Although its finale proved anticlimactic and downright disheartening, the 2017-18 Idaho men’s basketball season was fraught with unforgettable happenings, characters, noteworthy numbers and honors.
Colton Clark
It began with a radiation of hope. The media and fellow Big Sky coaches picked the Vandals to finish first in the conference, therefore potentially earning their first NCAA Tournament bid since 1990.
It ended, however, with a blunder. Southern Utah, the No. 10 seed in the Big Sky Tournament, sent Idaho home early.
That was the dimmest point of this season, a season which, for the most part, was composed of exuberant finishes, breakthroughs and a certain quality of play which had been rare in Idaho teams of the past few years.
The lowest points of the regular season materialized after the Vandals were handled by Cal State Bakersfield in the second meeting between the two and when Northern Colorado hammered Idaho for the second time to log a season-sweep on Jan. 25.
That was about as bad as it got between early November and March.
In a time of grieving, as many Idaho men’s basketball fans are currently, it’s important to alleviate the agony by returning to what made this team special.
When it was playing well — streaking wins together, scoring cooperatively, locking down the Big Sky’s best — there was no denying what it could accomplish. Return back for a moment to a simpler time, before the Vandals were absorbed with conference opponents.
Remember senior guard Perrion Callandret’s preposterous offensive start against Washington State? The Vandals scored 11 points in the blink of an eye, before the Cougars had even warmed up, and the Cowan Spectrum would soon be immersed in mania as Idaho cruised to a near-30-point drubbing of its border rivals.
And Dec. 18, when the Vandals paraded into Kalamazoo, Michigan, made little to no mistakes, and walloped MAC favorite Western Michigan by 30 in front of various NBA scouts.
In conference play, who could forget the Feb. 17 overtime win over top-seeded Montana? Junior forward Nate Sherwood’s tap-in at the horn solidified what this team was — one that never gave up, could always find ways to overcome adversity and had all of the necessary essentials to make it to March Madness.
But the end came on too strong – it lacked any stage of improvement. Idaho had put forth teams ailing much worse than this one, yet those still got a shot at a small-time postseason tournament.
The Vandals were not selected for the NIT. With that, set alongside the CBI requirement of a $50,000 payment and the CIT, a $30,000 home court fee, there wasn’t much to bolster a postseason argument for a senior-laden squad.
At 22-9 (BSC14-4), Idaho settled on the seventh best finish, record-wise, in program history. It was surely Idaho Head Coach Don Verlin’s best defensive squad, and when it was clicking, it wasn’t too shabby on the offensive end either.
The Vandals canned 277 total 3-pointers, a program record, and showcased two of the best all-around scorers in Idaho history — senior guard Victor Sanders and senior forward Brayon Blake.
Those names aren’t uncommon to the Idaho faithful. Sanders has been a factor on the team throughout his four years here – he was a First Team All-Conference player his junior year and a second teamer his sophomore and senior years.
Long-balls, floaters, drives and dishes, jumpers off the dribble, beating the screen hedges — Sanders could do it all with the ball in his hands.
He tested the draft waters after last season, but decided to return to the team for his senior year. Perhaps it was the right move.
Although he wasn’t a first teamer, Sanders averaged 19 points-per-game (fourth in the Big Sky), refined his ball handling, finished as the No. 2 all-time Idaho scorer (behind Orlando Lightfoot) and even earned a National Association of Basketball Coaches District (NABC) 6 Second-Team nod.
Blake, who joined Sanders on the NABC District 6 Second-Team, became indispensable as a Vandal in his second year with the program, averaging a near-double-double with 17 points-per-game and 9.6 rebounds. Down the stretch, though, Blake steadily dropped 20 points and pulled down more than 10 boards each contest.
His deeds were enough to secure a spot on the Big Sky First Team. He had more presence on the glass than anyone else in the conference, plus, he could easily drain a slew of triples, score in the paint and consistently net mid-range jumpers.
A professional future may await Sanders and Blake, and for the other four seniors, the Idaho community will not soon forget that optimistic and solid 2017-18 season each of them helped head after years of work.
Looking ahead, Idaho will return two high-volume players next season in sophomore guard Trevon Allen and N. Sherwood. Likely, those two will bring the flash, but freshmen Geno West, Scott Blakney and Garrett Kingman each demonstrated their abilities in snippets throughout the year.
It’s a much less experienced team comparatively, but it will not necessarily be an utter rebuild. Each of the young players had ample time to develop under the direction of six seniors, and because so, this young class could be characteristic of the team they learned from.
Colton Clark can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @coltonclark95