Familiarity played a role in sophomore Chris Hansen’s decision to come to Idaho State University. The Bengal transfer from Northwest College in Powell, Wyo., not only has family in this region but in addition his old head coach Andy Ward is now the assistant coach for the Bengals.
“I am excited for the next three years to call this [Holt] home,” Hansen said.
While he was being recruited to ISU, Hansen liked what coach Ward had to say about ISU’s head coach Bill Evans.
“I liked how coach Evans carried himself and he seemed to do things for the right reasons and I respect that,” Hansen said.
Even though the men’s basketball team is 1-5, they continue to make improvements each game.
“We are still a very confident team,” Hansen said. “We have some things we know we have to get better at and we are working on those in practice every day and once we get those things cleaned up I would expect some wins to pile up.”
With conference play coming up, Hansen is excited, yet nervous for it to start.
“Conference in JUCO (junior college) was crazy and I don’t expect anything different at this level,” Hansen said.
The Bengals’ first conference game is Thursday, Dec. 20, at Portland State and the first home conference game is Thursday, Jan. 3, against North Dakota.
In preparation for the conference opener, the Bengals continue to work on getting the ball into the post.
“What this does for our guards and our shooters is it gets spacing right,” Hansen said. “It creates inside-out opportunities and it opens up a lot more of our offense and gets the flow going.”
The long-range goal for the Bengals is to qualify for the Big Sky Tournament. For the team to have that opportunity it starts on the defensive end.
“We need to defend, we need to rebound and we need to stick together as a team, just do everything as one,” Hansen said.
Hansen is majoring in exercise science. Once basketball is over Hansen would like to be a physical therapist, preferably for a sports team.
Hansen and the Bengals return to the court when they play the Oregon Ducks on the road Saturday, Dec. 8, at 4:05 p.m.
