Last year at this time, it was pretty obvious who the standout newcomer was at Idaho State summer basketball workouts.

That would be point guard Dylan Darling, who went on to become Idaho State’s first Big Sky Conference Most Valuable Player since the great Lawrence Butler in 1979.

Darling has moved on, as we know, and this summer’s standout newcomers are not quite as obvious — but they are there, nonetheless.

Of the nine new faces in Bengal camp this summer, who will have the most immediate impact when the season tips off on Oct. 24? If I had to guess just on what little information we have from a couple of weeks of workouts and some background information, I’d list two top candidates, followed by two dark horses.

My first choice for the biggest impact is Gus Etchison, a 5-foot-11-inch, 150-pound point guard who is transferring in from Division II Marian University in Indiana. Etchison is a scorer by trade − averaging nearly 23 points a game as a junior − so he may not be the kind of distributor who racks up the assist numbers that Darling had.

But he’s extremely athletic − coaches tell me he had a running vertical jump of 47 inches during camp testing − is aggressive offensively (you don’t score 33 points in a half without having the killer instinct), and if he wins the starting point guard job, he’ll be touching the ball a lot.

All of that assumes that Etchison will beat out fellow transfer Jamison Guerra, a 6-foot point guard who is coming in from Oregon Tech. Guerra’s numbers indicate he’s pretty much the polar opposite of Etchison in style — “a pass first,” point guard who led the NAIA ranks in assists one season while averaging almost seven a game.

It’s a good problem for Bengal head coach Ryan Looney to have — deciding between an excellent distributor and an established scorer at the point guard position, but my guess is that Etchison will get the first call.

That leads us to prime candidate No. 2 — center Caleb Van Di Griend. The 6-8 transfer from Minot State already arrives with some pretty impressive numbers. Last season Van Di Griend was a Division II All-American, leading the nation in rebounding (13.1 per game), recording 30 double-doubles and shooting an impressive 71% from the field.

“Caleb is a great back-to-the basket player — and a really good rebounder, too,” said Looney.

The only thing that may allow Etchison to outperform Van Di Griend, at least in my mind, is that Van Di Griend will have to share playing time with three other excellent post players for the Bengals — Evan Otten, the Big Sky freshman of the year last season; Blake Daberkow, who came on strong late in the season; and Connor Hollenbeck, who preceded Van Di Griend as the starting post player at Minot State before transferring to Idaho State last season.

If everybody stays healthy, Idaho State should have one of the more effective post crews in the Big Sky Conference.

What about those dark horse candidates for best newcomer?

I would go with two lengthy wing players — 6-7 transfer from UC San Diego, Quin Patterson and Lachlan Brewer, a 6-6 transfer from Sacramento State. Either one of those two could earn starter minutes at the wing. I was particularly taken by watching Patterson drain about five 3-pointers in a row after the workouts I watched last week.

Of course, they’ll both have to beat out Cheikh Sow for minutes. The 6-7 Sow sat out last season as a junior college transfer due to a knee injury. He’s back practicing in half-court situations and is expected to be fully cleared by the time fall practice begins. Sow doesn’t have the pure shooting stroke of Patterson or Brewer, but he has a year of participating in practices and picking up Looney’s system. He’s also a good rebounder for his size, averaging 7.6 boards a game to lead his junior college team.

“We’ve got a lot of length − and two small point guards,” Looney noted during team drills last week.

And a lot of candidates for newcomer of the year.

Speaking of Newcomers

Pocatello native Isiah Harwell, the first Idaho native to earn McDonald’s All-American honors while playing at Wasatch Academy last year, will be making his collegiate debut at Houston this fall.

But at least one national talent evaluator doesn’t expect the son of former Bengal Ron Harwell to hang around the college ranks for long.

Sam Vecenie, who evaluates talent for The Athletic website, issued the first iteration of his 2026 NBA Mock Draft this week, and he lists Harwell as the 21st pick by the Houston Rockets next June.

“Harwell has always been one of my favorites in this class, a big, physical guard who has skills to match his power game,” Vecenie wrote. “He missed a year with a torn ACL injury but came back with a vengeance and affirmed his status as one of the best guards in the class. He doesn’t have an enormous bag of tricks or any particularly impressive shiftiness, but he is efficient and methodical in how he gets to his spots and understands how to be a real three-level threat. He accepts contact well, can stop and pop from the midrange and improved his range beyond the 3-point line. Defensively, Harwell is tough and will certainly be able to play within Houston’s scheme.”

Former Bengal Steve Hayes, an Aberdeen native, currently holds the record for most NBA games played by an Idaho native — 212. If Harwell lives up to his billing, he may break that record in less than three NBA seasons.