MEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Guards Sanders, Callendret supply the grit for Idaho

MOSCOW — In combat sports such as boxing and wrestling, two teammates of similar size and caliber often improve faster than other members of their squad, simply because they’re constantly sharpening each other’s skills and tenacity during workouts.

Maybe something similar is happening for Victor Sanders and Perrion Callandret, though their game is basketball and their positions demand as much finesse as fight.

Recovered from injuries that dampened their otherwise successful 2015-16 season, Sanders and Callandret form one of the best backcourt duos of recent University of Idaho history and are prime reasons that coach Don Verlin expects to build off the success of last year’s 21-13 team.

The Vandals, picked second in the Big Sky preseason coaches’ poll, open their regular season Saturday at home against Corban University of Salem, Ore.

Guard play and perimeter touch should be UI team strengths. But it’s not really their 3-point shooting contests that are making Sanders and Callandret better.

“You never want to have a team that doesn’t have leaders, or is led by somebody that’s not doing what they preach,” Sanders said at the team’s media-day session recently. “Me and Perrion pushing each other, we’re leading by example and by communicating as well. Coach Verlin always says he wants our practices to be harder than games. We might foul each other, we might get tangled up, somebody might be leaking with a bloody lip. But at the end of the day, we know it’s not going to get any harder than that in the game.”

Sanders, a junior who averaged almost 16 points a game last year, and Callandret, a senior who averaged 14 points, are not typical UI guards. They boast range — they’re 6-foot-5 and 6-2 respectively — and defensive chops. Together with third-leading 2015-16 scorer Chad Sherwood, they produced 186 goals from 3-point range last season, and the Vandals can push the tempo when it suits them.

But Idaho also held opponents to 41-percent shooting a year ago, and Verlin again sees defense and rebounding as the club’s bread and butter.

The deep supply of guards includes Sherwood, who racked up valuable minutes last year when the two stars were injured, along with two newcomers to the active roster vying for the backup point-guard role behind Callandret: true freshman Trevon Allen of Clarkston and second-year frosh Myles Franklin.

Plus, sophomore Jake Straughan of Colton almost single-handedly won a game against Northern Colorado with his outside shooting, and second-year freshman Tyler Brimhall came off the bench for 14 points in the exhibition opener vs. Carroll last week.

Amid this plenitude, aggressive senior Pat Ingram is being moved from backup point guard to small forward, where he joins quick junior Jordan Scott and athletic sophomore Nick Blair, who can also play the No. 4 spot.

The Vandals welcome back their top six scorers from last year, including the post trio that ranked fourth through sixth: 6-7 junior Arkadiy Mkrtychyan, 6-9 senior Ty Egbert and 6-8 sophomore Nate Sherwood. As a group they’re a bit undersized but fairly diverse, with the first two offering plenty of snarl and Sherwood a bit of shooting range.

Their ranks will be bolstered by transfer Brayon (B.J.) Blake, a 6-7 junior who made third-team All-America last year at North Idaho College.

The ninth-year coach is coming off his best season, with an asterisk: The Vandals lost their final two games last year, meaning they didn’t advance past the semifinals of the Big Sky tournament and took a quick exit in the College Basketball Invitational. They haven’t made the NCAA tournament since 1990.