Saturday’s matchup against Eastern Washington is more than just a regular season meeting for the Vandals.
With three games remaining on the schedule, the Idaho men’s basketball team will be looking to sneak into one of the top four positions in the Big Sky standings to earn an automatic bye in the first round of the conference postseason tournament.
Earning a bye might prove difficult for Idaho head coach Don Verlin and the Vandals. The team currently sits a half game out of fourth place in the conference standings, but the team’s next three games are against a trio of Big Sky leaders.
“Those are big games, but that’s what you want,” Verlin said. “If they weren’t big games then it wouldn’t be any fun.”
If Idaho is to have any hope in clinching a first round bye during the postseason tournament, the team will need to earn a win over regional rival Eastern Washington.
“We’re going to find out a lot about ourselves in the next two or three weeks,” Verlin said. “I think this sets up perfectly for us.”
The No. 3 ranked Eagles will enter the matchup following a 107-91 loss to Portland State. The loss snapped a seven-game win streak and knocked Eastern Washington out of the race for the top conference seed.
Despite the loss, the Eagles have produced perhaps the most consistent offense in the Big Sky Conference during the second half of the season. The team has averaged 90.9 points in its last eight games and eclipsed triple digits four times this year.
Meanwhile, the Vandals are looking to gain rhythm after junior guard Perrion Callandret and sophomore guard Victor Sanders returned to the court. The duo is responsible for 603 points for the Vandals this season, but both guards are still battling the lingering effects of their injuries.
Idaho has been aided by the reemergence of senior Nahshon George.
George contributed 11 points in the Vandals 68-65 loss to Sacramento State as a replacement for junior walk-on Ty Egbert. The junior missed the matchup with a low ankle injury.
Verlin will need to provide a defensive adjustment for the Vandals in stopping the offensive attack of the Eagles. In the previous meeting between the two teams, Eastern Washington shot 53 percent from the field compared to Idaho’s 31 percent.
“They’re just a very good shooting team,” Verlin said. “If you look at their stats, they’ve proven that all year long.”
Eastern Washington ranks in the top 10 of NCAA Division I programs with an average of 1.133 points per possession. The Eagles are also ranked No. 18 in the country in points per game with an average of 81.3.
Meanwhile, the Vandals average 66.8 points and 37.3 rebounds per game.
“Last game we played them, we got away from our defensive rules,” Callandret said. “They hit a couple of shots that got us into a disarray. This game we are going to go into it and trust the system and trust the coaches.”
The Vandals will host Eastern Washington at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Memorial Gym.
“I feel like it will be a lot more heated in there,” Callandret said. “It’s a smaller gym and everything is more enclosed. I feel like when we are in that small gym we can really behind the crowd.”
Josh Grissom can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @GoshJrissom