Idaho State men playing for respect

Leah Hogsten/Salt Lake Tribune

It’s said respect is earned.

That must be right because the Idaho State men’s basketball team doesn’t have any — not from fans, opponents or the media.

Let’s rehash a few quick facts. Last season, Idaho State (3-3) trudged through a 6-24 season and finished last in the Big Sky standings. The Bengals were miserable on the road and struggled to win at home.

Not only did ISU lose but it lost in low-scoring, ugly affairs. Eight teams in the entire country scored fewer points than the Bengals last year.

They were tough defensively but playing at such a slow pace meant a 10-point deficit might as well have been 20 or 30.

The media showed its respect for the Bengals by slotting them dead last in this season’s preseason poll.

Fans, both of the home-team variety and of the opposing flavor have respected Idaho State in the way they’ve shown up (or not) at games.

And how in the world does Idaho State jump up on Utah by 15 points in the first half unless the Utes just assumed all they needed to do to win was show up and run up and down the court?

Senior guard Andre Hatchett is fine with any team taking the Bengals lightly. Actually, he hopes they keep it up.

“I hope teams keep overlooking us so we can get a nice little lead,” he said.

The atmosphere before Idaho State and Utah at the Jon M. Huntsman center Tuesday night better resembled an art gallery showing than a college basketball game. And the tone in the air turned to shock and horror after Idaho State kept hitting jumper after jumper on the way to a big lead.   

Utah rallied in the second half, and the best sense of Ute fans afterward was that of relief rather than pure joy for holding off the pesky Bengals.

Consider that game — ultimately a 74-66 loss for ISU — part of a campaign by Idaho State basketball to garner the respect they don’t have.

The Bengals must have earned some after upsetting San Francisco on its home court 93-90 in overtime. But it’s questionable how much. USF head coach Rex Walters said after the game, “We are awful defensively. We're not good on the ball or on the backside. I'm beside myself. At some point we are going to have to take some pride in guarding the basketball."

Walters continued, “For us not to show up tonight is so disappointing."

That’s what happens when teams lose to ISU. It’s not that the Bengals played well or that Chris Hansen, Hatchett or Tomas Sanchez made shots. It’s that opponents think they played poorly — down to “Idaho State’s level.”

Considering how well ISU played during stretches of the Utah game, perhaps the Bengals’ opponent Saturday, Washington, will look at them more seriously?

“Hopefully not,” Sanchez said. “Hopefully they look over us like everybody else does. We’ve kind of embraced that underdog attitude.”