MOSCOW — After a long trip in a couple of vans through icy Oregon and Washington, the winners of the Far West Classic basketball tournament received a warm greeting from about 100 people at a homecoming rally Wednesday night at Memorial Gymnasium.
The Idaho Vandals had a chance to show off their new additions to the basketball trophy case after a successful three games at the Classic, which Idaho won with an 81-62 victory over Oregon Tuesday, in Portland, Ore.
The Vandals of Coach Don Monson won the championship trophy with three big wins in the eight-team tourney and also were awarded a sportsmanship-type trophy for their conduct on and off the floor.
Besides the team honors, Ken Owens was named the tournament’s most valuable player and guard mate Brian Kellerman was named to the all-tournament team.
Monson, along with university president Dr. Richard D. Gibb, spoke to the Moscow area residents who greeted the team.
“We’ve got some real dedicated people in the community and it was the die-hards who were there again,” Monson said Wednesday night.
“The weather wasn’t conducive to coming out to a rally, but it’s usually the same people at the booster functions and the luncheons and the people you can depend on.”
The Vandals are now 10-0 for the season and will now try to equal the string of 11 straight victories the 1980-81 Vandal team accomplished to open last season. The Vandals will be home Saturday at 8 p.m. against Gonzaga in a non-conference game.
“My team last year proved themselves with the 25-4 record and won the Big Sky tournament. This team has not done that. Potentially, this team could be as good as any I’ve coached,” Monson said.
A key to defeating Iowa State (88-68), Oregon State (71-49) and Oregon (81-62) and winning the Far West Classic was experience.
“The difference this year is the experience we have and this week it showed,” Monson said. “Having gone through the Big Sky tournament and the NCAA really helped going into a tournament like the Far West Classic,” Monson said.
Going into the tournament the Vandals were pretty much an unknown and unheralded team on the national level. Winning three games by a 61-point combined margin was a surprise.
“Realistically, you can’t figure to go down there and win a tournament with the stature of the Far West Classic and win three games by 20 points each,” Monson said.
“The fact we won it might have been surprising, but not to us.”
The sportsmanship trophy is a symbol of a team that acts with “class” around the hotel and the tournament, according to Monson.
“My kids are just super-coachable young men and I think the fact the people recognize that in the Portland area, and especially the people who ran the tournament, was especially gratifying.”
This story was published in the Dec. 31, 1981, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.
