The only thing cooler than Idaho weather is Idaho State men’s basketball player Tomas Sanchez. When Bill Evans was hired to take over the ISU men’s basketball he knew he needed to a point guard. He made a phone call to Sanchez. Sanchez was just coming off a state championship at Fresno City Community College, and Evans called Sanchez and said, “I need a point guard.”
Sanchez has provided that traditional pass-first point guard for the Bengals they’ve been lacking for a number of years.
Melvin Morgan, who played point guard last year, is a shoot-first point guard. But with Sanchez running the point it allows Morgan to play his natural position at shooting guard.
“I like to set my teammates up first but lately they’ve needed me to score the ball so I have been trying to do that for them,” said Sanchez.
He has a calming influence when he’s on the court. He’s in complete control as he orchestrates the Bengals’ offense. Whether it’s the opening minutes or the last few seconds of a game, his demeanor doesn’t change.
On Jan. 14, Sanchez was forced to sit to rest a sore foot. The Bengals looked disoriented and his absence had a ripple effect on the entire team. The team lost to Weber State 70-54 and had a season low of four assists.
“He’s one of our leading scorers,” said Evans. “He’s one of our leaders. The guys respect him. He can score the ball a little bit, which we lack and he’s a good defender. You take a guy like that out of the lineup and it hurts. We missed him, ” said Evans.
Sanchez is third on the team in scoring and leads the team in assists.
On Thursday, Sanchez returned to the lineup and fans could immediately tell the difference. He led the way to a victory against Sacramento State with a career-high 22 points.
Sanchez also provided the game-winning basket with 11.8 seconds to give the ISU mean’s team a 60-59 win.
“Tomas is pretty good and he made a hard shot,” said Evans.
ISU fell to a 3-5 conference record and 4-13 overall after losing to Northern Arizona on Saturday, Jan. 19. They play five of their next six games on the road and don’t return home again until Feb. 7 against Southern Utah University in Holt Arena.
