Oct. 31—After steady progress for both teams a year ago, the Idaho men’s and women’s basketball teams are set to open their seasons with a mix of returners and new firepower.
Under coaches Alex Pribble and Arthur Moreira, both Vandals squads are looking to take a leap in the Big Sky Conference, but first they’ll have to face their border rivals.
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The UI men and women open their seasons against Washington State in the Battle of the Palouse on Monday at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman in a rivalry series that goes all the way back to 1906.
The women will start their game at 11 a.m., and the men will begin play at 6:30 p.m. Both games will be broadcast on ESPN+.
The Idaho men are entering their third season under Pribble. Each year under Pribble, the Vandals’ record has improved, from 11-21 in his first year to 14-19 in his second year, while last year also winning a game in the Big Sky Conference Tournament for the first time since 2017.
The Vandal women are entering their second season under Moreira. In his first season, the Vandals finished with a 18-12 record.
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Pribble said that going into Year 3, the team feels more multifaceted than in previous years.
“We feel like we’re prepared to be a more well-rounded, competitive team throughout conference and hopefully nonconference as well,” said Pribble, whose squad fell 89-83 to Boise State in a preseason exhibition game earlier this month. “I’m very, very proud of the retention that we’re able to have within our program.
“Bringing back nine players is unique, to say the least, in college athletics right now. So I feel very excited that we have a lot of familiar faces, faces that the Vandal community (and) Vandal fans, are familiar with.”
Vandal men’s outlook
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Among the Vandals’ nine returners is 6-foot-9 junior guard Jack Payne.
Payne was selected to the All-Big Sky preseason team, following a season in which he was named an All-Big Sky honorable mention and a member of the all-tournament team.
Payne was the first Vandal to achieve all-tournament honors since Victor Sanders in 2017.
The Boise native averaged 10.8 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. He started 30 games and appeared in all 31 of Idaho’s contests.
“I think Jack’s progress last year is a good kind of metaphor for the way our team grew as a whole,” Pribble said. “He had some ups and downs in the preseason … and so the ups and downs that happened during the early part of the year really paid dividends because he continued to get better during the regular season, and then when it came to the conference tournament in March, he was fantastic.”
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The team’s top-two leading scorers, 6-3 junior guard Kristian Gonzalez and 6-1 sophomore guard Kolton Mitchell, are also returning.
Gonzalez averaged 11.4 points per game with a 44.7% shooting clip from the field and shot 35% from 3.
Mitchell averaged 11.1 points per game, shooting 40% from the field and 34% from beyond the arc. Mitchell led the team with 114 assists and had a team-high 45 steals.
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Freshman forward Jackson Rasmussen of Meridian, Idaho, who stands at 6-7, is the biggest Vandal recruit this year. Rasmussen was the No. 1 high school prospect in the Gem State. He was also ranked as the No. 52 power forward in the nation for the class of 2025.
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In the Big Sky coaches and media polls, Idaho was picked to finish fourth in the league this season. It was one of three teams to receive first-place votes in each poll, which is the first time that’s happened since its 2017-18 campaign.
It is the first time in eight years that the Vandals have been picked to finish within the top half of the conference.
Vandal women’s outlook
Idaho was selected third in both the Big Sky preseason coaches and media polls.
The Vandals received one first-place vote in the coaches poll and seven first-place votes in the media poll — tied for second most in the conference.
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Moreira is returning seven players from last year’s roster.
“I am really excited about the group we have this year,” Moreira said about his team last month. “We have a great combination of size and athleticism that allows us to do a lot of different things. We are also very competitive, which makes it a fun group to coach, and I truly have fun going to practice every single day.”
The standout returner is 5-8 junior guard Hope Hassmann, who was selected to the All-Big Sky Conference preseason team.
Hassmann averaged 12.3 points per game last season, ranking top 10 in the conference.
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She also dished out 3.5 assists per game, which gave her the seventh-highest average in the conference. Hassmann was one of five players to rank in the top 10 in the conference in both points and assists per game. She received All-Big Sky honorable mention honors at the end of last season.
Moreira and the Vandals worked the transfer portal in the offseason, signing the 23rd-ranked transfer class in the nation, according to theportalreport.com.
Idaho signed 6-foot senior forward Debora dos Santos, who was a five-star transfer and a first-team all-conference player at San Francisco.
Dos Santos averaged 15.3 points and 10.6 rebounds per game last season for the Dons. She was the only player in the West Coast Conference to average a double-double. She also shot 52.1% from the field, which ranked her third in the WCC.
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Her former teammate, senior forward Lorena Barbosa, who stands at 6-5 and instantly became one of the tallest players in the conference, also transferred to Idaho.
Other newcomers include senior guards Niveya Henley transferring from Furman, Mary McMorris from Valdosta State and Kyra Gardner transferring from WSU.
Another fresh face among the Vandals is 5-11 freshman forward Reese de Groot from Clarkston High School. A member of Lewiston High for her first three years, de Groot was selected as a first-team all-conference honoree as a Bengal.
“We have a long ways to go, but this group is picking stuff up quicker than last year,” Moreira said. “It helps having seven returners that are familiar with us and our concepts, and they hold the newcomers accountable.”
Junt can be reached at 208-848-2258, tjunt@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @TrevorJunt.
