Over the years, the two 25-foot statues of Northern Arizona’s mascot Louie the Lumberjack have served as gathering spots and Instagram hotbeds alike outside of Flagstaff’s Walkup Skydome. Idaho State coach Ryan Looney did neither of those things when he saw the massive figurines of “Paul Bunyan,” as he called Louie.

The Bengals team bus passed the big Louie statues constantly during its trip to the Grand Canyon State last weekend, a few days that concluded with a sweep of the Lumberjacks. Each time the bus neared the gargantuan replicas of NAU’s mascot, Looney made sure the bus driver honked.

The imposing structure of a lumberjack wielding an ax represents Northern Arizona. If Louie was white-knuckling a saw, the metaphor would have been more on-point for ISU. But it was close enough. It served as a perfect example of what Looney wants from his players, a close reflection of the team’s slogan — the one it seems to fit into every social media post — saw wood.

So the bus honked at the real-life representation of the culture Looney wants to spark in Pocatello.

“Sawing wood is one of the toughest manual-labor tasks you can perform,” Looney said. “It requires some consistency. It requires you to be in a good rhythm. With that, that’s the message we try and send every day. It’s pretty simple. We need ‘saw wood’ guys on our team or more guys who are willing to saw wood. We want them to be consistent and in a good rhythm.”

Over the last few weeks, that culture has translated to the court amidst rocky circumstances. The Bengals (6-5, 3-1 Big Sky) started the year 0-4. It had a quartet of games canceled because of opponents’ COVID troubles. Then the virus hit ISU for the second time this year, halting a two-game set with Weber State.

Yet, after all that, ISU went to Flagstaff, honked at some inanimate objects and played its best basketball of the season. It wasn’t perfect basketball — the Bengals lost big leads in both games and needed to squeak out tight victories — but it was impassioned and team basketball.

For a young coach guiding a down-ridden program, that’s a welcome sign for Looney.

“There has to be a point where all the players’ buy-in and collectively move each other in the right direction. It’s pretty simple,” he said. “I think we’re in a stretch right now, regardless of who the opponent was — Big Sky or non-Division I — we’ve won six of our last seven games. Our players have a whole lot more confidence right now than they did a month ago.”

That part is evident. The Idaho State team of 2020 is a far cry from the one that showed up in Flagstaff. Turnovers were limited. There was constant movement in their half-court offense. And with Daxton Carr taking on more minutes in a starting role, the Bengals’ defense has the length to stifle opponents.

All that has made Idaho State’s margin for error larger. One small deficiency or poor performance won’t completely rule out the Bengals, as it did during the season’s onset.

Center Brayden Parker scored a combined 47 points against Northern Colorado two weeks ago and the Bengals left Greeley with a split series. Against NAU, Parker followed up his Big-Sky-Player-of-the-Week output with two games recording less than five points.

And it didn’t matter.

Tarik Cool stepped up in the first game, knocking down half of his 10 shots for a team-high 20 points. Two nights later, guard Austin Smellie tallied a career-high 24 points, including two clutch triples to ice the Bengals’ sweep.

In both games, though, it was hard to miss Robert Ford III. The 6-foot point guard out of Clackamas CC (Oregon) has arguably been the Bengals’ MVP through 11 games. He leads the team in rebounds (7.2 a game), assists (4.1), steals (1.3) and, scoring-wise, ranks second (12.5 ppg).

“I think it’s the reason we wanted him,” Looney said. He can impact the game in a positive way without ever scoring a point. He’ll play hard on defense. He’ll go after the ball when it’s shot. Great rebounder for his size. He’s learning to get other players involved when defenses might take him about of it. He’s just a unique player with how he can impact winning.”

In other words, Ford has quickly proved to be “Saw Wood” guy. The more of them who litter Idaho State’s roster, the more optimism springs as the Bengals dive into the meat of their Big Sky season.