The Idaho men’s basketball team has enjoyed consistent offensive success throughout the 2015-2016 season, thanks in part to the efforts of junior Perrion Callandret and sophomore Victor Sanders.
The pair have scored a combined 542 points this season and have developed into one of the most formidable perimeter duos in the Big Sky Conference.
However, injuries have plagued the Vandals this season, and the two guards are no exception.
Callandret has missed the past two weeks with a lingering foot injury, while Sanders will miss the next three to seven weeks with a broken right hand. Idaho head coach Don Verlin said that Sanders slipped and fell on the ice during the team’s road trip last weekend.
“We can’t worry about the things we can’t control,” Verlin said in a press conference Tuesday. “What we can control is our effort, our preparation and our attitude.”
With multiple perimeter players injured, Verlin and the Vandals must find offensive success in the post if the team is to gain momentum in the conference standings in the final weeks of the season.
The Vandals have been a perimeter-oriented offense through the first half of the year. Roughly half of team’s points have come from Callandret, Sanders or sophomore guard Chad Sherwood.
In contrast, the leading post player for the Vandals is junior forward Ty Egbert with 120 points. This translates to a low scoring average of 6.7 points per game.
The team cannot continue to lean primarily on perimeter players during this pivotal stretch of conference play. Even if Callandret returns in the near future, it would be easy for opposing defenses to double-team the junior, resulting in the Vandals struggling offensively down the stretch.
Idaho will need to develop a productive post presence during the next few games if the team expects to battle for a top seed in the postseason tournament in March.
The Vandals showed flashes of positive performances from their forwards during Saturday’s matchup against Montana State. Egbert led the team with 18 points and contributed several dominating plays down low to give the Vandals some much-needed momentum late in the game.
Despite Egbert’s performance, commanding games have been scarce for Vandal forwards this season.
Sophomore Arkadiy Mkrtychyan was projected to be one of the leading Big Sky players at the forward position, but recovery from a knee surgery has limited his role on the court. Meanwhile, senior forward Nahshon George and redshirt freshman Nate Sherwood average just 5.1 and 4.4 points per game respectively.
With the most wins in program history, Verlin will certainly look to address this aspect of the Vandal offense. Fans should expect to see the veteran coach implement a shift in offensive strategy over the next several games.
If the Vandals are able to produce a consistent presence in the post, then the team will possess a multitude of offensive weapons outside of Callandret and Sanders. This will prove to be very important in light of the injuries to the team’s leading scorers.
Josh Grissom can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @GoshJrissom