Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
Idaho State
Wildcats and Bengals meet Saturday night in Pocatello
1/10/2025 10:02:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Weber State and Idaho State tipoff at 6 p.m. Saturday on ESPN+.
• Weber State concludes its Big Sky road trip to start conference play with a showdown against longtime rival Idaho State on Saturday night.
• The Wildcats and Bengals will tipoff at 6 p.m. Saturday from Reed Gym in Pocatello. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ and the ESPN app.
The Weber State radio broadcast with Carl Arky will be on 103.1 FM "The Wave".
Live stats are available at WeberStateSports.com and the Weber State Wildcats app.
• Weber State enters Saturday's game with a 6-10 overall record and an 0-2 mark in Big Sky play. The Wildcats lost at Northern Colorado and Northern Arizona to start conference play.
• Saturday's game will be the fourth game of a four-game road trip for the Wildcats. WSU is the only team in the conference to begin Big Sky play with three-straight road games.
• This game will mark return of a Wildcat to his former team. WSU senior transfer Miguel Tomley spent the last two seasons as a player at Idaho State, before transferring to Weber State prior to this season. In his two years with the Bengals, Tomley averaged 13.2 points per game and made 123 3-pointers. Last season he led the conference in 3-point percentage and 3-pointers per game and scored 26 points with six 3-pointers in ISU's win over Weber State in Pocatello. He was also named to the All-Tournament team at the Big Sky Tournament.
This season, Tomley has started all 16 games for the Wildcats and is second on the Wildcat team in scoring at 11.4 points per game. He has also made 34 3-pointers and ranks fifth in the Big Sky in 3-pointers per game at 2.1. Tomley has played in 108 career college games.
• In last Saturday's game at Northern Arizona, another Wildcat senior transfer, Vasilije Vucinic, recorded a career-high. Vucinic was 7 of 11 from the field and a perfect 5 of 5 from the free throw line for a career-high 19 points against the Lumberjacks. It was his seventh game this season scoring in double figures, including three of the last four games. He also grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.
Vucinic has played in all 16 games and started the last six for the Wildcats. He leads the Wildcats in field goal percentage, shooting 64.6 percent from the field and is averaging 4.9 rebounds per game.
• Blaise Threatt continues to lead the Wildcats and has scored in double figures in all 16 games. He is fourth in the Big Sky in scoring at 16.9 points per game and ranks second in steals, fifth in assists, fifth in minutes played, fifth in assist to turnover ratio, and eighth in field goal percentage.
• Idaho State enters Saturday's game at 6-7 overall and 1-1 in conference play. The Bengals had non-conference wins over San Diego and Oral Roberts and started Big Sky play with a win at Northern Arizona, followed by an overtime loss at Northern Colorado.
ISU leads the Big Sky and is third in the nation in rebounding margin at +12.7. The Bengals are also seventh in the country in offensive rebounds at 15 per game and 18th in overall rebounds at 41.1 per contest. Idaho State is also 15th in the country in blocked shots at 5.5 per game.
• The Bengals were 14-20 overall last season and finished in a tie for seventh in the Big Sky at 7-11. ISU won two games and advanced to the semifinals of the Big Sky Tournament.
• This will be the 135th all-time meeting between the two rivals since Weber State became a Division I school. The 135 games is the second-most for the Wildcats against any school in its history. Weber State and Idaho State are both charter members of the Big Sky Conference.
• Weber State holds an 85-49 all-time series edge over Idaho State, but the Bengals won both games played last year and have won three of the last four games against the Wildcats. ISU won in Ogden and Pocatello last season.
In games in Pocatello, the series is deadlocked at 31-31. The Wildcats have won six of the last 10 games played in Pocatello.
• The Wildcats are coached by Eric Duft who returns for his third season as head coach and his 19th season overall at Weber State. He spent 16 seasons as an assistant coach under Randy Rahe before becoming the 10th head coach in WSU history in May 2022. Weber State won 20 games last season that included Big Sky MVP Dillon Jones who led the conference in points, rebounds, and assists. Jones was the 26th pick in the first round of the NBA Draft by the Oklahoma City Thunder. Jones joins Damian Lillard as the only two Wildcats ever drafted in the first round of the NBA Draft.
• All five of Weber State's seniors will have played in at least 100 career games. Blaise Threatt (129 games), Dyson Koehler (127), Alex Tew (109), Miguel Tomley (108), and Vasilije Vucinic (104) have all played in at least 100 games in their college careers.
• Weber State has nine players coming from six different countries on this year's roster. The 'Cats have three players from Canada, two from Serbia, and one each from England, Finland, Montenegro, and Japan.
• After the first three conference games on the road, Weber State will play six of the next eight games at home, starting with two home games next week against rivals Montana on Thursday, January 16 and Montana State on Saturday, January 18.
• At the January 18 home game, Weber State will honor the 1995 Wildcat men's basketball team on the 30th anniversary of their historic season. The Wildcats won the Big Sky title, Big Sky Tournament, and beat Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament in 1995. Several players and coaches from that team will be in attendance at the January 18 game.
