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Third or fourth seed up for grabs for UI

Will the Idaho Vandals finish third in the WAC? How about fourth … or fifth … or sixth? All those options are in playing heading into the final week of the regular season. We’ve got lots below on the seeding scenarios and comments from Don Verlin leading into an all-important home game with Fresno State on Thursday. (UI then ends the regular season Saturday vs. Seattle at Cowan Spectrum).

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With one game left before the WAC tournament, the situation is more than a bit muddled from spots 2-6 in the conference standings. But here’s what the Vandals do know: “You win on Thursday,” Verlin said, “and you’re automatically the third or fourth seed, probably the fourth seed depending on what happens this weekend. So it’s an important game.”

Verlin was alluding to the contest with Fresno State. If the Vandals win, they will guarantee themselves a first-round bye in the WAC tourney next week in Las Vegas. But if they lose, they could fall as far as the No. 6 seed.

Here are the all the scenarios, compliments of Spencer Farrin at UI media relations:

Idaho (16-12, 8-7) gets the #3 seed if:
- It beats Fresno State
- New Mexico State (14-16, 8-6) loses to BOTH Utah State and Nevada
 
Idaho gets the #4 if:
- It beats Fresno State
OR
- Nevada (11-17, 7-7) AND Hawaii (17-10, 7-7) lose at least once. The Wolf Pack play at Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State and UH plays at San Jose State and Fresno State.
 
Idaho gets the #5 if:
- Fresno State beats UI
- Nevada OR Hawaii wins out (but not both)
 
Idaho gets the #6 if:
- Fresno State beats UI
- Nevada AND Hawaii win out

Idaho holds the tiebreaker with Nevada and Hawaii. Boise State and New Mexico State swept their season series with Idaho, so they'll get a higher seed in case of a tie.

The most likely scenario, it seems, is that the Vandals will land in the fourth spot in the tournament with a win, meaning they would play the winner of the 5-8 game at noon Thursday on ESPNU. If NMSU, on a three-game losing streak, continues its free fall and loses to USU and Nevada, then Idaho will get the No. 3 seed — which would mean they could meet up with second-seeded Boise State (17-11, 9-6) in the semifinals rather than top-seeded Utah State. (Of course, Idaho has lost twice to BSU and beaten Utah State once this season.)

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Finally, here are highlights from Verlin’s weekly teleconference:

On Fresno State:

“You know Fresno is young but very talented. Obviously it starts with Greg Smith … He’s a force inside.The people who played well against Fresno quite honestly done a good job against Greg Smith. And he’s definitely the key to their team.”

“Like most Fresno teams they’re very athletic — will get up and down the floor and cause us some problems in the transition game.”

On the win earlier at Fresno State:

“We played very well down there. … We just looked great in the second half. I thought at that point it was the best basketball that we had played for a half we had played all year long. We shot it well and executed well. And we won that game without Toledo, so that was a big win for us down there.”

On the film from last week:

“Obviously we played very, very well at Nevada. We were very tough, very physical. Jeff  (Ledbetter) shot the ball … We played really good at Nevada. I thought we competed very hard. The only (thing) I didn’t like was our rebounding. I didn’t think we rebounded well either night.

“Utah State, looking back at the film, I thought we played OK. We just missed some shots early. They’re so powerful, and we just couldn’t get them slowed down the second half. I thought that was game was determined right there at the end of the first half. We were hanging around, down eight with 21/2 to go and they go on an 8-0 run and that was kind of the difference in the game.”

On the motivation for this week:

“A big game for us, no question about it. A first-round bye is at stake. We can finish as high as third. I guess you could finish as high as second technically with ties, but we’re probably going to get the third or fourth seed. And to avoid that first day of playing is huge. I don’t know how many teams have been able to win four games in a conference tournament; I don’t think there have been many who have been able to do it. So allowing us to go down to Vegas and not have to play in the first round is huge.”

On the seniors: Ledbetter, Shawn Henderson and Brandon Wiley:

“I thought these three seniors have all played very well this year. They’ve all played well above my expectations of them. You know, Shawn Henderson was a reserve last year. He’s started every game this year. He’s our best defender. He’s playing his best basketball of late. I couldn’t be happier with Shawn’s attitude and growth within the program. He will graduate at the end of this semester. Boy, he’s been great — and we’ve put a lot of pressure on Shawn. Shawn always gets the toughest offensive player Every night out.

“Jeff has just played really good from an offensive standpoint. He’s got some fire to him. And Jeff loves being here, and really embraces being a Vandal. I think that’s what’s made him so good this year.

“And then Brandon Wiley. It was nice to have him back. Brandon kind of goes unsung a lot because we run all our offense through him. He’s playing undersized at the 4, but he’s a hard (player to defend). He’s done a great job executing our offense. He’s a very good passer at the 4 spot. So I couldn’t be happier.

“Those three seniors are going to be (hard) to replace.”



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