THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Mitchell plays big; time for Vandals to do so as well

I’ve read about it in recent feature stories about University of Idaho redshirt freshman point guard Kolton Mitchell, the former Lake City High star. 

“He’s too small.” 

I remember watching him throughout his four-year career at Lake City. 

Sure, Mitchell was small-ish when he came in – but most freshmen are. But he figured it out, got stronger as the years went on, and ... well, you know the rest. 

As a freshman in 2019-20, he led Lake City to state for the first time since 2014, and for only the third time since 2002.  

He guided the Timberwolves to the state title game in 2021, and to a perfect season two years later. 

Mitchell is the all-time leading scorer at Lake City, and that might not even be his biggest impact at the school. With the addition of Blake Buchanan his last three years, Nathan Hocking his last two seasons, and Zach Johnson alongside him all four years, Mitchell went from someone who was needed to score as a freshman to more of a facilitator and a defender through the next three seasons. 

But as he got older, when he was needed to score ... remember his school-record 39 points in a showdown with defending state champion Owhyee of Meridian his senior year, a decisive 80-60 T-Wolf victory at North Idaho College? 

FAST-FORWARD to Idaho. 

You still can’t judge Mitchell, a 6-foot-1 point guard, merely on his scoring average. If he’s scoring a lot, Idaho’s offense probably isn’t functioning very fluidly. 

But he obviously can score, as witness the 32-point effort at Pacific, and a dash up the court for the game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer against then conference-leading Northern Colorado.

Depending on how Saturday’s and Monday’s games turned out, Idaho will be making its debut in the Big Sky Conference tournament in Boise either on Saturday or the following Monday. 

After a few lean years, there is renewed interest in Idaho men’s basketball. Part of it stems from the energy from second-year coach Alex Pribble, but much of comes from the infusion of Idaho talent – including Mitchell, Jack Payne from Owyhee, and Julius Mims from NIC.

The Vandals have had their moments – beating Northern Colorado, and playing current Big Sky leader Montana tough – but are having problems finishing some games. 

That’s too bad, because they look like a team the Vandal community can get behind. 

HAD LEWISTON stayed in the largest-school classification, that would have been an even more interesting 6A regional boys basketball tournament. 

The Bengals, who dropped to 5A for the current classification cycle, hosted the three 6A teams this year, beating Post Falls, playing district champ Lake City tough and losing to Coeur d’Alene. 

As it was, Lewiston rolled to the 5A regional title, and is headed back at state for the first time since 2017.  

The Bengals’ lone loss to a 5A school was to Sandpoint, which Lewiston swept in the best-of-3 series for the regional title. 

But kudos to Sandpoint, which was playing for a regional title for the fourth straight year. 

The Bulldogs have had glimpses of basketball success over the decades – had they not been in the state’s largest classification back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there would have been some state-bound teams coming out of Sandpoint. 

Sandpoint’s girls have been regulars at state over the past decade; the Bulldog boys, under coach Brian Childs, are starting to be known as a basketball program as well. 

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 X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.