Jenna Crowe
Staff Writer
When the Idaho State University men’s basketball team plays the University of Wisconsin Dec. 7, it isn’t supposed to win.
The Badgers, ranked 17th in the nation, play in an arena that seats over 17,000 and are in one of the five power conferences – The Big Ten.
ISU, with an RPI ranking of 310, plays in an arena that seats 9,000 which it shares with the football and indoor track and field teams, and is in the Big Sky Conference.
The reason ISU agrees to play these games – money.
But it isn’t to say that the basketball team can’t put up a fight, or even win the game.
When the Bengals played the University of New Mexico, ISU lost by 11 to the Lobos in The Pit, a 15,000-person venue that is one of the toughest facilities in the Mountain West.
So far this season, the men’s basketball team has a 1-7 record, but three of those losses have been to big-time universities.
In addition to New Mexico, the Bengals traveled to Utah State and Texas Tech and will travel to Wisconsin, Boise State and BYU.
The women’s basketball team has also played a slew of money games, having played Oregon State, Utah State, Colorado and Wisconsin.
Some players, however, don’t have a problem with the fact that ISU can be paid to lose.
“I would have liked to have won,” junior guard Hayes Garrity said. “It’s fun to play in different environments with more hostile fans.”
Garrity thinks it’s not a bad idea to get paid to play money games since they are all Division I athletes.
Money games can give the team valuable experience that will help the team in the long run.
While playing against Texas Tech, Garrity explains that the team was able to see areas that needed more work along with areas that stood out.
“They exploited us,” Garrity said. “We may not be the strongest or biggest team, so we need to do our job.”
Money games act as a motivator for the whole team – if the ISU can hold its own against a team that should be able to destroy the Bengals, then there is no reason why the Bengals can’t do the same thing during conference games.
“I don’t really get nervous,” Garrity said. “I treat every game the same.”
To prepare for the rest of the non-conference games, Garrity claims that the teammates need to be on the same page during practice, especially since chemistry has been a struggle for the men’s basketball team.
