Tough games, campus visits and standing up for the IEL
Much like the coach of another hugely successful class 5A high school program around here, Post Falls boys basketball coach Mike McLean tries to include visits to college campuses when his Trojans squad embarks on road trips.
Last week was no exception.
As part of what McLean dubbed the “Toughness Tour,” Post Falls played three games in three days against three of the better 5A boys basketball programs in eastern Idaho — at Highland of Pocatello on Thursday night, at Rigby on Friday night and at Madison of Rexburg on Saturday afternoon.
ALONG THE way, the Post Falls team stopped and visited Montana Tech, an NAIA school in Butte. The Trojans had stopped there Wednesday night after the first 300-mile leg of the trip, and had a shootaround on Thursday before traveling the remaining 250 miles to Pokey for the Highland game. On Friday, the Trojans toured the campus of Idaho State University in Pocatello, then traveled 65 miles to Rigby to face a team they beat in last year’s third-place game at state.
McLean was a college teammate of first-year ISU coach Ryan Looney, who was two years ahead of him at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande in the mid-1990s. And McLean knows ISU associate head coach Jared Phay well, from Phay’s days as North Idaho College coach and, before that, coach at Falls Christian Academy in Post Falls.
The Bengals had hit the road earlier that morning, but ISU’s director of basketball operations with ties to McLean, Davis Furman, gave the Trojans the tour. Furman’s father, Art, coached McLean and Looney at Eastern Oregon.
“It was exactly what I wanted,” McLean said of the experience, which included a boisterous, near-capacity crowd at Rigby. “This is the reason you drive 500 miles. This is why we will go anywhere to get this kind of competition.”
POST FALLS beat Highland 58-44, then edged Rigby 62-59 before falling 50-34 at Madison.
It would be natural to assume the Trojans, playing for the third time in less that 48 hours, might have run out of gas against Madison. But McLean wasn’t buying it.
“We took this trip to see where we’re at with our mental, our physical toughness,” McLean said after the Madison game. “Ultimately you want to be playing three games in three days (at state), so we want to be tested. We had a really tough game the previous night (against Rigby), and we just weren’t dialed in mentally today.”
Besides, it wasn’t like the other teams were resting and waiting for Post Falls.
Highland had played the night before the Rams faced Post Falls, traveling some 75 miles and losing 54-49 at Minico.
Rigby had also played on Wednesday, routing Thunder Ridge 73-46 in Idaho Falls, a trip of some 15 miles.
Madison was playing its third game in four days, all at home, and had also played the night before, whipping Blackfoot 63-34.
Rigby chose halftime of its game against Post Falls to celebrate its first state football title in school history. Four weeks earlier, the Rigby Trojans outlasted Coeur d’Alene, another school which looks to mix in college exposure on its road trips, 57-56 in a double-overtime state title game at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow.
McLean saw it as an opportunity to stand up for the Inland Empire League.
“We took offense to Rigby having their big 2019 5A football championship ceremony tonight,” McLean said after the game. “We will defend our IEL, anytime and anywhere.”
Post Falls is hoping for a similar test when it plays three games in three days next week at the Lake City Invitational.
But before that is a game this Saturday at Mt. Spokane, led by Boise State commit Tyson Degenhart, a junior.
“We try to test our team with our nonconference schedule, so this was a good trip for us overall,” McLean said. “And we’ve got another tough test coming up after Christmas when we go to Mt. Spokane.”
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.