of the very few times that’s happened to him in his career.
Verlin was the polar opposite by the time the buzzer sounded. While that intensity carried over the entire two hours Verlin was on the court coaching his team, he ultimately walked off the court with a smile on his face after notching his first ever conference tournament victory as a head.
Idaho defeated Missouri-Kansas City 73-70 at the Orleans Arena on Thursday afternoon, Verlin’s first victory in the conference tournament in his entire six-year tenure at the University of Idaho.
He wasn’t shy about the pressure he faced to win this game when we asked him about after the game.
When asked about the pressure he felt and heard from fans to finally win a conference tournament game he had a short, simple and stern answer: “A lot.”
The frustration and discontent of the fan base has been amplified by Idaho’s losing records the last two years. Though, it all started when No. 3 seeded Idaho flamed out against Hawaii in the quarterfinal 2012.
So, this one mattered. Verlin was energetic and vocal throughout the entire game. He denies that the pressure of this game was the reason he was so animatic, but for those in attendance may disagree.
He says of his early first half outburst: “No, I don’t think. I thought our guys were ready to play. I’m not going to tell you what I thought I saw, I thought there was two calls that didn’t go our way right from the get go. And I didn’t think that as hard as our guys worked that crew needed to be on their game and I’m not sure they were.”
From my point of view, Verlin didn’t sit down once during the run of play. He was squatting down, pointing, lobbying officials, yelling at his defense. This isn’t too far out of the ordinary for the Vandal head man, but his post-game demeanor made clear that this game was special for a coach who has spent six years in Moscow trying to build a program.
“To answer everybody’s question is we did finally get a win in the WAC Tournament,” Verlin said. “Stephen (Madison) and I enjoyed a special moment there because we hadn’t gotten one yet, it was good to get one.”
The win propels Idaho to the conference tournament semi-final against Utah Valley on Friday afternoon at 6 p.m.
It also ends the speculation about Don Verlin’s job security. It’s very hard to imagine that Idaho would make a move with Verlin with so many players returning and him taking the program to its furthest run in conference tournament history.
There’s also the fact that with a win against Utah Valley that Verlin would trigger an automatic one-year contract extension according to his contract, via the 15 Division-I wins clause. That would make his buyout at its maximum — Which would cost the university as much as $450,000 over three years (about $150,000 per year) if Verlin didn’t gain employment over the next three years.
The ease on pressure also has the fact to do with Idaho playing its best basketball of the season over the last three weeks. The team has now won five of its last six, only losing to Seattle on the road.
“Second half of the league I thought we played pretty good basketball. Tonight, I thought we were ourselves tonight, I really did. I like where this team is going, I like how they’ve matured and how they’ve hung in there,” Verlin said. “If it wasn’t for guys like Stephen and Sekou this team could’ve easily quit. We’re showing some guts and some fight and hopefully we can fight one more day tomorrow and one more day on Saturday.”
Notes and quotes
Stephen Madison still remembers Utah Valley, which beat Idaho 89-88 when Madison had his best game of the season. Madison scored 42 points in a game he battled through an injury the entire second half after taking a hard it after falling hard to the ground.
“All losses hurt, you always, when you lose to a team you always owe them one. We’re going to be ready, it always feel good to play a team you lost to twice,” Madison said.
Madison was utterly dominant during the game, and may have proved many WAC Player of the Year voters wrong. His 26 points and 17 rebounds included many clutch plays down the stretch when Idaho secured its lead in the final seconds. Don Verlin made it known how he felt about the WAC Player of the Year voting.
“The guy sitting to my right here, in my opinion, should be the MVP of the league,” Verlin said. “Daniel Mullings is a great player, he is very well deserving, but Stephen Madison proved tonight who he is. And what he can do, the next guy sitting down, Sekou Wiggs, did a great job, one of the best freshman in the league.”
During Idaho’s 10 game stretch in which it’s gone 7-3, freshman guard Sekou Wiggs has been averaging 14.9 points-per-game off the bench. He had 18 points tonight in Idaho’s win, being Idaho’s second leading scorer.
“As a player, coming off the bench, I feel like my best asset is to give energy and to be there for my teammates when I can and I felt like I did that tonight, whenever they need me I’m there for them. That’s what I was supposed to do and we got it done,” Wiggs said.
Idaho will tip-off against Utah Valley at 6 p.m. New Mexico State will face Bakersfield in the other semi-final at 8:30 p.m.