Idaho State University was founded in 1901 as the Academy of Idaho, then Idaho Technical Institute (1915-27), Univ of Idaho Southern Branch (1937-47), Idaho State College until 1963 when it became Idaho State University (ISU)
ISU occupies 1000 small city acres (main campus is in Pocatello, ID), has an enrollment of 12,301 (10,017 undergrad), a $75M endowment, USN&WR No. 392 public school, WSJ No. 601
Famous alumni include Office Depot CEO Bruce Nelson, Actors William Peterson (CSI Las Vegas) and Sue Ane Langdon, Varsity Contractors/Lean Museum founder Don Aslett, 5x NFL Pro Bowler DE Jaren Allen, ESPN commentator/Steelers RB Merril Hoge, NFL/college head coach/OC Dirk Koetter, NFL head coach/DC Marvin Lewis, Texas A&M AD Bill Byrne, Utah Jazz announcer Ron Boone, Pole Vaulter Stacy Dragila, Heavyweight boxer Ed Sanders
ISU Athletics: NCAA D I FCS, Big Sky conference, (Cal Poly, E. Wash, Idaho, Montana, Montana St, NAU, N. Colo, Portland St, Sac State, UC Davis, Weger State), 3 NCAA Team titles (2 Boxing (1952, ‘57, 1981 NCAA Football D I FCS), 19 NCAA individual titles. Olympics: Inaugural women’s pole vault Gold Medalist Stacy Dragila, Decathlete Dan O’Brien (1996 gold medalist), Valarie Allman 2-time discus gold medalist
Colors – Orange & Black, Nickname – Bengals, fight song – ‘Growl, Bengals, Growl’, Mascot – Benny the Bengal
Basketball started in 1952 (921-1078, .461), 1977 Elite Eight, 5 Sweet Sixteen (last 1977), 11 NCAA appearances (last 1987), 9 RMAC conf titles, 3 Big Sky titles, 2 Big Sky tourney titles (last 1987). 5 NBA players (Ron Boone - only player in major pro sports to play in every available game in his career. In 13 seasons, played in all 1,041 potential games), Jeff Cook, Steve Hayes (fun fact played for BILL Musselman with Rapid City Thrillers), Greg Griffin, Dale Wilkinson)
Winningest coaches: Jim Killingsworth (109-54, .669), Herb Willliams (97-124, .439), Steve Belko (76-28, .731)
Current – Ron Looney (5th season) 53-97, .353. Career 383-229, .626 (D II Point Loma, Seattle Pacific; NAIA E. Oregon)
Currently: 0-1, 55-48 loss to ASU
All-time: SC leads 5-0, last 59-53 in 2010
ISU NET (n/a), KenPom 251, SC NET (n/a), KenPom 43
ISU Scoring (last season): 70.5 ppg (+0.4), 46% FG, 32.9% 3FG, 6.4 3’s/g, 68.6% FT. Rebs 32.1 pg (+1.9), Assists 12 pg, TOs 10.5 pg (+1.1), Stls 7.0 pg, Blks 3.6 pg
ISU Leaders:
Scoring: Isaiah Griffin 12 ppg (4-12 FG, 2-6 3FG, 2-2 FT), Jake O’Neil 10 ppg (5-13 FG), Connor Hollenbeck 10 ppg (4-9 FG, 0-3 3FG, 2-2 FT)
Rebounding: O’Neil 11 rpg, Griffin 7, Evan Otten 6, Assists Darling 3 pg, Steals O’Neil 2 pg, Blks Otten 2 pg
SC Leaders
SC Scoring 77 ppg (+26), 50% FG, 32% 3FG, 71.4% FT. Rebounds 36 pg (+2.0), Assists 21 pg, TOs 9 pg (+7.0), Steals 9 pg, Blks 3.0 pg
SC Leaders
Scoring: Chibuzo Agbo 14 ppg (45.5% FG, 44.4% 3FG, FT n/a), Matt Knowling 13 ppg (100% FG, n/a 3FG, 100% FT), Desmond Claude 9 ppg (33.3% FG, 0% 3FG, 75% FT), Saint Thomas 9 ppg (40% FG, 25% 3FG, FT n/a), Wesley Yates III 9 ppg (50% FG, 25% 3FG, FT n/a)
Rebounding: Thomas 5.0 pg, Agbo 4.0, Rashaun Agee 4.0, Josh Cohen 4.0; Assists: Thomas 4.0 pg, Knowling 4.0; Steals: Agbo 2.0 pg, Wesley Yates 2.0
(Last season stats)
Pregame
Founder’s is half full. Guest speaker Asst Coach Will Conroy was hired by Muss after 9 yrs at UW, the last 2 as Assoc. Hd Coach to Mike Hopkins. Conroy played at Garfield HS in Seattle (4 state titles), prior to walking on at UW, played from 2001-05. UW’s all-time assists leader (515), 2-yr captain & Honorable Mention All-Pac-12. Undrafted but spent 7 yrs with NBA, D-League (2009 NBA D-League Sportsmanship Award) and foreign teams before joining Minnesota T-Wolves front office.
Began coaching career at UW in 2015 as asst to Lorenzo Romar, retained by Mike Hopkins in 2017 and promoted to Assoc. Hd Coach in 2022.
Conroy says he and his family feel welcomed by the Trojan family despite his yrs at UW and battles with SC. One of his best friends is former Trojan G Roy Smiley (Garfield alum, coach of Garfield Women’s bball and father to Top 2025 SG Legend Smiley (Link Academy, Branson). Growing up in Seattle cocoon, he thought it was the greatest place to be. Roy told him wait until you see SC and he has changed his mind. He is a fan of SC and its tradition and prestige. You don’t really know it until you spend time here, he says.
His scout on ISU: Want to slow the game and not let us run. Want to shoot a lot of 3s. We need to stop the 3’s, rebound and get out and run to speed up the pace of play. He says if you see Muss slapping the scorer’s table it’s because we gave up a 3 or allowed an offensive rebound -haha. He takes a few questions on Hornery (teaching team “The Trojan Way’), starting lineup (says T-Will is back), Wesley Yates (gym rat overcoming injury and just showing what he can do). He concludes by saying he needs us to invite our family and friends to the games!!
SC fans just don’t turn out for bball during football season for lesser opponents and that is the case tonight. The arena looks like a pre-Juju WBB game early on, hardly any students. It’s Thursday night so maybe partying on The Row. Expect Muss to market the frats.
The fans straggle in, 3731 announced, disappointing, but that’s SC bball. As always, Jacque Hill is here, as is 76ers Caleb Martin (Mountain West POY under Coach Muss at Nevada), Malski points out former NCAA player/ Youtuber & Instagram personality Austin McBroom (The Ace Family). Mrs. Muss (Danyelle Sargent) is here for her 3 men (Eric, Asst Michael and Grad Asst Matthew) – SC bball is a Muss family enterprise!
The Game
SC is favored by 23.5 pts vs ISU (picked 8th in Big Sky, Montana picked 1st by coaches, Montana St. 1st by media)
SC starts Josh Cohen, Saint Thomas, Chibuzo Agbo, Desmond Claude and Fr Isaiah Elohim (Sierra Canyon) – T-Will still sidelined with back spasms. Bryce Pope (UCSD), Kevin Patton (USD) also out. Patton is scheduled to return Nov 17 vs Cal.
ISU strikes first after the tip on a 3 from Griffin, Cohen hits SC's first bucket. It’s close until Claude’s layup 5 mins in makes it 10-5. SC pushes the lead to 12 on Shelley’s FT at 10:41 to make it 19-7 (SC’s largest lead).
ISU closes to 21-20 on Otten’s FT at 6:05. Two Cohen FTs at 1:32 put SC up 36-31. ISU makes it a 1 pt game with 31 secs left, before Cohen’s layup at :05 for last pts of the half. The layup was assisted by Saint Thomas who had an amazing 9 assists in the first half! I guess he can play a little PG at 6-ft-7, 235 lbs, in relief of Claude. Muss was not happy with Claude’s defense as he struggled to contain ISUs PG. Not only was Muss unhappy with his team, he was upset with the refs (loudly expressing his displeasure but avoiding a technical). The half ended 38-35
It turns out ISU was much better than anticipated. After holding ASU to 55 pts in their first game (7-pt loss), they showed a tough brand of D in this one. They looked like they were coached by Muss! They were very aggressive and not intimidated by SC.
Their PG Dylan Darling (WSU signee/medical RS) was the top scorer in the game (22 pts, 6-12 FG, 1-1 3FG, 9-10 FT) and continually drove to the rim and played thru contact. He also led the Bengals with 7 assists and added 2 rebs, 1 blk. If ISU had upset SC, he is the Player of the Game.
For the half:
ISU shot 45% FG (9-20), 42.3% 3FG (3-7), 87.5% FT (14-16)
SC shot 50% FG (15-30), 25% 3FG (2-8), 42.9% FTs (6-14)- an anomaly as they made 80% of their FTs (16-20) in the 2nd half.
In the second half, the play continued to be back and forth and the score tight. Thomas hit a 3 which gave SC a 6 pt lead 41-35 at 19:23 and at 16:33 a Cohen basket and 1 gave SC a 48-40, the largest of the second half. Darling’s FTs at 8:45 gave ISU the lead 58-57 and it was nervous time. A Cohen layup gave SC the lead back 59-58 at 7:55 before Griffin put the Bengals back on top 60-59 at 6:15.
Claude made it 63-60 SC at 5:13, but ISU went up 65-64 on an O’Neil layup at 3:24. Clark Slajchert (Penn) hit a pair of FTs to put SC up 66-65, Cohen made it 68-65 at 2:25. The Bengals were not done, they closed to1 pt 68-67 at 1:40 before Saint Thomas sans facemask hit a dagger 3 with 18 secs left to give SC a 71-67 lead. ISU would score once more with 4 secs left (71-69), before a pair of FT by Slajchert and another by Wesley Yates at :01 sealed the win for the Trojans. Final 75-69, in a nail biter.
For the game:
ISU scored 69 pts, shooting 46.7% FG (21-45), 33% 3FG (4-12), 76.7% FT (23-30)
SC scored 75 pts, shooting 42.9% FG (24-56), 25% 3FG (5-20), 64.7% FT (22-34)
There were 7 lead changes and 5 ties in the game. Two ISU players scores in double digits (Darling 22, Griffin 10). Otten led with 12 rebs, O’Neil 9. Darling had 7 assists, O’Neil 3. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this; the Bengals didn’t have a single steal (SC had 6). The biggest positive for ISU was a +15 rebs edge over SC (40 to 25) leading to 17 2nd chance pts
SC had 3 double digit scorers: Josh Cohen 19, Yates 13, Thomas 10. Thomas led with 7 rebs, Cohen & Agee 4, but only 1 defensive board. This was a sore point for Muss who will continue to drill this area in practice. On the plus side 20 of SC’s 24 FGs (83%) came on assists and SC had a high assists/TO ratio (20/6 = 3.3)
ISU controlled the tempo and held SC to only one fast break!
Bottom line is that SC came thru and got the win to go 2-0 on the season. ISU falls to 0-2 but looks like they could surprise in the Big Sky conference.
Next Up: UT Arlington on Wednesday Nov 13 at 8 pm. The game will air on Big Ten Network
Fight On! Beat the Mavericks!
ISU occupies 1000 small city acres (main campus is in Pocatello, ID), has an enrollment of 12,301 (10,017 undergrad), a $75M endowment, USN&WR No. 392 public school, WSJ No. 601
Famous alumni include Office Depot CEO Bruce Nelson, Actors William Peterson (CSI Las Vegas) and Sue Ane Langdon, Varsity Contractors/Lean Museum founder Don Aslett, 5x NFL Pro Bowler DE Jaren Allen, ESPN commentator/Steelers RB Merril Hoge, NFL/college head coach/OC Dirk Koetter, NFL head coach/DC Marvin Lewis, Texas A&M AD Bill Byrne, Utah Jazz announcer Ron Boone, Pole Vaulter Stacy Dragila, Heavyweight boxer Ed Sanders
ISU Athletics: NCAA D I FCS, Big Sky conference, (Cal Poly, E. Wash, Idaho, Montana, Montana St, NAU, N. Colo, Portland St, Sac State, UC Davis, Weger State), 3 NCAA Team titles (2 Boxing (1952, ‘57, 1981 NCAA Football D I FCS), 19 NCAA individual titles. Olympics: Inaugural women’s pole vault Gold Medalist Stacy Dragila, Decathlete Dan O’Brien (1996 gold medalist), Valarie Allman 2-time discus gold medalist
Colors – Orange & Black, Nickname – Bengals, fight song – ‘Growl, Bengals, Growl’, Mascot – Benny the Bengal
Basketball started in 1952 (921-1078, .461), 1977 Elite Eight, 5 Sweet Sixteen (last 1977), 11 NCAA appearances (last 1987), 9 RMAC conf titles, 3 Big Sky titles, 2 Big Sky tourney titles (last 1987). 5 NBA players (Ron Boone - only player in major pro sports to play in every available game in his career. In 13 seasons, played in all 1,041 potential games), Jeff Cook, Steve Hayes (fun fact played for BILL Musselman with Rapid City Thrillers), Greg Griffin, Dale Wilkinson)
Winningest coaches: Jim Killingsworth (109-54, .669), Herb Willliams (97-124, .439), Steve Belko (76-28, .731)
Current – Ron Looney (5th season) 53-97, .353. Career 383-229, .626 (D II Point Loma, Seattle Pacific; NAIA E. Oregon)
Currently: 0-1, 55-48 loss to ASU
All-time: SC leads 5-0, last 59-53 in 2010
ISU NET (n/a), KenPom 251, SC NET (n/a), KenPom 43
ISU Scoring (last season): 70.5 ppg (+0.4), 46% FG, 32.9% 3FG, 6.4 3’s/g, 68.6% FT. Rebs 32.1 pg (+1.9), Assists 12 pg, TOs 10.5 pg (+1.1), Stls 7.0 pg, Blks 3.6 pg
ISU Leaders:
Scoring: Isaiah Griffin 12 ppg (4-12 FG, 2-6 3FG, 2-2 FT), Jake O’Neil 10 ppg (5-13 FG), Connor Hollenbeck 10 ppg (4-9 FG, 0-3 3FG, 2-2 FT)
Rebounding: O’Neil 11 rpg, Griffin 7, Evan Otten 6, Assists Darling 3 pg, Steals O’Neil 2 pg, Blks Otten 2 pg
SC Leaders
SC Scoring 77 ppg (+26), 50% FG, 32% 3FG, 71.4% FT. Rebounds 36 pg (+2.0), Assists 21 pg, TOs 9 pg (+7.0), Steals 9 pg, Blks 3.0 pg
SC Leaders
Scoring: Chibuzo Agbo 14 ppg (45.5% FG, 44.4% 3FG, FT n/a), Matt Knowling 13 ppg (100% FG, n/a 3FG, 100% FT), Desmond Claude 9 ppg (33.3% FG, 0% 3FG, 75% FT), Saint Thomas 9 ppg (40% FG, 25% 3FG, FT n/a), Wesley Yates III 9 ppg (50% FG, 25% 3FG, FT n/a)
Rebounding: Thomas 5.0 pg, Agbo 4.0, Rashaun Agee 4.0, Josh Cohen 4.0; Assists: Thomas 4.0 pg, Knowling 4.0; Steals: Agbo 2.0 pg, Wesley Yates 2.0
(Last season stats)
Pregame
Founder’s is half full. Guest speaker Asst Coach Will Conroy was hired by Muss after 9 yrs at UW, the last 2 as Assoc. Hd Coach to Mike Hopkins. Conroy played at Garfield HS in Seattle (4 state titles), prior to walking on at UW, played from 2001-05. UW’s all-time assists leader (515), 2-yr captain & Honorable Mention All-Pac-12. Undrafted but spent 7 yrs with NBA, D-League (2009 NBA D-League Sportsmanship Award) and foreign teams before joining Minnesota T-Wolves front office.
Began coaching career at UW in 2015 as asst to Lorenzo Romar, retained by Mike Hopkins in 2017 and promoted to Assoc. Hd Coach in 2022.
Conroy says he and his family feel welcomed by the Trojan family despite his yrs at UW and battles with SC. One of his best friends is former Trojan G Roy Smiley (Garfield alum, coach of Garfield Women’s bball and father to Top 2025 SG Legend Smiley (Link Academy, Branson). Growing up in Seattle cocoon, he thought it was the greatest place to be. Roy told him wait until you see SC and he has changed his mind. He is a fan of SC and its tradition and prestige. You don’t really know it until you spend time here, he says.
His scout on ISU: Want to slow the game and not let us run. Want to shoot a lot of 3s. We need to stop the 3’s, rebound and get out and run to speed up the pace of play. He says if you see Muss slapping the scorer’s table it’s because we gave up a 3 or allowed an offensive rebound -haha. He takes a few questions on Hornery (teaching team “The Trojan Way’), starting lineup (says T-Will is back), Wesley Yates (gym rat overcoming injury and just showing what he can do). He concludes by saying he needs us to invite our family and friends to the games!!
SC fans just don’t turn out for bball during football season for lesser opponents and that is the case tonight. The arena looks like a pre-Juju WBB game early on, hardly any students. It’s Thursday night so maybe partying on The Row. Expect Muss to market the frats.
The fans straggle in, 3731 announced, disappointing, but that’s SC bball. As always, Jacque Hill is here, as is 76ers Caleb Martin (Mountain West POY under Coach Muss at Nevada), Malski points out former NCAA player/ Youtuber & Instagram personality Austin McBroom (The Ace Family). Mrs. Muss (Danyelle Sargent) is here for her 3 men (Eric, Asst Michael and Grad Asst Matthew) – SC bball is a Muss family enterprise!
The Game
SC is favored by 23.5 pts vs ISU (picked 8th in Big Sky, Montana picked 1st by coaches, Montana St. 1st by media)
SC starts Josh Cohen, Saint Thomas, Chibuzo Agbo, Desmond Claude and Fr Isaiah Elohim (Sierra Canyon) – T-Will still sidelined with back spasms. Bryce Pope (UCSD), Kevin Patton (USD) also out. Patton is scheduled to return Nov 17 vs Cal.
ISU strikes first after the tip on a 3 from Griffin, Cohen hits SC's first bucket. It’s close until Claude’s layup 5 mins in makes it 10-5. SC pushes the lead to 12 on Shelley’s FT at 10:41 to make it 19-7 (SC’s largest lead).
ISU closes to 21-20 on Otten’s FT at 6:05. Two Cohen FTs at 1:32 put SC up 36-31. ISU makes it a 1 pt game with 31 secs left, before Cohen’s layup at :05 for last pts of the half. The layup was assisted by Saint Thomas who had an amazing 9 assists in the first half! I guess he can play a little PG at 6-ft-7, 235 lbs, in relief of Claude. Muss was not happy with Claude’s defense as he struggled to contain ISUs PG. Not only was Muss unhappy with his team, he was upset with the refs (loudly expressing his displeasure but avoiding a technical). The half ended 38-35
It turns out ISU was much better than anticipated. After holding ASU to 55 pts in their first game (7-pt loss), they showed a tough brand of D in this one. They looked like they were coached by Muss! They were very aggressive and not intimidated by SC.
Their PG Dylan Darling (WSU signee/medical RS) was the top scorer in the game (22 pts, 6-12 FG, 1-1 3FG, 9-10 FT) and continually drove to the rim and played thru contact. He also led the Bengals with 7 assists and added 2 rebs, 1 blk. If ISU had upset SC, he is the Player of the Game.
For the half:
ISU shot 45% FG (9-20), 42.3% 3FG (3-7), 87.5% FT (14-16)
SC shot 50% FG (15-30), 25% 3FG (2-8), 42.9% FTs (6-14)- an anomaly as they made 80% of their FTs (16-20) in the 2nd half.
In the second half, the play continued to be back and forth and the score tight. Thomas hit a 3 which gave SC a 6 pt lead 41-35 at 19:23 and at 16:33 a Cohen basket and 1 gave SC a 48-40, the largest of the second half. Darling’s FTs at 8:45 gave ISU the lead 58-57 and it was nervous time. A Cohen layup gave SC the lead back 59-58 at 7:55 before Griffin put the Bengals back on top 60-59 at 6:15.
Claude made it 63-60 SC at 5:13, but ISU went up 65-64 on an O’Neil layup at 3:24. Clark Slajchert (Penn) hit a pair of FTs to put SC up 66-65, Cohen made it 68-65 at 2:25. The Bengals were not done, they closed to1 pt 68-67 at 1:40 before Saint Thomas sans facemask hit a dagger 3 with 18 secs left to give SC a 71-67 lead. ISU would score once more with 4 secs left (71-69), before a pair of FT by Slajchert and another by Wesley Yates at :01 sealed the win for the Trojans. Final 75-69, in a nail biter.
For the game:
ISU scored 69 pts, shooting 46.7% FG (21-45), 33% 3FG (4-12), 76.7% FT (23-30)
SC scored 75 pts, shooting 42.9% FG (24-56), 25% 3FG (5-20), 64.7% FT (22-34)
There were 7 lead changes and 5 ties in the game. Two ISU players scores in double digits (Darling 22, Griffin 10). Otten led with 12 rebs, O’Neil 9. Darling had 7 assists, O’Neil 3. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this; the Bengals didn’t have a single steal (SC had 6). The biggest positive for ISU was a +15 rebs edge over SC (40 to 25) leading to 17 2nd chance pts
SC had 3 double digit scorers: Josh Cohen 19, Yates 13, Thomas 10. Thomas led with 7 rebs, Cohen & Agee 4, but only 1 defensive board. This was a sore point for Muss who will continue to drill this area in practice. On the plus side 20 of SC’s 24 FGs (83%) came on assists and SC had a high assists/TO ratio (20/6 = 3.3)
ISU controlled the tempo and held SC to only one fast break!
Bottom line is that SC came thru and got the win to go 2-0 on the season. ISU falls to 0-2 but looks like they could surprise in the Big Sky conference.
Next Up: UT Arlington on Wednesday Nov 13 at 8 pm. The game will air on Big Ten Network
Fight On! Beat the Mavericks!
