THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Hopefully, Vandals' new culture is a winning one
Alex Pribble said all the right things on Monday in Moscow, at a news conference to introduce him as Idaho’s 31st head basketball coach.
He talked about culture, he talked about academics, and said turning the Vandals around was not going to be a quick fix.
In that respect, he “won” the press conference.
Of course, eventually he’ll be judged on how much he “wins” on the basketball court.
“We are here to compete for championships at the University of Idaho,” said Pribble, 37. “That’s why we’re here. The potential is here; the framework is here; the resources are here, the facility is here. We have the leadership support; we have the community in place to compete for championships.”
ACTUALLY, ONE of Pribble’s best early moves came on Wednesday, when star Lapwai High junior Kase Wynott announced on Twitter that he had been offered a scholarship by the University of Idaho. Even better, he sounded like someone interested in staying close to home. The Vandals already have a former Lapwai player, Titus Yearout, who redshirted this past season.
Wynott already had offers from Eastern Washington, Idaho State, Montana and Montana State. Now, the Vandals are the fifth Big Sky school in the mix.
Pribble said the Idaho job was a nice fit for him.
He’s right — in both directions.
Nice shiny new building (two-year-old, 4,000-seat-plus ICCU Arena), nice shiny new young coach on the rise.
PRIBBLE SAID when he packed up his Honda Accord and headed to Spokane, when he was an assistant at San Francisco State, the goal was to eventually be a head coach.
He spent two years as an assistant at Eastern Washington, and in the second year the Eags made the NCAA tournament for only the second time in school history.
Then it was off to NCAA Division II Saint Martin’s in Lacey, Wash., where the Saints had gone 6-22 the year before his arrival as head coach.
“It was a step-by-step process,” Pribble said.
“The first year we were just over .500, then 17-13 and won a couple games in the conference tournament. Then the third and fourth years we were in the NCAA tournament, and in fourth year, we went to Sweet 16.
“We’re not looking for a quick fix; we’re looking for lasting success here.”
He spent the past four seasons as associate head coach at Seattle U.
In recent years in Moscow, the Vandals had seemingly a whole new team each year, with numerous players leaving the program each year.
Pribble said he prefers a roster of “core players” who will be at Idaho throughout their career.
“The transfer portal’s great; we’ve used it with a lot of success at Seattle U,” Pribble said. “We’re looking for core players that want to be here for some time, and earn their degrees. And then, be able to supplement through the transfer portal based on specific needs.”
Pribble said he was a player (a walk-on at California), he played with a chip on his shoulder.
As for his Vandal teams …
“We’re going to play fast, We’re going to spread the floor, and play with great pace,” he said.
Idaho has only made the NCAA Tournament four times — twice under Don Monson, including the magical Sweet 16 run in 1982 — and the last time in 1990, when Kermit Davis took the Vandals dancing for the second straight year.
Since then, there’s been five postseason appearances — four in the CIT, one in the CBI. You might as well call those the CAT, since hardly anybody knows what the CIT and CBI are — other than they are not the NCAA tournament, or the NIT.
Since Idaho went 22-9 under Don Verlin in 2017-18, the Vandals have gone 33-116, including 10-22 this past season.
SO TO expect a Jason Eck-type turnaround and a postseason appearance in Year 1 might be a reach.
Yes, success may come. But it’s also likely the Vandals will still endure a lengthy losing streak or two early.
If you trust in the process, a little bit of adversity isn’t going to throw you off,” Pribble said when asked about that. “Adversity is going to come.”
He noted his first year at Saint Martin’s, the Saints were in the midst of a four- or five-game losing streak.
Pribble sent a text to his athletic director, Bob Grisham.
Grisham’s response:
“You’re doing it the right way — stick with it.”
“We stuck with it, and over time we got better and better,” Pribble said. “And it led to great success. It’s going to be the same thing here. We’re going to build it, it’s going to happen. It’s just going to take time.”
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.