Additional WAC links

Idaho added another recruit for the backcourt -- Vonchae' Richardson out of Franklin High in Seattle. A few weeks back, we left several messages on his phone and sent a couple of emails to his high school coach but they remained incommunicado. Oh well, congrats to the young man for earning a college basketball scholarship. From a couple of reports we read, it appears Richardson is a fifth-year senior this season at Franklin.

The above is based on a post to the GoVandals.net basketball message board by IdahoFan34.

+++++

Travis Mason-Bushman at Vandal Nation has video interviews up with Coach Don Verlin, Mac Hopson and Steffan Johnson here.

+++++

Chris Murray/Reno Gazette-Journal has a post up on freshman Patrick Nyeko, who has yet to get on the court so far this season.

A few more WAC links

Tony Jones/Salt Lake City Tribune has some answers about who will/won't be redshirting this season in Logan.

Travis Mason-Bushman takes another look at David Carter's Nevada squad and the depth -- or lack thereof -- regarding the Wolf Pack bench.

Josh Wright of the Spokane Spokesman-Review tweets about Don Verlin's further recruiting plans.

More on Idaho's signings

Note 'signings' plural. Our memory is like that old gray mare -- it isn't what it used to be.

A special thanks goes out to Ian Klei of the Idaho Media Relations Department for creating the following note and to Gaylen Woods for passing it along to us. It is much appreciated. Woods does some basketball writing for the Idaho Scout site GoVandals.net.

Here are Coach Don Verlin's latest additions:

MOSCOW, Idaho – Three highly-touted players have signed letters of intent to attend the University of Idaho and play basketball for the Vandals next season.

Idell Bell and Renado Parker will join the Vandal program from North Idaho College while Gary Winston has signed from Walla Walla High School.

“I can’t tell you how excited we are to welcome Idell, Renado and Gary to our Vandal basketball family,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said. “With the departure of six seniors who all will receive their degrees from the University of Idaho it was very important to continue to recruit quality student-athletes with high character and a passion to carry on and add to the foundation of our basketball program. These three players fit that mold.”

Bell, a 6-foot-2-inch combo guard from Lakeland, Fla., played the 2007-2008 season at Brevard Community College in Florida where was named a National Junior College Athletic Association All-American and averaged 20.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 1.6 steals per game. He shot 45 percent from the floor and 44 percent from beyond the arc with 72 3-pointers. He transferred to NIC and will play his sophomore season for the Cardinals this winter. “Idell is an intense competitor at the guard position who can lead a team, knock down the three, and defend his position,” Verlin said. “Above all, Idell is a superb young man who will earn his degree and represent Idaho in a first-class manner.”

Parker, a 6-foot-6-inch, 240-pound forward from Seattle, Wash., was the player of the year in the Scenic West Athletic Conference last season and was named to the National Junior College Athletic Association All-America first team.

He averaged 14.7 points and 6.5 rebounds per game as a freshman and will play his sophomore season at NIC this winter.

Parker was named the Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches 4A Player of the Year in the state of Washington as a senior at Kentridge High School and is the school’s all-time leading scorer.

“Renado is a tremendous physical talent,” Verlin said. “He has shown both a physical and mental toughness while playing for one of the best junior colleges in the nation that has allowed him to become one of the most productive players in the country. After getting to know him and his family during the recruiting process it was apparent he would be a great addition to our basketball program and the University of Idaho.”

The Cardinals entered the 2009-10 season ranked No. 5 in the National Junior College Athletic Association poll and No. 22 among all two-year institutions by the Sporting News Magazine.

Winston, a 6-foot-1-inch guard, currently is ranked as the No. 2 point guard in the state of Washington by www.northwesthoops.com. He is a two-time all-Big 9 selection and was the Cascade Division Defensive Player of the Year last season. He earned Honorable Mention All-State status as a junior after leading the Blue Devils to the Big 9 District title and a berth in the State 4A Basketball Tournament.

Last season, in being named the Tri-City Herald’s All-Area MVP, he averaged 16.1 points and 4.0 rebounds per game and shot 51 percent from the field. During his junior season, Winston led the Blue Devils to a 20-9 overall record, a second place league finish, and Walla Walla’s first District title in 19 years. He led the team in steals and assists and enters his senior season with 996 career points.

“It is very important for our program to be able to sign area players with Gary’s ability,” Verlin said. “He is an unbelievable person with a great attitude and infectious personality who also is a gifted point guard and an outstanding all-around athlete. He will be a pleasure to coach.”

The Idaho men’s basketball team opens the 2009-10 season at Utah Friday (Nov. 13).

Eeny, meeny, miny -- there is no moe: BYU, Idaho or Nevada?

Your guess is as good as ours here:

Scout's Evan Daniels reports today that Las Vegas backcourter Anson Winder has gone with BYU over Idaho and Nevada.

Then, we come across another report from Victoria Sun at the West Coast Hoops Report (under Latest News) that the 6-foot-3 Winder made his decision soon after coming back from a recruiting trip to Idaho. No mention was made of any Nevada involvement.

Now this also doesn't mean a heckuva lot but we have never previously read about Winder being associated with Nevada's recruitment efforts but, ultimately, it didn't really matter in the end.

*** UPDATE: Jay Drew at his Salt Lake Tribune Utah State blog writes this: "...He [Winder] also had an offer from Idaho, and had drawn interest from Nevada and others..."

Idaho lands a JC 'big"

Credit goes to poster GoVandals1893 at the Scout GoVandals.net site basketball message board for this find: Djim Bandoumel, a 6-foot-8, 215 pound power forward from Monroe Community College (Bronx, New York) (the same college as Westly Perryman, Boise State's new backcourter) has verbally committed to Coach Don Verlin and Idaho.

The young man is from Quebec and played in 31 games last season, scoring 4.8 points and grabbing three rebounds a contest. He shot 63% from the floor. Bandoumel went 25-44 from the foul line and blocked 1.2 shots each time out.

He's a big time jumper -- here's a snippet from an August 2006 camp: "Day three of the camp included a slam-dunk contest and All-America games in each of the four divisions. In the slam-dunk contest big John Brown from Cincinnati put a serious display of power with his dunks. By most accounts, Brown was the contest winner, followed closely by 6’6 Djmanoum Bandoumel from Canada."

Here is his Facebook page. The photo above is taken from that page.

A great feature on Gary Winston

Gary Winston is an Idaho basketball commit who unfortunately endured a period of time where some dishonorable message board posters -- as opposed to the few (hey, we're joking -- we think) -- started a rumor that Winston had de-committed. In fact, we were told it was true by a source and, much to our chagrin, posted the errant "news" -- only to regret it.

He has always been solid for Idaho and vice versa and the following feature offers some insight into the young man. A tio of the hat to Wazzu4288 for posting this on the Scout GoVandals.net Idaho basketball message board:

Wa-Hi’s Winston jumps ‘with bigger guys’ on gridiron, hoops court
Wa-Hi WR Gary Winston makes the most of his less-than-6-foot height on the basketball court as well as on the gridiron.
Don Davis
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
October 8, 2009

Even with nagging sore knees Gary Winston can jump out of the gym.

And he knows it, so it doesn’t matter any more if he didn’t grow up to be between 6-foot-4 and 6-6 like he wanted to when he was just a little tyke.

“I’ve been described at anywhere from 5-10 to 6-1 or 6-2,” Winston said, with an easy-going smile. “I wish that I was 6-foot-1, but I’m only about 5-11 and three-quarters (and 190 pounds). I’m about 6-feet and one-half inch with my shoes on...

Go here for the remainder.

We're at a loss on this one

Vonchae Richardson is a 5-foot-11 backcourter out of Washington, someone whose name was unknown to us prior to today. He's at perennial power Franklin High but played earlier at Mount Rainier. At the Maxpreps site, it looks like he averaged 10.3 points and 2.7 assists per game last season.

*** Coincidentally, his squad beat Columbia River for the 3A state championship last season -- the latter team featured one-time Nevada recruit Steven Bjornstad.

He was a 3A first team all tournament selection in that 2009 tourney.

Here's a description of Richardson from his high school coach in a December 2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer article: "...He's a pretty heady point guard, he loves to pass first," [Jason] Kerr said. "He's really good at getting in seams. Defensively, he's a tenacious ball-pressure guy..."

Now maybe we've fallen asleep at the switch here or our memory is failing us (again) but we just came across Richardson as having committed to Idaho in a post at the West Coast Hoops Report. Go to the site, click on Latest News and the article is titled West Coast Class of 2010 Committments (as of October 1, 2010). (registration is required)

This was news to us.

Can anyone help out on this one?

Jeff Goodman gives Idaho some love

FoxSport's Jeff Goodman devotes some space today to Coach Don Verlin and the Idaho Vandals:

IDAHO’S VERLIN HAS VANDALS ROLLING

I’m not sure there’s a better backcourt in the WAC than the duo of Mac Hopson and Steffan Johnson.

Hopson was a first-team all-league guy last season and Johnson sat out a year ago after transferring in from Pacific – where he was favored to win the Player of the Year in the Big West.

``I think we’ll have two point guards on the floor,” Verlin said. ``I’ll allow them both to bring the ball up. We’ll see how it works.”

Go here for the remainder (scroll down a bit)

The Gary Winston Factual File

After belatedly coming to the conclusion that the Gary Winston/Idaho situation was still too hazy, we decided to seek clarification. Taking a two-pronged approach, we emailed a number of reporters in the Walla Walla coverage area and struck gold with Rene Ferran. We also sought to talk with Gary Winston Sr. and succeeded.

Ferran, a sports reporter for the Tri Cities Herald, beat everyone to the punch. He has an article up with the plain truth:

Rene Ferran
Out of Bounds
Tri Cities Herald
September 21, 2009

..."I've heard the same stuff, too, and it's not true," he {Gary Winston Jr.] said. "I don't know how it got started, but I am still going to Idaho..."

Go here for the full story. Thank you Rene for taking the time and making the effort here.

After speaking with Gary Winston Sr. Monday afternoon, we at PTW composed this:

Go straight to the source is the Golden Rule of journalism and that's the path we should have followed in originally determining the status of Walla Walla prepster Gary Winston and his verbal commitment to Idaho basketball coach Don Verlin.

Despite some contrary and (of course) anonymous postings on various message boards, Gary Winston Sr. said yesterday on the phone that his son is going to officially become a Vandal come the November signing period. That absolutely removes any so-called question marks or doubts, period.

We asked Mr. Winston why his son chose Idaho and he said, "Gary was impressed with the coaching staff and the school layout and liked that it wasn't a huge university where you can get lost." As to the latter, he was speaking more of disappearing in the proverbial shuffle as a student. The Vandal coaches and support people also answered all the questions the younger Winston put to them.

Having not witnessed him play, we also inquired as to the younger Winston's best basketball skills and the elder Winston qualified his answer with "keep in mind it's coming from his father" and offered "quickness, leaping ability, mid-range jumper and defensive play."

John Golden, Winston's high school coach, added this about his player. "Gary is one of the hardest working players I've ever been around. He's right up there with '99 grad Kyle Bankhead who went on to play at Gonzaga. He is constantly working on his game and pushing himself to get better. He's been a great role model for our younger players in the community. I look forward to seeing him as a Vandal, but am even more excited to have him here for another year!"

Okay, NOW you have it, no if, ands or buts...or anonymous postings.

Congrats to Gary Winston and the Winston family and another thank you to Rene Ferran for his timely work..

Merlin Verlin? We love it

Travis Mason-Bushman is back with a look at Idaho Coach Don Verlin and whether or not he'll remain in Moscow after additional seasons of success. The wordplay in the headline is topnotch!

Vandal fans key to keeping Merlin Verlin on the Palouse
Travis Mason-Bushman
Vandal Nation
September 16, 2009

In Don Verlin’s first press conference as coach of the Idaho Vandals, back in March 2008, he had but one request.

“We need you to care,” he said.

At the time, it seemed to be a plaintive cry for attention by one of the nation’s most inept basketball programs.

Now, after Verlin engineered the biggest single-season turnaround in Idaho history (we looked it up), giving the Vandals their best season of the century with just seven scholarship players, that same plea looms large when it comes to answering the key question for the future of Vandal hoops:

Can we keep Merlin Verlin?

Go here for the remainder.

Travis Mason-Bushman on Idaho's out of conference schedule

Travis Mason Bushman's Idaho athletics coverage can also be found here.

Vandals' schedule a reflection of Verlin's Utah State experience
Travis Mason-Bushman
The Argonaut
September 14, 2009

When Idaho Vandals men's basketball coach Don Verlin was asked about the similarity of his team's 2009-10 schedule to schedules of the Utah State Aggies, he laughed.

"I did the schedules at Utah State, so they would look pretty similar," said Verlin, a former Aggies assistant coach.

The resemblance is seen most clearly in what's generally missing from both slates - so-called "marquee" nonconference games against power-conference foes...

Go here for the remainder.