Northwest Notes October 7, 2010

Idaho men to appear on ESPN

The Idaho men’s basketball team will be featured at least five times on the ESPN family of networks during the 2010-2011 basketball season.

Third-year coach Don Verlin and the Vandals will host a pair of WAC games on ESPN2 at the Cowan Spectrum, and will be featured twice on ESPN Regional television and once on ESPNU.

Idaho’s Jan. 12 meeting with Nevada and Feb. 9 game with Utah State will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2, while road games at Louisiana Tech (Jan. 27) and Nevada (Feb. 24) can be seen on regional television. For the second year in a row, the Idaho-Boise State will be on ESPNU.

Cowen back as Chiefs captain

With Jared Cowen returning to the lineup, the Spokane Chiefs have reissued the captain’s “C” back to the 19-year old defenseman. Former Coeur d’Alene Laker Tyler Johnson, who was named captain of the team last week, will be an alternate captain along with 20-year-old Levko Koper.

The Spokane Chiefs have added 19-year old Darren Kramer of Peace River, Alberta, to their roster.

Kramer, a 6-2, 190- pound forward, played the past two seasons with the Grande Prairie Storm of the Alberta Junior Hockey League and recorded 19 goals, 30 points and 311 penalty minutes in 58 games last season.

NIC opens SWAC home schedule tonight

The 10th-ranked North Idaho Cardinals (16-5, 3-0 SWAC) will open their Scenic West Athletic Conference home schedule tonight as the Snow Badgers (13-9, 3-0) come to Christianson Gymnasium at 7 p.m.

NIC defeated Colorado Northwestern in three games last Saturday, while Snow is coming off a three-game win over then second-ranked Salt Lake at home last Friday.

On Saturday, the Cardinals will host third-ranked Salt Lake Community College (21-2, 2-1) at 3 p.m.