OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla – Vandal fans get to experience something they’ve never experienced before: both men’s and women’s teams in the NCAA tournament.
Even better? The teams are playing only 30 miles apart from each other.
The Idaho Vandals men’s basketball team won the Big Sky Conference, earning a 15 seed. They’ll face two seed Houston Thursday evening in Oklahoma City.
The women’s team also won the conference and earned a 13 seed and the right to play Oklahoma in Norman on Friday.
“It’s just a great time to be an Idaho Vandal,” said men’s coach Alex Pribble in his pre-game press conference Wednesday. “To see both the men’s program and the women’s program have success at the same time, it’s just really special. And to have them 30 miles away, it seems like it was pre-written, like this is the way it should be.”
Pribble knows his team faces a steep challenge with the Houston Cougars.
Houston made the Final Four last year and are one of the top defensive teams in the nation.
“We have a huge challenge against a Houston Cougars team that we know is the epitome of toughness and resilience and physicality and it’s just going to be a great challenge for us,” Pribble said.
He said his team has come together at the right time, playing seven games in 13 days to win the Big Sky.
“The reason we’re sitting here today is we’ve become a tougher team,” Pribble said. “We weren’t a good defensive rebounding team the previous two years. We made it a point of emphasis this year and now we’re the number five defensive rebounding team in the country. What better way to test that than against this Houston team where that’s what they’re all about.”
The Vandals men’s team plays at 7:10 Pacific Time Thursday night on TruTV.
The women’s team plays Friday night at 7 on ESPN.
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