Story by
The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
How Idaho men, women managed roster churn following NCAA success
- Story byThe Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
- How Idaho men, women managed roster churn following NCAA success
Oct. 29—Assembling a competitive team has always been a valuable skill for college basketball coaches.
More than ever, though, it has become a vital one since unlimited transfers and the opportunity for big pay days means careers at many schools, like Idaho, are compressed into a season or two before players look to move up, and one-and-done transfers the Vandals have plucked out of the transfer portal conclude their careers and graduate.
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Vandals' men's coach Alex Pribble and women's coach Arthur Moreira showed they could put together championship teams last season as the men won the Big Sky Conference Tournament, and the women won the regular season championship and the league tournament to advance to the NCAA's March Madness.
Both Idaho rosters have turned over. The women have five returning players and nine newcomers. The men have four players returning and 12 newcomers. Three key members from last year's men's team, Jack Payne (Long Beach State) Jackson Rasmussen (Oregon State) and Kolton Mitchell (Ohio University) have transferred to pursue more lucrative financial deals. Ewan Steele (Stonehill College) Titus Yearout (Lewis Clark State University) Trevon Blassingame (William and Mary) and Talon Jenkins (Salt Lake Community College) have also moved on.
Now Moreira and Pribble must do it again in an era when identifying undiscovered talent and quickly developing young players for as long as they have them can be the difference between winning and losing.
Moreira says he and Pribble, whose offices are about 30 feet apart, share insights on how to build a team.
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"Alex and I talk a lot about it, our recruiting strategy. We need to understand where we are and what we are," he says.
One thing they are not is wealthy. Idaho's men played Boise State in an exhibition in October. Pribble estimated nine BSU players individually made more than Idaho's entire name, image and likeness budget for basketball.
This is current reality.
"The portal itself is just a tool," Pribble says. "You run the risk of losing players if the fit is no longer right." Rassmussen and Mitchell, Pribble says, "make life-changing money" by transferring.
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"If it's only about the money, we can't match it," he says. The Vandals are chasing dollars with dimes. It will probably always be that way.
Instead, Pribble says what Idaho offers is an experience, a chance to play and enjoy basketball.
"A lot of bigger programs play you how they pay you. For us, it's a meritocracy," he says.
Moreira points to Idaho's dramatic ICCU Arena, a nutrition program and travel arrangements that have improved, a supportive Moscow community and a university where "I wish I would have gone to school."
If the Vandals can get players to visit, he says, they have a good chance of signing them.
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However, "there's always a number that is going to trump experience. That's the way it is," he acknowledges. "Is $100,000 worth being miserable for five years, $200,000, $300,000?"
He has an interesting perspective on how money has colored recruiting. Schools with generous player compensation packages often want to spend for production rather than potential. They look for experienced players in midmajor leagues seeking to move up, he says. What it means for a place like Idaho is that talented high schoolers are less highly recruited. Young players Idaho would have found difficult to attract in the past will now consider the Vandals, he says.
Pribble and Moreira highlight the need to not only evaluate talent but to project if players can quickly fit into a team that has its identity radically changed virtually every season as rosters turn over, and to envision if those new players can thrive in Moscow and at the UI.
Pribble says the Vandals do not merely chase players with gaudy statistics. His analogy is while other schools look to the portal "with a big fishing net, we go in with a sniper rifle."
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One of Moreira's first jobs in basketball after graduating from Sonoma State was assisting the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers with scouting. In that role, he says, he contacted the janitor at a school where the team was looking at a player to inquire how that player treated him. Moreira says the experience impressed upon him the value in doing a deep dive into players' character.
Beyond that, he says, "I look for toughness and competitiveness. That's non-negotiable. I would rather have someone who is raw but is tough and competitive."
Both coaches say the current state of putting together a team is not only a series of unending problems but also a real challenge.
"Adapt or die," Moreira says. "I feel comfortable. I have recruited the portal so long."
Adds Pribble : "We're problem solvers. Adjust and adapt. It makes a championship more valuable."
