Progress slow to come by for some Vandals used to success.
Several times this season, guard Mike Hall has left Idaho's Cowan Spectrum discouraged. Angry at himself and his latest game performance. Unsure how to fix his basketball team's losing ways.
"But if you put your head down, it can't do anything but get worse," Hall said Wednesday evening as the Vandals prepared to host Fresno State tonight.
"You just have to try and come out there night in and night out, and when you play against the best, you try and make a statement."
So after a bad game, he calls home to Cincinnati and talks to his father, Chuck. Or he calls his older brother, Brooks, who plays professional basketball in France. Or he finds a quiet gym and unleashes his emotions on the rim.
Hall, a junior transfer, isn't accustomed to losing.
He earned all-state honors during his junior and senior seasons at Troy (Ohio) High, leaving as the school's second career leading scorer behind his older brother. Hall then helped Cincinnati State Tech finish fifth in the national junior college postseason tournament and the following season was a member of Lon Morris College's sixth-place finish.
His story is a familiar lesson for many Idaho players, all trying to make it through a spiraling season. The Vandals (5-17) are eighth in the nine-team Western Athletic Conference, having lost their past four games and 10 of 12. Their last conference win was Jan. 24 against San Jose State (74-63).
George Pfeifer is as much a psychologist as a coach, trying to keep his team emotionally ready for the rest of the season. At times, the Vandals have been competitive, such as in their 69-53 loss at the Save Mart Center on Jan. 12; it was a competitive game until the final 3 minutes.
Coming close, though, doesn't save college basketball coaching jobs or earn players all-conference honors.
"In games, we just continue to do some silly things on both ends of the floor," Pfeifer said. "We play sometimes in a rush."
Even when Idaho does something right (its perimeter field-goal defense ranks fourth in the WAC at 37%), it does something wrong to curtail the improvement (it also ranks last in the conference in turnover margin at minus-4).
Still, this is a half-full kind of team.
"We always come in with confidence," forward Darin Nagle said. "We never go into a game thinking we're not going to win. If you think that, you're going to lose every time."
There have been moments of hope.
Last month, Hall became the first Idaho player to earn WAC player of the week honors when he made 9 of 10 3-pointers against San Jose State. He averaged 20.5 points during two games that week.
Hall is averaging 8.6 points and shooting 42%.
Leading scorer Jordan Brooks (12.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg) has proven to be a tough guard this season. He scored 16 points with 16 rebounds during the Vandals' loss at Fresno State.
While the Vandals have not won back-to-back games, their conference wins against San Jose State and Louisiana Tech represent more WAC wins than their previous two conference seasons combined.
For the first time in its three years in the WAC, Idaho has a chance to not play in the conference's No. 8 vs. No. 9 play-in game for the conference tournament. It's more than a longshot for this team to turn that into a tournament championship and an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament, but dreams are being formed in Moscow, Idaho.
Several times this season, guard Mike Hall has left Idaho's Cowan Spectrum discouraged. Angry at himself and his latest game performance. Unsure how to fix his basketball team's losing ways.
"But if you put your head down, it can't do anything but get worse," Hall said Wednesday evening as the Vandals prepared to host Fresno State tonight.
"You just have to try and come out there night in and night out, and when you play against the best, you try and make a statement."
So after a bad game, he calls home to Cincinnati and talks to his father, Chuck. Or he calls his older brother, Brooks, who plays professional basketball in France. Or he finds a quiet gym and unleashes his emotions on the rim.
Hall, a junior transfer, isn't accustomed to losing.
He earned all-state honors during his junior and senior seasons at Troy (Ohio) High, leaving as the school's second career leading scorer behind his older brother. Hall then helped Cincinnati State Tech finish fifth in the national junior college postseason tournament and the following season was a member of Lon Morris College's sixth-place finish.
His story is a familiar lesson for many Idaho players, all trying to make it through a spiraling season. The Vandals (5-17) are eighth in the nine-team Western Athletic Conference, having lost their past four games and 10 of 12. Their last conference win was Jan. 24 against San Jose State (74-63).
George Pfeifer is as much a psychologist as a coach, trying to keep his team emotionally ready for the rest of the season. At times, the Vandals have been competitive, such as in their 69-53 loss at the Save Mart Center on Jan. 12; it was a competitive game until the final 3 minutes.
Coming close, though, doesn't save college basketball coaching jobs or earn players all-conference honors.
"In games, we just continue to do some silly things on both ends of the floor," Pfeifer said. "We play sometimes in a rush."
Even when Idaho does something right (its perimeter field-goal defense ranks fourth in the WAC at 37%), it does something wrong to curtail the improvement (it also ranks last in the conference in turnover margin at minus-4).
Still, this is a half-full kind of team.
"We always come in with confidence," forward Darin Nagle said. "We never go into a game thinking we're not going to win. If you think that, you're going to lose every time."
There have been moments of hope.
Last month, Hall became the first Idaho player to earn WAC player of the week honors when he made 9 of 10 3-pointers against San Jose State. He averaged 20.5 points during two games that week.
Hall is averaging 8.6 points and shooting 42%.
Leading scorer Jordan Brooks (12.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg) has proven to be a tough guard this season. He scored 16 points with 16 rebounds during the Vandals' loss at Fresno State.
While the Vandals have not won back-to-back games, their conference wins against San Jose State and Louisiana Tech represent more WAC wins than their previous two conference seasons combined.
For the first time in its three years in the WAC, Idaho has a chance to not play in the conference's No. 8 vs. No. 9 play-in game for the conference tournament. It's more than a longshot for this team to turn that into a tournament championship and an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament, but dreams are being formed in Moscow, Idaho.
