The 1981–82 Idaho Vandals men's basketball team represented the

University of Idaho The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho, United States. Established in 1889 and opened three years later, it was the state's sole university for 71 years, until 1963. The un ...

during the 1981–82 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The defending champions of the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference, affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I with college football, football competing in the Football Cha ...

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...

were led by fourth-year head coach

Don Monson Donald Lloyd Monson (born April 11, 1933) is an American former college basketball head coach and the father of head coach Dan Monson. He was a high school head coach for 18 seasons and college head coach for 14 seasons: five at Idaho and nin ...

and played their home games on campus at the

Kibbie Dome The P1FCU Kibbie Dome, known simply as the Kibbie Dome and formerly named the Kibbie-ASUI Activity Center, is a multi-purpose indoor athletic stadium on the campus of the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. It is the home of the Idaho Van ...

Moscow, Idaho Moscow ( ) is a city and the county seat of Latah County, Idaho. Located in the North Central Idaho, North Central region of the state along the border with Washington (state), Washington, it had a population of 25,435 at the 2020 United States ...

. The 1982 basketball team was the most successful in the school's history, and has yet to be surpassed. Building upon the success of the previous season (25–4), the Vandals won their first sixteen games and went 24–2 in the regular season. They defeated

Gonzaga Gonzaga may refer to: Places *Gonzaga, Lombardy, commune in the province of Mantua, Italy *Gonzaga, Cagayan, municipality in the Philippines *Gonzaga, Minas Gerais, town in Brazil *Forte Gonzaga, fort in Messina, Sicily Surname *House of Gonza ...

and all four

Pac-10 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level for all sports, and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl ...

teams from the

Northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west— ...

. Idaho won the eight-team Far West Classic in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

in late December 1981, winning all three games by at least 19 points (over

Iowa State Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State be ...

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees through all 11 of the universit ...

, and

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

). The Vandals' only setbacks during the regular season were consecutive two-point road losses in late January. The first was to rival

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

on a raucous Saturday night in

Missoula Missoula ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is located along the Clark Fork River near its confluence with the Bitterroot River, Bitterroot and Blackfoot River (Montana), ...

on a tip-in at the buzzer. The second was to Notre Dame in

South Bend South Bend is a city in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. It lies along the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. It is the List of cities in ...

two days later, ending a three-games-in-four-nights road trip, which included multiple weather-related travel delays and re-routes, and a 4:30 am arrival in South Bend on game day. Although the Vandals hit 14 of their first 15 shots to jump to lead over the Irish, Notre Dame regrouped at home to win by two in overtime. Idaho was awarded just four free throws in the 45 minutes of play and missed them all. Notre Dame was led by future

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

guard

John Paxson John MacBeth Paxson (born September 29, 1960) is an American basketball administrator and former player who was vice president of basketball operations for the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 2009 to 2020. He was t ...

in 1982. The Vandals then won eight straight games to conclude the regular season, and won the four-team conference tournament, which they hosted for the second straight year as regular season champions. Their 26–2 record after the Big Sky tournament (& ten straight victories) earned the Vandals a #8 national ranking and a #3 seed in the West region of the 48-team NCAA tournament, which included a first round bye.

NCAA tournament

Idaho's first game (in the second round) was nearly a home game, played just west at

Beasley Coliseum Beasley Coliseum is a general-purpose indoor arena in the northwest United States, located on the campus of Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. The home venue for the Cougars men's and women's basketball teams of the Pac-12 Confe ...

in Pullman on a Sunday afternoon. The opponent was 16th-ranked

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

of the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...

, the region's sixth seed, then coached by

Lute Olson Robert Luther "Lute" Olson (September 22, 1934 – August 27, 2020) was an American basketball coach, who was inducted into both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. He was the head co ...

. A Final Four team two years earlier, Iowa won their first-round game handily, but Idaho won this close game by two points, in overtime, and advanced to the Sweet 16.
Four days later at the West regional in Marriott Center, Provo, Utah, they met the nation's fourth-ranked team,

, the #2 seed in the West region. Idaho had defeated the Beavers by 22 points in December at the Far West Classic in

, but this time the result was far different, as the Beavers won 60–42. OSU was defeated two days later by the region's #1 seed Georgetown, led by freshman center

Patrick Ewing Patrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. (born August 5, 1962) is a Jamaican-American basketball coach and former professional player who is a basketball ambassador for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he played most o ...

. (Georgetown advanced to the national final, where they lost by a point to

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

Aftermath

The Vandals ended the 1982 season at , and were ranked as high as sixth in the nation ( AP and UPI polls) at the end of the regular season They entered the top twenty at #18 in early January and two weeks later were up to eighth, but the two losses dropped them back to fifteenth. Eight straight wins elevated them to sixth prior to the Big Sky tournament, and were eighth in both final polls entering the NCAA tournament. The 1982 starters

Ken Owens Kenneth James Owens (born 3 January 1987) is a former Welsh rugby union player who played as a hooker for the Scarlets and Wales. He made his debut for the Scarlets in 2006, taking over from Matthew Rees as their first-choice hooker upon Re ...

() and

Brian Kellerman Brian Kellerman (born c. 1961) is an American former basketball player, known for his college career for the Idaho Vandals, where he was the Big Sky Conference player of the year in 1981 as a sophomore. He later played professionally in England a ...

() in the backcourt, with forwards Phil Hopson and

Gordie Herbert Gordon Walter Herbert (born February 16, 1959) is a Canadian and Finnish professional basketball coach and former player. Herbert is currently serving as the head coach of Canada national team and Bayern Munich in the Basketball Bundesliga and ...

and center Kelvin Smith, all at . Just before their two losses in January, the team was featured in a two-page article in ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

''.(team photo)
The

alley-oop In basketball, an alley-oop is an offensive play in which one player passes the ball near the basket to a teammate who jumps, catches the ball in mid-air and dunks or lays it in before touching the ground. The alley-oop combines elements of t ...

was a frequently used play against man-to-man defenses, and sophomore Pete Prigge () was the

sixth man The sixth man in basketball is a player who is not a starting lineup, starter but comes off the bench much more often than other reserves, often being the first player to be substituted in, and the first to be used against the other team's subst ...

. Monson was named the

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company, referred to simply as Kodak (), is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in film photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated i ...

Coach of the Year Many sports leagues, sportswriting associations, and other organizations confer "Coach of the Year" awards. In some sports — including baseball and association football — the award is called the "Manager of the Year" award. Some of the ...

in Division I in 198
(photo)
ref name=idv1mn1> and rumors were rampant that he would jump to a higher league, maybe to struggling

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

in the

. That position was eventually filled by

( a year later), and Monson chose to stay for a fifth season at Idaho. With a salary of about $40,000 in 1982 and a one-year contract, an "appreciation fund" was set up by local fans to entice him to stay in Th
1982 team
was inducted into th
Vandal Athletics Hall of Fame
as was Monson, Kellerman, and Owens.

All-conference

All five starters were recognized by the conference. Senior point guard Owens was the Big Sky's

player of the year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year. In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is held on b ...

and a repeat MVP in the conference tournament. He was joined in the backcourt of the all-conference team by junior guard Kellerman, the previous season's player of the year. Vandals on the second team were the forwards, senior Herbert and junior Hopson; junior center Smith was honorable mention.

Roster

Schedule and results

, - !colspan=9 style=, Big Sky tournament , - !colspan=9 style=, NCAA tournament

References

External links

Sports Reference
– Idaho Vandals: 1981–82 basketball season
''Gem of the Mountains:'' 1982 University of Idaho yearbook
– 1981–82 basketball season

– student newspaper – 1982 editions {{DEFAULTSORT:1981-82 Idaho Vandals men's basketball team Idaho Vandals men's basketball seasons

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...