Don Verlin will have to wait at least one-more game for his 100th career victory, as the Idaho coach watched his team lose to Northern Illinois Thursday night, 78-67.
“I had four or five guys out there tonight, this was their first road game and it showed,” Verlin said. “The one thing you have to do on the road is you have to be mentally tough. Not everything is going to go your way, but you got to find a way to get some stops and do some things.”
The trip to DeKalb, Illinois was the first of two straight road games for Idaho, which started its regular season with two games at home in Memorial Gym. The Vandals have a brief break before their next game, which is against rival Boise State, 6 p.m. Nov. 25, in Boise’s CenturyLink Arena.
If the Vandals want to beat Boise State, Verlin said they need to defend better than they did against Northern Illinois.
“Defensively, we let way too many drives go from the perimeter to the basket,” Verlin said. “Very simply speaking, we didn’t seal the gaps like we needed to — and when we did get the gaps sealed, they were able to knock down a couple of threes.”
The Huskies went 8-of-19 from 3-point range and made over half their field goal attempts at 51 percent.
Verlin said NIU guard Aaric Armstead usually isn’t a good 3-point shooter — he came into the game shooting 23 percent. Against the Vandals, however, he managed to make three from long range and finished with 16 points, which was tied for the team lead.
Verlin said the Huskies ability to make the 3-point shot consistently was the only thing that surprised him.
“Give them credit, they made shots when they had to,” Verlin said. “They’re better than where they were picked (in preseason rankings). They’re a very good offensive rebounding team and they got good size and athleticism out on the perimeter, and in the first half I thought that really bothered us.”
The NIU athleticism played a key role in the Vandals 14 turnovers. Verlin said they settled down in the second half, and it resulted in fewer turnovers.
“We were able to kinda get back into this thing and make a little run at them,” Verlin said. “If we make a couple plays and hit a big basket here or there, there’s a different result to this game. We just couldn’t get it done tonight.”
Idaho kept the score close throughout the game, and even got it to within five points early in the second half. Verlin said the Vandals poor defense allowed NIU to separate when the score got close.
“I told the guys in the locker room after the game, and even before this game, our defense has to be able to travel — and tonight it didn’t,” Verlin said. “We didn’t get the stops and do the tough things that we needed to do to win this basketball game tonight.”
Despite the loss, Verlin is still optimistic about the rest of the season. As the young players on the roster continue to get experience playing Division I basketball, Verlin said the team will only get better as the season continues.
“I’m excited,” Verlin said. “I’m disappointed about the loss, but I like this team … We’ll challenge our guys, we’ll get them back, get them rested, get them ready to go, and hopefully we can go out and give a heck of a performance, because we’re going to need that to beat the Boise State Broncos.”
Korbin McDonald can be reached at [email protected]