Lucas Gebhart
Sports Editor
At the beginning of last season, a winning record seemed to be an unrealistic expectation for the 2015 Idaho State men’s basketball team.
With a team that has lost over 20 games in recent history, nobody was surprised to see the Bengals at the bottom of the preseason polls one year ago.
ISU finished fourth in the conference, clinched a first-round-bye in the conference tournament and turned in its first winning season in years.
“I don’t pay too much attention to that stuff,” head coach Bill Evans said. “Fortunately, you don’t have to finish where you get picked.”
This year, the Bengals were picked to finish fifth in both the preseason media and coaches polls. ISU returns four starters and, much like last year’s team, plans to finish well above where the team was picked.
“This year, we want to finish at the top,” said senior forward Kyle Ingram, who is one of the four returning starters. “We have had team talks like that all the time, we want to still be playing in March. This team is looking to do big things this year.”
In addition to Ingram, the Bengals will return NBA-hopeful Ethan Telfair. Telfair, whose brother and cousin both played in the NBA, declared for the NBA Draft after the conclusion of last season, but withdrew his name before the May 25 deadline.
“It was a good experience,” Telfair said. “It was good for me individually and good for the program.”
Telfair, a junior college transfer, earned Big Sky Newcomer of the Year while finishing 13th nationally in steals. He was picked to the Big Sky Conference’s Preseason All-Conference Team. Evans was awarded Big Sky Coach of the Year for the turnaround season.
Geno Luzcando also returns to the backcourt along with three-point specialist Gary Chivichyan.
“Geno made a giant leap from his freshman to his sophomore year,” Evans said. “Gary Chivichyan is one of the best shooters I have ever coached.”
With a regular season win against tournament champion, Weber State, the 2015 team appeared to have an outside chance at winning the conference tournament. Instead, its campaign ended with an 83-49 beatdown at the hands of North Dakota. It was the third loss to the Fighting Hawks of the season.
“You have games like that,” Evan said. “We picked a bad game to be bad.”
The loss was Ben Wilson’s last game as a Bengal. The team’s leading rebounder graduated after the season.
“Ben was a good leader,” Evans said. “He played for the right reasons. He was all into winning.”
Without Wilson, the Bengals will look to other players to fill the void in the rebounding department.
With Ingram nursing a sore back, Novak Topalovic and Stephen Lennox have been getting extra reps in practice. Ingram says he will miss Wednesday’s opener, but should be ready to go by the New Mexico game.
“I think a lot of our potential success is going to come from Kyle, Novak and Stephen,” Evans said. “Novak has really improved, but I need for him to be productive in games and prove that.”
At times, rebounding seemed to be a lost art during last season, as ISU was out-rebounded on a consistent basis, prompting bigger teams such as Montana and Weber State to take advantage of the smaller lineup.
“We could play a smaller team and have a harder time rebounding,” Evans said. “That would make us a better team offensively, but we need to defend and rebound.”
Robert Jones III, a junior college transfer, is a player who has caught the attention of Evans and who could see early playing time with his rebounding ability.
“Big Rob is probably our best athlete,” Evans said. “Could be out best rebounder right now.”
Other newcomers include Hayes Garrity, a transfer from Utah Valley who will not be required to sit the season out, and Balint Mocsan, a rare freshman who will not be redshirted.
Evans plans to rotate ten different players throughout the season while redshirting three – Keshawn Liggins, Lyle Sutton and Houston Wahlen.
Liggins is a junior college transfer from Big Bend, Sutton is coming off an LDS mission and Wahlen, an Aberdeen alum, is right out of high school.
“It is a big jump,” Evans said. “To get to this level right out of high school or right out of a mission, it is a big adjustment.”
Garrity will most likely come off the bench to complement Telfair.
“I like him because he is tough,” Evans of Garrity. “He is a complement to Ethan because he can really make plays for his teammates as well.”
Telfair and Garrity are two members of a guard-heavy team that has provided Evans with significantly more depth than he had last season.
Along with the returning starters Telfair and Luzcando, the emergence of underclassmen Erik Nakken, Brandon Boyd and Chivichyan, Garrity and Mocsan have been thrown into a crowded backcourt.
“There are five or six guys right there who are good players,” Evans said. “I think we have some depth there. There are basically three positions for six or seven guys.”
The Bengals will open Wednesday Nov. 3 at Reed Gym in an exhibition game vs. Southern Virginia.
After that, the team will have a slew of money games, which include road trips to New Mexico, Utah State, Texas Tech, Wisconsin, Boise State and BYU.
ISU is scheduled to play four non-conference home games, while playing nine games on the road.
The Bengals may also play Georgia State on the road or will travel to Cancun.
“Any time you have to go on the road and play those teams when they are paying you money to come in and play, there is a reason they did that,” Evans said, “They think they can beat you and it is our job to go in there and prove them wrong.”
