Let’s face it, college athletics is a mess right now.

But that’s no reason not to enjoy the good times when you can.

I came home from broadcasting the Idaho State men’s basketball team’s victory over Montana State Thursday night and immediately proclaimed to my wife: “Winning is so much more fun than the alternative!”

Imagine my giddiness on Saturday night, then, when the Bengals bounced back from an eight-point halftime deficit to destroy Montana, a team that has absolutely owned ISU over the years.

You knew it was a special night because ISU head coach Ryan Looney started fist-bumping those of us on press row with about two minutes still left in the game. By that time, the Bengals had buried any hopes the Grizzlies might have had to inflict win No. 29 in their last 30 games against ISU.

Instead, ISU started a new winning streak — victory No. 1 and who knows how many more to come.

That’s the thing about Idaho State athletics — the big victories are so few and far between, they feel extra good when they happen. And when they happen over Weber State in football in Ogden, like they did last fall, or over the Grizzlies in basketball anywhere, like they did Saturday, well there’s every reason to paint the town orange.

By the way, Jon Match, ISU’s sports information director, tells me the last time ISU won a football game in Ogden and beat both Montana State and Montana in men’s basketball in the same school year was during the 1974-75 campaign. It’s only happened four times in ISU history.

I don’t know if they’ll win a conference championship, but there is something special about this Idaho State men’s basketball team. After losing nine players to the transfer portal last season and only returning two players who saw time, expectations were pretty low for this team.

And if we’re all being honest, the constant coming and going of athletes is sucking the life out of college sports for a lot of folks. As this season progresses, the two dirty words — “transfer portal” — will hang over this Idaho State team, just like it did after ISU won two conference tournament games for the first time in years last season. Which was followed by the mass exodus of starters Maleek Arington, Miguel Tomley and Kirie Huie.

My plea to ISU fans, though, is to forget about the possibility that our best players may leave for higher competition and bigger name, image and likeness money after this season — and just enjoy this ride for what it is. This is an extremely entertaining collection of athletes that Looney managed to scrap together in a few weeks’ time last spring, when it became clear his roster was being devastated by the portal.

Without question, the two fan favorites are transfer portal refugees themselves — Dylan Darling, who came to Idaho State after two seasons at Washington State, and Jake O’Neil, who arrived as a graduate transfer after a successful career at NAIA College of Idaho.

Darling, the crafty sophomore point guard, is a prime example of the necessity to never burn recruiting bridges. Looney recruited Darling hard during his high school career in Spokane and actually got a commitment from him before Washington State came in at the last minute with a scholarship offer. It’s hard to resist a chance to play in what was then the PAC-12, especially at a school so close to home. So Darling trooped off to Pullman, but his experience there was less than satisfying. He didn’t play much, or particularly well, as a freshman, then missed most of last season to injury.

When the PAC 12 collapsed around Wazzu and his head coach, Kyle Smith, headed to Stanford, Darling hit the transfer portal and Looney already had him on speed dial.

The 6-foot-1-inch Darling has been one of the best all-around players in the conference, ranking first in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.89), second in assists (5.79), fourth in free throw shooting (81%), sixth in scoring (15.86) and seventh in steals (1.57) and minutes played (31).

In conference games only, Darling leads the Big Sky in scoring at 20.4 points a game.

Darling arrived in Pocatello with a chip on his shoulder and he is exorcising the demons that haunted him at Washington State.

“I had kind of a crazy first two years (at Washington State),” Darling told me before the season began. “I didn’t perform like I wanted to my freshman year. My sophomore year, injuries derailed me. I think this is a big year for me personally, just to prove, really to myself, that I can still play — that I’ve got gas left in the tank.”

Even though he’s rather slightly built, Darling brings the toughness Looney seeks from his point guards, and that he’s built this year’s version of the Bengals around. Darling missed two games earlier this season with an ankle injury, but rehabbed diligently so that he could return to action in time for conference play.

In his return performance at NAU, Darling single-handedly outscored the Lumberjacks 20-16 in the final 13 minutes of the Bengals’ comeback win.

Then he hurt his shooting hand while driving against Weber State a week ago, but didn’t let that affect him in wins over Montana State and Montana. In those contests, Darling played 70 minutes, averaged 16 points, distributed 13 assists to just two turnovers, had 10 rebounds and five steals.

Then there’s O’Neil, the athletic 6-4 wing player — actually, it’s kind of misleading to attach any kind of position to the Fruitland native. He’s just a basketball player — a tough, athletic, physical, driven basketball player.

He blocks shots, guards the other team’s best offensive player, chases down unsuspecting layups by opposing players, dunks in traffic and rebounds like a man possessed. He’s second in the conference in rebounding and leads the Big Sky in offensive boards.

“He’s a winner,” said Looney after the Montana win. “At the end of the day, that’s who he is. I actually have talked to his coach at the College of Idaho where he played before transferring here. I told him I honestly think the things that Jake O’Neil does, whether he’s playing at Highland High School, College of Idaho, Idaho State, Boise State — his stats would look the same at all levels. He is who he is and he does what he does. He would be a nightmare matchup at any level.”

As much fun as Darling and O’Neil are to watch, there are complementary players who have been just as engaging, particularly in the recent Montana sweep. Forward Isaiah Griffin carried ISU offensively in the first half of the Montana win, scoring 15 points and winding up with a career-high 23. His partner up front, Connor Hollenbeck, another graduate transfer, went off for an ISU-high 22 points in the win over Montana State, then stoked the second-half fire with 13 of his 15 points in the final period against Montana. For his efforts, Hollenbeck was named the Big Sky Player of the Week.

Redshirt freshman center Evan Otten, an impressively athletic, if still inexperienced specimen at 6-11, gets his licks in, too, leading the conference in blocked shots and igniting the crowd with the occasional slam dunk.

AJ Burgin, Jackson Greene and the rest of the bench have had their moments this season, as well. Five different Bengals have scored more than 20 points this year, and this is probably as balanced a team as Looney has put on the floor in his six seasons at Idaho State.

The Bengals’ two signature wins so far have been coming from 19 down to win at Northern Arizona and the 50-17 second-half beat down of the Grizzlies. The “what could have been” moment was leading for the vast majority of the game at first-place Northern Colorado, only to lose in overtime by a single point.

Nothing is a given in the Big Sky Conference and I fully expect Sacramento State and Portland State to give the Bengals all they can handle on this week’s road trip. But I get the sense that no matter what happens, with the inherent toughness of this team, the Bengals will make it a competitive road trip. Then they return home for games against Eastern Washington and Idaho, and I would urge anyone who wants to see entertaining basketball to plan to attend those contests.

And to observe my new rule: For the next seven weeks, until the completion of the Big Sky Tournament in Boise on March 8-12, no complaining about college athletics.