Steven Murillo
Staff Writer
The ISU men’s basketball team is already looking like underdogs again with 5 losses and 3 wins but the team has expressed very high expectations.
Coach Bill Evans prefers to let results speak for themselves, which is precisely what they did Saturday, Dec. 13 as the Bengals convincingly rolled through Northwest Nazarene 69-57 at Holt Arena.
Forward Jeff Solarin had a season high 20 points and 14 rebounds on the night.
As a team, ISU shot 54 percent from the field.
With the team packed with seniors and upperclassmen, the Bengals are looking to prove they’re contenders in the Big Sky Conference.
“We want to make it to the league tournament and win the conference championship, even though I know it’s going to be really, really difficult,” said Evans.
The Bengals have another tournament coming up in Logan, Utah in December to tune up before Big Sky conference play begins.
It’s about to be a new year and a new chance for the basketball players to show that they have something special. They begin conference play on New Year’s Day Jan. 1, challenging a strong University of Idaho team.
Seniors Solarin, Nnamdi Ezenwa, Ajak Magot and Chris Hansen are all back and looking to give ISU basketball a much needed revival in reputation.
Juniors Ben Wilson, Evann Hall, and Marcus Bradley add depth to a team trying to create a consistently effective and well-rounded offense thus far in the season.
However, the team has lost 5 games already and has shown an inability to make stops in crucial moments.
The team had a winnable game against University of Pacific that was swiped from the Bengals by 6 points. ISU had opportunities to put the game away, but was not able to sink the free throws or pull down enough rebounds to earn the victory.
The Bengal men have played some very high profile teams to start their season off, such as the University of Denver and the University of New Mexico Lobos.
They beat a tough opponent in Grand Canyon University Dec. 9.
In that contest, Hansen had 22 points and 5 assists. Grand Canyon recently defeated Big Sky member Montana State, so that is a good sign for ISU within Big Sky competition.
ISU lost a close game against a talented Utah Valley 57-61 but showed character. Nnamdi Ezenwa had season high 18 points and 8 rebounds.
Jeff Tingey’s forecast has paid off in his contract extension of 3 years to Head Coach Mike Kramer while his football program earned a convincing number of victories over the toughest teams in the conference this fall season. Tingey has given a similar extension to Evans, representing his confidence in the upcoming season.
Solarin indicated that Eastern Washington and Weber State will be two of the biggest threats in the conference. With the team’s stated goals, it will be important that they conquer these foes decisively.
Eastern Washington will be the first test, which takes place Jan. 3. The Bengals will have plenty of opportunities to fight their way through the gauntlet of teams that fill the conference from now until March.
As football and other ISU sports have been proving, Pocatello has a strong culture of athletics. It’s now time for men’s basketball to take its turn in the light and show the home crowds its ability. With Big Sky Conference still two weeks away, it is too early to make any concrete judgements.
