Mar. 12—March, as the old adage goes, came into the Palouse like a lion this week.
So did the Vandals.
Whether they exit as lambs when they face their inevitably high-seeded opponents in the NCAA men’s and women’s tournaments next week are questions for another day.
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But as their team buses pulled up to the ICCU Arena on a gray, windy and rainy afternoon Thursday, accompanied, it seemed, by every public safety vehicle in Moscow, the University of Idaho men’s and women’s basketball players, intermixed, wearing medals and bearing trophies, exited into a loud, adoring throng that made a passageway for them into the arena. They were Big Sky Conference champions all.
For the first time, Idaho is sending its men’s and women’s teams into the NCAA championship chase in the same season. It has been quite a spell since either team reached this pinnacle. The women last played in March Madness in 2016. For the men, it has been much longer. The last time they made the tournament was 1990. Wednesday, though, in the Big Sky title game, the top-seeded and regular-season champion women hung on until the final seconds to hold off Montana State, 60-57, for their school record-setting 29th win of the year.
The men, seeded seventh, had to mount a charge to reach the final, including rolling No. 8 seed Sacramento State 68-45 in a first-round game, upsetting second-seeded Montana State, 78-74, and dispatching No. 3 seed EWU, 81-68, in the semifinals behind Kolton Mitchell’s 26 points. But in the title game, they had an easier time against the Grizzlies than the women had against the Bobcats. The men won, 77-66.
The men and women earned the league’s automatic bid into the tournament and will learn who they play on Sunday.
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Upon their return to Moscow, euphoria was practically a tangible presence as the players and their fans milled about in the arena lobby and on the concourse.
“It’s awesome, better than I imagined. Both programs in the same season? It’s crazy to talk about it. No one I know in coaching has ever got to experience this,” women’s coach Arthur Moreira said.
His counterpart for the men, Alex Pribble agreed.
“This is really special,” he said, wearing a tournament champion’s baseball cap backwards, which is a look Pribble seldom sports. He pointed out: “I have been to the tournament as a player (at California) and as a (assistant) coach at Eastern Washington. This surpasses all of them. It’s really special.”
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Debora dos Santos grabbed 10 rebounds for Idaho in the title game against the Bobcats.
“Montana State is a difficult team to play against. We had to be on the tips of our toes for the whole 40 minutes,” she said. “This is something to be proud of.”
The women won their title in the afternoon and were able to watch as the men won late Wednesday evening.
“We were cheering them on the whole game,” said Hope Hassmann, the tournament MVP. When the Vandal men won, “it was special to storm the court and celebrate together.”
“That was really cool to see them run out and celebrate with us,” said Jackson Rasmussen, the Big Sky’s Freshman of the Year after averaging 13.9 points and 4.7 rebounds per game for the Vandals this season.
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“This is better than I ever imagined. It is something you dream about since you were a little kid. I feel like it is still setting in. We are really going to March Madness,” he said.
This is also Moreira’s first trip to the NCAA tournament. Losing on a buzzer-beater in a league championship was as close as he had ever been, Moreira said. Gratification was delayed until 6-5 senior Lorena Barbosa swatted Montana State’s Ella Johnson’s shot with 7.3 seconds remaining.
“I saw her bend her knees like I had never seen her all year. I knew then she was going to block that shot,” he said. “As soon as she got it, I knew we had it.”
Despite fending off Montana with a 10-point lead down the stretch, Rasmussen and Pribble acknowledged they never considered the game won until the final 30 seconds.
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From his own experiences in March Madness, Pribble knows lifelong bonds are forged among teammates and coaches and among former Vandals and their contemporaries. After Idaho beat EWU in the semis, “one of the first people to reach out to me was (UI Hall of Famer) Orlando Lightfoot. That meant a lot,” Pribble said.
With such a frame of reference, Pribble said he attempts to prompt his team to soak up everything about March Madness.
“You want the players and coaches to be present, to be in the moment as much as possible,” he said.
But this is college basketball. Even a moment like winning the Big Sky tournament gives way to other things. On the jubilant ride home from Boise to Moscow, knowing they have a date in March Madness, Rasmussen said, “I was studying for a midterm I have tomorrow.”
