Men’s basketball coach Don Verlin issued an apology Monday through the Idaho Athletic Department for his conduct with assistant coach Chris Helbling during the first half of Thursday’s loss at Northern Arizona.
Verlin and Helbling appeared to get into an argument on the bench during the game. The incident ended with Verlin taking what appeared to be a binder out of Helbing’s hands and throwing it behind the bench before ejecting his assistant from the game.
“My actions during the game at Northern Arizona were inappropriate,” Verlin said. “I apologize to the University of Idaho and our loyal fans. I can assure everyone, this type of behavior will not occur in the future.”
Verlin will attend a leadership development class and be fined $5,000 by the university. The $5,000 will go to a charity of his choosing. Helbling will also be reprimanded in accordance with the Idaho Athletic Department policy, though it was not stated what his punishment would be.
“The actions demonstrated by coach Verlin during the Northern Arizona basketball game clearly violated the standards expected by coaches at the University of Idaho,” Idaho Athletic Director Rob Spear said.
During his Tuesday press conference, Verlin declined to elaborate on the incident.
“I made a statement yesterday and that’s the statement I’m sticking by,” Verlin said. “What we’re going to do as a basketball program is move forward.”
Verlin’s press conference:
- On upcoming home games
“They’re very important. Four games left and when you’re sitting seventh place in the conference standings they’re very important. We’re one game ahead of Southern Utah, I believe, and you gotta take care of your home court like I’ve said all year.”
- On two close road losses:
“What you try to do from those games is you try to look at what can we do better, how can we do better and how can we get this team a little bit better because it’s not a lot, it’s a couple little things. I’m not going to say we let them get away. Both those teams played good, but what we gotta do is just continue to do what we’re doing and get just a little bit better. Next time we’ll find a way to win these close games.”
- On Senior Night:
“Senior Week is a celebration, it’s not a funeral. I tell our guys that … we’re going to celebrate our seniors and we’re not going to worry about them leaving because there’s a lot of basketball for this team to be played, and a lot of basketball for them to play not only this year but on in their careers.”
- On Montana teams:
“Montana is a very good team and they’re very good defensively. What we gotta make sure we do is we’re very efficient this game. We turned the ball over way too much at Missoula there three weeks ago. We gotta take care of the ball better, we gotta defend it better and they’re a very good 3-point shooting team. Montana’s probably the best balanced team in our league.”
- On standings:
“All home games are important, but as you get towards the end of the year and you’re fighting for the conference tournament … they’re very, very important games as well as next week’s games will be very important. But as I said earlier, you always want to take care of your home court first.”