Idaho -- Saturday 7:30 p.m. -- Walt McPherson Court

Idaho Coach Don Verlin is a Stew Morrill protégé, coming over from USU after 15 years in March 2008 and he utilizes the same flip card system offensively that Utah State employs. By the way, Verlin has a brother Ron who is a longtime assistant at Pacific.

The nadir of the Vandal season to date was a inexplicable 75-33 lost at Montana on November 22. But that was followed with four straight wins plus a return game at home against Montana was much closer, a 64-63 loss.

In matchups with teams that San Jose State has also played, the Vandals beat host Eastern Washington 70-60, lost to host Seattle 66-56 but then won at Oregon 69-65.

Idaho has also shut two WAC opponents down offensively, holding LA TECH to 47 points and Hawaii to 44.


The Vandal Starting Five

There is only one double-digit scorer at this point on the squad.

* Deremy Geiger 5-11 (if stretched out on the rack) -- 10.5 ppg., 71 of his 107 shots have been three-pointers, shooting 35% overall, 40% on treys

* Jeff Ledbetter 6-2 -- 8.8 ppg., shooting 45% overall, 44% from long distance, 68 of his 84 shots have been three-pointers

* Shawn Henderson 6-3 -- 9.2 ppg., shooting 41%, only 8-30 from three-point range, a team-leading 5.8 rpg., 41 assists to 30 turnovers

* Brandon Wiley 6-5 -- 8.1 ppg., shooting 59%, 5.5 rpg., team-leading 19 blocked shots

* Luiz Toledo 6-8 -- 9.9 ppg., shooting 48%, 5.3 rpg.

Off The Bench

* Kyle Barone 6-10 -- 9.3 ppg., 5.4 rpg., shooting 59% from the floor, 12 shotblocks in 13 games

* Landon Tatum 5-11 -- 5.1 ppg., shooting 37% with no three-point attempts, 38-17 assist to turnover numbers which is best on the team

* Stephen Madison 6-5 -- a reserve, not shooting particularly well

6-8 junior college transfer Djim Bandoumel, who was the most athletic frontcourter on the squad, was declared academically ineligible about a week ago.

* As a team, the Vandals are shooting 45% to 41% for opposing teams, 39% to 33% from long distance but with 77 less attempts. The rebounding differential is 35-31 per game in favor of Idaho. Verlin's team has 34 more turnovers than opponents and 25 less steals.


The Idaho schedule to date

Nov 13 Eastern Oregon 86 - 74 (W)

Nov 16 @ Washington State 71 - 88 (L)

Nov 20 Portland 53 - 66 (L)

Nov 22 @ Montana 33 - 75 (L)

Nov 27 @ Eastern Washington 70 - 60 (W)

Dec 03 North Dakota 63 - 42 (W)

Dec 04 Monmouth 69 - 66 (W)

Dec 05 Eastern Michigan 75 - 60 (W)

Dec 11 @ Seattle University 56 - 66 (L)

Dec 18 Montana 63 - 64 (L)

Dec 21 @ Oregon 69 - 65 (W)

Dec 29 New Mexico State 69 - 74 (L)

It was another tightly-contested game for the University of Idaho men's basketball team on Wednesday, but miscues by the Vandals gave New Mexico State a 74-69 victory in both teams' Western Athletic Conference opener. Idaho (6-6, 0-1 WAC) committed 11 first-half turnovers and saw the Aggies (7-8, 1-0 WAC) turn 16 offensive rebounds into 15 second-chance points in the loss. After playing solid first-half defense, the Vandals allowed NMSU to shoot 63 percent from the field in the second.

Dec 31 Louisiana Tech 77 - 47 (W)

The University of Idaho men's basketball team put an exclamation point on the year 2010 with its biggest conference win in 12 years in a 77-47 victory over Louisiana Tech on Friday at the Cowan Spectrum. Idaho (7-6, 1-1 Western Athletic Conference) started the game on a 9-0 run and never looked back in holding Louisiana Tech (9-7, 0-2 WAC) to just 28.8 percent shooting and converting 13 Bulldog turnovers into 20 points.

Jan 6 @ Hawaii 59-44 (W)

Leading by five at halftime, the University of Idaho men's basketball team put on the clamps and held Hawai'i to just 15 second-half points in a 59-44 win at the Stan Sheriff Center Thursday night. Idaho (8-6, 2-1 Western Athletic Conference) shot 43.8 percent from the field and held the WAC's top 3-point shooting team to just 13.6 percent from beyond the arc. Hawai'i (9-6, 0-3 WAC) was 8-1 at their home arena going into the game. Two of Idaho head coach Don Verlin's main keys to victory on Thursday were to limit the potent Warrior 3-point attack and to be strong on the boards. Done and done. UH entered the game making a WAC-high 7.29 3-pointers on a conference-best .397 clip from beyond the arc, but they went just 3-of-22 (.136) on Thursday. Idaho also out-rebounded the Warriors 40-28 overall and 21-11 in the second half.

The Vandal roster (alphabetized, by position)

Two players have departed since the beginning of the school year -- forward Renado Parker and guard Gary Winston both departed for Portland State.

Matt Borton G 6-5 180 Fr
Deremy Geiger G 5-11 170 Jr.
Shawn Henderson G 6-3 178 Sr.
Jeff Ledbetter G 6-2 195 Sr.
Shayne Sheridan G 6-0 170 Jr. (walk-on)
Landon Tatum G 5-11 196 Jr.

Brandon Wiley F 6-5 218 Sr. (out of Pinole, so some of his fans will be at the game)
Paul Jorg F 6-8 200 Fr. (walk-on)
Stephen Madison F 6-5 215 Fr.
Luiz Toledo F 6-8 225 Jr.

Kyle Barone C 6-10 220 So.
Joe Kammerer C 6-9 241 Fr. (redshirted last year)