Many people go their entire lives not having a favorite moment, but senior guard D’Angelo Minnis found his early.
“My favorite basketball memory ever was winning our state championship my junior year of high school,” he said. “We harped on our culture we practice every day. We got better every day., We trusted the process, and the results ended up taking care of themselves, and we won a state championship.”
Minnis, who transferred from Western Washington, has been an instrumental part of this Vandals team, and this last Saturday, he played his last home game as a Vandal.
Head Coach Alex Pribble recruited Minnis to be a leader on an extremely young team and has felt Minnis’s impact both on and off the court.
“We’ve counted on him in so many ways this season, despite injuries, he’s been one of the best examples in the locker room of a guy who, when he’s injured, does whatever he can to help his teammates,” Pribble said. “He makes the guys around him better. He’s had an impact on our program in many ways. It’s been an honor to coach D’Angelo this year.”
Minnis made 83 total starts for the Western Vikings and recorded 1,081 points, ranking 22nd all-time in program history. He started in all 28 games for the Vikings during his junior season (2022-23). He averaged 14 points and three assists per game, scoring double figures in 25 of the 28 games.
Minnis also helped the Vikings win a Great Northern Athletic Conference title after averaging 14 points per game in the tournament, including 14 points in a championship win over Alaska Anchorage.
Coming from two successful programs, Minnis decided to enter the transfer portal and help Pribble build the Vandals program in his first year.
“When I entered the transfer portal, (Pribble) was the first coach to contact me,” Minnis said.”I wanted to go somewhere where the culture was strong, and all the people he recruited had a similar journey to me, so I was drawn to what the coaches were trying to build here and the type of players they’re recruiting.”
Minnis has connected well to Moscow during his time at UI.
“The Moscow community, the Idaho community, all that, I’ve enjoyed it. It’s cool to see that this is such a college town,” he said. “We have a lot of supporters, not only for basketball, but also for all the other sports here. So that makes it inviting and a fun place to play.”
Minnis has played in 24 of 30 games this season for the Vandals, averaging 10 points and three assists per game.
When Minnis is not playing basketball, he loves to exercise his creative side.
“A lot of people don’t know this, but I’m really creative,” he said. “I have an artistic side at my last school. I graduated with computer science and graphic design degrees, so I love to code. I love to do digital art and design, I love to create websites, I love to read and I love to do outdoor things such as hiking (and) snowboarding.”
Minnis also spends a lot of time with his family, especially his little brother.
“I am really close with my family. We struggled a little bit growing up, but since my parents and I are so close in age, they’re also not just my parents; they are like my big brother and big sister,” Minnis said. “And then my little brother, me and him are best friends as well because we were so close in age, and we did everything together.”
Alongside his love of Moscow’s culture, Minnis has also connected well with one of Idaho’s biggest commodities, potatoes. “I’m a big chip guy. I have a bad chip addiction,” he said. “So, any chips, it doesn’t matter what it is, I love chips.”
Before the Vandals’ game against Montana State, Minnis had missed the previous four games with a bone bruise on his heel. He used that time to grow as a teammate, even if he couldn’t hoop.
“I just tried to be there for my teammates in any way possible since I can’t be there on the court,” he said.
Minnis is excited to get to Boise with the Big Sky Tournament in the sights for the Vandals.
“One thing I’m looking forward to is showing all the work we’ve put in over this whole year to finally come to fruition and play our best basketball going into the tournament,” he said.
Catch Minnis and the Vandals as they close out the 2023-2024 regular season and head to Boise to face Sacramento State in the first round of the Big Sky tournament on March 9 at 4:30 p.m.
Jayden Barfuss can be reached at [email protected] or on X @JaydenBarfuss10