Editor’s Note: Idaho State University recently announced the extension of the contract of men’s basketball head coach Ryan Rooney through the 2026-27 season. This prompted The Journal guest his columnist Brad Bugger to look at the state of men’s basketball in Bengal, the current state of affairs and what the future holds. This is part 1 of a 3 part series. Today: Make memories.
Idaho State’s men’s basketball team has a headman for the next few seasons.
Cameron Hicks grew up being a Bengal fan during the “Herb Ball” era of men’s basketball in Idaho. In the 1990s, Michigan State University legend Judd Herb Williams, who came to the ISU after serving as an assistant to Heathcote, is slowly building a group of talented athletes into big contenders for his Sky. I was.
“In Herb Williams’ early days, I remember they were sixth or seventh at Big Sky, and you could see the level of athletes he was recruiting here,” Hicks said. He said, “I was still in junior high school at the time, but I was old enough to understand that the level of athletes was different. I’m not saying that there are no more such people at the ISU, but I’m saying that there are quite a few. I’m here.
For fans of the Hicks era, the Herbball era is the golden age of ISU men’s basketball. It took Williams and his staff several years to develop a nomination, but unfortunately it all fell apart quickly. But in the last few seasons, Holt being in his arena to watch athletes like Terrence Fleming, Donnell Morgan, Jim Potter, Lorenzo Watkins and others has been a place for students and members of the community.
The culmination was the 1993-94 season, when the Bengals went 19-8 and 10-4 overall to win the Weber State and Big Sky Conference regular season titles. Bengali fans like Hicks could see the level of play rise and Holt began packing his arena for his home games. The ISU averaged over 4,500 fans in his 12 home games that season. This included non-conference matches against Gonzaga and Washington. This two power program of his never considered playing for the Big Sky school these days.
“I remember the energy that Herb Williams has brought over the last few years,” said Eric Corianni, a 1996 graduate of the ISU Radiation Science student. “I remember how excited Jim Potter’s junior and senior years (1993-94, 94-95) were. Those were pretty fun years to sit in (student section). It was pretty rowdy at the time, and[Boise State Athletic Superintendent]Jean Breymeier remembers one time he had to sit in front of us because the students were sitting behind the Boise State bench.
The minimum attendance for an ISU Big Sky Conference game at Holt Arena in 1993-94 was 4,729 at Weber State. All six of his others have amassed at least his 5,000 fans. In Boise he had 7,138 spectators and in Idaho he had 8,311.
“The best basketball game I can remember was when we beat Boise State (79-77) at Holt Arena, thanks to Terrence Fleming,” Hicks said, averaging 15.6 points, 4 rebounds and Speaking of the University of Georgia transfer, he recorded 4 assists.His one season as a Bengal. “He became one of my favorite Bengals. I remember him being the 6 foot guard when he stole and broke in front of Damon Archibald and that basically sealed the game.They[Boise State University]were very good. I remember being very excited because it was a great team.”
In fact, the Broncos fulfilled the Bengals’ dream of returning to the NCAA Tournament by defeating the Bengals 85-81 in the conference tournament championship game in front of 9,166 fans in Boise later that March.
Idaho State returned Potter, Watkins and Morgan the following season, finishing 18-10 but only 7-7 in a disappointing fourth place in Big Sky. The Bengals defeated Boise State in the first round of the conference tournament, but lost the ISU season to hosts Weber State in the second round.
Little did anyone know at the time, the 1994-1995 season would be a turning point not just for Idaho State University, but for all men’s basketball in the Big Sky Conference. Boise State and the University of Idaho left the league after the 1996 campaign, largely driven by promotion to Division I football. Their departure and other structural changes in college basketball will significantly reduce attendance figures over the next two decades. I didn’t even try to.
The Herb Ball era may be recent to create a warm fuzzy vibe for nostalgic Bengali devotees, but ISU fans of a certain age will never forget the late 1970s. Jim Killingsworth is a tough, no-nonsense former junior college coach from California who lived during men’s basketball’s most successful period in Idaho. Killingsworth arrived at Pocatello from his junior college at Cerritos in the 1971-72 season and quickly led the Bengals to his second-place finish, 8-6.
The “Killer” then led the ISU to three regular season titles, two conference tournament championships and two NCAA tournaments, culminating in the 1976-77 team’s journey to the Elite Eight, with the ISU winning over UCLA. and shocked the basketball world. At the time it was still a preeminent name in the sport.
“We played in the Minidome (now Holt Arena) and on average had more fans than could fit in Reed’s Gym,” said the 7-foot center from nearby Aberdeen and Elite Eight. A key figure on the team, Steve Hayes, recalled. “We played Utah State, Weber State, and Boise State, and we had 5,000 to 7,000 fans. We had fans going to Boise State and Weber State, and it was a great atmosphere.”
Killingsworth has a reputation for developing good big men, and Hayes and 6-10 California junior Jeff Cook paired the two players on the 1976-77 team before making it to the NBA. built a long career in Killer also tapped into his California JC roots to bring in talented guard Ed Thompson and wingman Greg Griffin.
Former Idaho men’s basketball player Ed Thompson.
ISU Athletics
“I think the biggest thing is that Killer has developed players,” said Hayes, who recently retired from a Texas oil company and is building a home in the Twin Falls area. “Jeff[Cook]was a tall player who lived in California and was abandoned by some of the big schools. I did one-on-one workouts for the entire four years I was here, and I didn’t start playing DI basketball straight out of high school, but it took me so long to get there. It didn’t take long.”
Killingsworth’s team also had the advantage of being able to play in what was considered an innovative and modern facility at the time. The minidome he opened in 1970 and after the 1973–74 season and the 1976–77 season he was deemed worthy of hosting the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Thirty years later, a Bengali man abandoned Holt where he became an arena. This was because it was so cold and airy that water sometimes leaked through the roof onto his basketball court below. And there was no longer a demand for his 8,000 fans that Holt could meet.
Longtime Bengal fans aren’t just obsessed with their great team. They have a memory of talented players on not-so-great teams. The Bengals in the 1960s and early 1970s were not very successful as a team — third place was their best ISU finish in the newly created Big Sky Conference in the 1960s — but the ISU were an interesting individual. tended to produce performers of
“Oh my god, basketball in the 1960s was phenomenal,” said Gary Pitkin, who graduated from the ISU with both undergraduate and graduate degrees during that decade and is now retired in Boise. I mean, we had some crazy athletes, they had some really great athletes and they just packed Reed Gym in. If you came in a little late, you had to hang in the rafters. They were exceptional.”
Art Crump (16, 24.7, 22.7 points per game 1961-1964), Dave Wagnon (32.5 points per game 1965-66), future NBA player Ron Boone (1966) Future ISU Hall of Famers (like 22.3 points and 21.3 points from 1968 to 1968) all entertained the lead gym patrons. Then came Willie Humes, his 6-foot-2 guard from his junior college in Vincennes, Indiana, in 1969.
“[ISU coach]Dan Miller told me about Willie, but I didn’t see him play until the season opener against Boise State on December 1, 1969,” said the longtime ISU. Director of Sports Information Glenn Alford recalled: “Willie (Humes) scored 51 points, the second-highest single-game total in school history.
“Had he had the three-point line at his last basket, he would have been well behind and dropped out of bounds when it came in. I was doing radio work. Bob Paul was doing the play-by-play while I was holding the scorebook, signaling with his finger how many points the scorer had, and I ran out of ways to tell how many points Willie had scored. Signal like? We scored 119 against the Broncos and the place went crazy.
Former Idaho men’s basketball player Willie Humes (No. 12).
ISU Athletics
As that season progressed, rumors began to spread about Humes and his teammates, and lead Jim began to sell out. . “It was the best basketball atmosphere I’ve ever seen in Reed,” Alford said. “We scored a lot of points…in his last four wins, two of which he beat Montana, 124-97 for him, and 124-100 for Montana.”
Humes holds the Big Sky Conference record with an average of 31.5 points per game.
After Killingsworth left for Oklahoma after the 1977 season, Idaho had another “must see” guard, Lawrence Butler, who transferred from Glasgow, Missouri, to a junior college in grades 6-3. There was Butler said that from 1977 to 1979 he averaged 23.7 points per game and he averaged 30.1 points in his two seasons at Pocatello. In his senior season, he beat Larry Bird for the national scoring title and posted 41 point games against both UNLV and Boise State.
If you want to go back in time to “Ancient History,” Idaho was a regional basketball powerhouse in the 1950s. The Bengals played in the old Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, which included schools like Colorado College, Colorado School of Mines, and Montana. States, Northern Colorado, and Western States. RMAC is considered the equivalent of today’s Division I, and Idaho State University in his 1950s he won the RMAC conference championship and seven he qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
And perhaps the ultimate outlier of Bengal’s Magical Mystery Nostalgia Tour comes from the 1986-87 team, who finished fifth in the Big Sky Conference regular season. NCAA Tournament with 15 wins and 15 losses. Unsurprisingly, the Bengals were “rewarded” with the No. 16 seed, and although he lost to UNLV in the NCAA First Round game as No. 1, many Bengal fans traveled to Salt Lake City to participate in the NCAA Tournament Berth. .
Good team, good players, good times, good memories.
“I will always be a Bengal fan,” Hicks said. “Not only did I grow up being a fan of Bengal, but there are those fleeting moments when they perform great and it’s like the fabric that binds us to them. Like we’ve seen highs like the 2002 and 2003 football seasons, even if it was done 20 years ago, if it’s been done, we can do it again.”
can you do that? Where does Idaho basketball stand now?Why haven’t the Bengals seriously competed for a championship in his 30 years?Big SkyHis conference basketball as a whole has plummeted so much Why and what can be done about both? That leads to the next article.
As a sportswriter, broadcaster, and fan, Brad Bugger has been watching track and field in Southeast Idaho for over 40 years. His contact is bpbugger@gmail.com.
