New man in charge for the Vandals

Mar. 21—It's officially the dawn of a new era for the Idaho men's basketball team.

The Vandals introduced new head coach, Alex Pribble, on Monday in the Alumni Club Room at the Idaho Central Credit Union Arena.

Pribble joins UI after serving as associate head coach for four seasons at Seattle University.

Idaho's athletic director, Terry Gawlik, introduced the 37-year-old Fairfax, Calif., native and talked more about the coaching search.

Gawlik said more than 50 candidates applied; 12 receiving interviews over Zoom. Following the interviews, the list was narrowed down to four.

"Out of those four, despite what social media might say, until Thursday night, we had not offered, discussed, or negotiated with anyone," Gawlik said. "Thursday night, that day that we talked to coach Pribble, our group made a unanimous decision (to hire Pribble)."

Pribble spent the last four years on Chris Victor's staff at Seattle, where he helped the Redhawks win more than 20 games in back-to-back seasons.

Prior to that, he was the head man at Saint Martin's University, where he led the Saints to season-high wins in consecutive seasons.

"The foundation is here for tremendous success," he said. "It's an area that I've been in for the last 10 years and I'm comfortable recruiting here. Add the academic caliber of this school, and it's a special place and a place I want to raise my family."

Pribble replaces Zac Claus, who was fired Feb. 27 after the Vandals fell 68-53 to Montana in the final regular-season game. Claus went 28-88 in four seasons as UI's coach.

Here are some other things we learned after meeting Pribble:

A player's coach

Pribble made sure to let everyone know during his opening statement that Idaho's program is going to be about the players.

He's valued relationships with his players at every stop during his 15-year coaching career. While on stage, he told a story about receiving a wedding invitation from a former player on Thursday. Those are the kinds of relationships that he hopes to build with the Vandals.

"We're going to invest in our guys from day one," Pribble said. "We're going to do anything that we can to help them be successful. Our coaching staff will help them grow. We're fully committed to their development as players and as people."

How the players perform in the classroom will also be important to Pribble. During the news conference, he rarely referred to the athletes as "players," instead calling them "student-athletes."

This doesn't come as a surprise given his track record. Every year while at Saint Martin's and Seattle, his team finished the season with an accumulative GPA of 3.0.

"I'm going to help these players reach their potential as students," Pribble said. "Academics is going to be something in which we take pride in our program. We have a specific policy in place where our players will have the resources they need to be successful."

Winning at the highest level

Over the last 10 years, Pribble has helped turn around three struggling programs. His goal at Idaho is no different.

"We are here to compete for a championship," Pribble said. "That's why we're here. The potential is here, the framework is here, the facility is here, and we have the leadership in place to compete for championships."

With all the resources seemingly in place, the biggest question is how he will get it done. He cited a "standard of excellence" in the classroom, on the court and in the community. He intends on instilling his standard of excellence one day at a time. Pribble isn't searching for a quick fix; he's looking to bring lasting success to the Vandals.

Xs and Os

Pribble described the way Idaho will play in 2024 as an "exciting brand" of basketball. According to Pribble, the biggest difference will be on the defensive end.

"That's where our intensity and physicality is going to show up," he said. "Defense is all about culture and identity. We're going to compete and be passionate on both ends of the court."

Pribble's coaching staff has yet to be formed, but he's already received an overwhelming amount of interest.

"I received 100s of text messages from people who want to be here," Pribble said. "We're going to take our time and make sure we have the right group of coaches in place to support our student-athletes the way they need."

When it came to the transfer portal, he went back to the idea of lasting success and not looking for a quick fix.

"We're looking for core players who want to be a part of a successful program," he said. "We want to be trailblazers here and do something that hasn't been done in a long time, and we want to make sure we bring in student-athletes that are bought into that as well."

Pribble is returning to the Big Sky Conference after a 10-year hiatus. He was an assistant at Eastern Washington in 2013-15.

While in Cheney, the Eagles won a conference championship and were led by the nation's leading scorer, Tyler Harvey. Since then, Eastern Washington has sustained its run of success and Pribble has the same vision for UI.

"The biggest thing is that it feels like the right fit," he said. "I feel my last 10 years have really prepared me for this role. I spent 10 years building championship programs in the Northwest and I hope to do the same thing here."

Pixley may be contacted at (208) 848-2290, tpixley@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @TreebTalks.