There came a point in Idaho State’s latest contest, a 63-39 romp over Montana Tech Tuesday night, when Callie Bourne did what she usually does. She ripped the ball out of an Oredigger’s hands, raced down the floor, opening things up in transition, ready to make the right pass — like she so often has in her five years at ISU.
Then something strange happened. When Bourne passed the ball, she did so to Kacey Spink, a freshman. Spink laid the ball up and in, helping the Bengals balloon their lead even wider in this win, but the magic wasn’t in the play. It was in its personnel.
As he enters his 15th season at ISU, very rarely has head coach Seton Sobolewski dealt with these circumstances: 11 newcomers. Four new starters. He played six true freshmen in this game. It’s all very new to the Bengals, who for so long built their success on experience, relying on veterans who could draw on previous games to help them in current ones.
Not so with this team. Over the offseason, ISU (2-3) turned over almost its entire roster, losing some players to graduation and others to the transfer portal. That cost the Bengals lots of their most experienced players, sure, but it also forced Sobolewski to tinker with some of his coaching tactics. No longer can he run the number of sets he did with past teams. More often, he drills fundamentals with these players.
“When you have an older team, and you make an adjustment, they pick up on it really quick. There’s one conversation and then the adjustment is made,” Sobolewski said. “And these guys, it has to be demonstrated and talked about and shown film and reiterated — as it is with young people. As it is with inexperienced people. So, from that standpoint, the pace of what we’re doing is a lot slower. We have very few set plays compared to years past just because I’ve gotta be careful how much I put on their plate.”
On Tuesday, that showed. ISU’s veterans chipped in — Bourne totaled a team-best 14 points and Finley Garnett tallied 10 — but so did the new pieces. Spink scored nine points in 27 minutes. Transfer forward Laura Bello posted two points and six rebounds in 18 minutes. True freshman Bridee Burks played 24 minutes, carding three points, three rebounds and four assists.
Two takeaways there: One, ISU will have no choice but to play newcomers significant minutes, which will be part of Sobolewski’s challenge this season. Two, those numbers might not raise many eyebrows, which concerned ISU’s head man. He liked his group’s defense, which held Montana Tech to 30% shooting and 25 turnovers — “I thought we were really scrappy,” — he said — but the other side of the ball didn’t impress as much.
‘We’re still working on the offense. We’re still working on the chemistry,” Sobolewski said. “It gets a little rocky sometimes when we start subbing and put young people in there, but games like this are good for us to keep working through all that stuff.”
The Bengals needed it. Their season is young, but it has been grueling. After opening with a blowout win over Division II Westminster, ISU suffered road losses to the following teams, in order: USC, UC Santa Barbara, Washington. The Bengals feel like they learned plenty from those games — the game checks weren’t bad either — but the truth is Montana Tech more closely resembles the Big Sky teams ISU will measure itself against.
Either way, though, so many of these players are learning on the fly. None may be more impactful than Spink, a true freshman from Spokane, who Sobolewski never anticipated starting — “I did not anticipate any of the freshmen starting,” he laughed, before acknowledging that because of the roster makeup, at least one likely had to.
“It’s very different. It’s a lot faster,” Spink said. “I’ve had to learn to be a lot stronger in different ways. I’m not the strongest-built person. So I’ve learned to be quick, and just be strong with the ball in different ways. I’ve really focused on the little parts of the game, like crashing hard and trying to not let my person score on defense.”
The good news for Spink is she can rely on seniors like Bourne, who scored her 1,000th career point in this win. She wasn’t aware she was close to the milestone until Monday’s film session, she said, until Bello tipped her off.
“You know you’re 13 points away, right?” Bello told Bourne.
“From what?” Bourne responded.
“And then,” Bourne said, laughing, “she was like, you’re gonna get 1,000 points. I was like, oh, OK. I was like, I wish she didn’t tell me that.”
The longer Bourne sticks around, the more freshmen she’ll have to mentor — and the more accolades she’ll have to acknowledge.