Call it a transition year for UI men's basketball

It's not often that fans see their basketball team go from the second-oldest team in the country to virtually the youngest.

It's so rare in fact that Idaho men's coach Don Verlin has never experienced that degree of turnover in his nearly three decades as a college basketball coach - until now.

"I don't think I've ever had that as a coach," Verlin said. "But there's also a lot of good because they're youthful and they're excited to play and so there's a lot of really good things with that as well."

Gone are six seniors and, potentially, Idaho's top seven scorers from a year ago. That number includes senior forward Nate Sherwood, who is expected to miss the season as he deals with psoriatic arthritis. Sherwood averaged 9.5 points and 4.7 rebounds per game last season.

"I would say the outlook is bleak, but I'm going to be optimistic and hope he's able to - for a lack of a better term - have a miracle and later on this season (maybe) return to the team," Verlin said. "He's been great with the team. He's helped with his leadership and we're going to use him and try to benefit from him with whatever capacity he can bring."

That leaves junior point guard Trevon Allen as the most experienced Vandal this season and it's a role he's embracing. The Lapwai product earned valuable minutes during his freshman and sophomore campaigns, playing in all 64 Idaho games.

Allen started 11 games as a freshman, averaging 5.1 points and 2.1 boards per contest. His numbers dropped slightly to 4.2 points and 1.9 rebounds per game last season with the return of starting point guard Perrion Callendret from injury.

"It's a role I've been anticipating and ready for," Allen said of his leadership role. "I feel like it's something I can do - help lead this team based on my experience and been through with the guys I played with before. I'm not really too nervous or anything like that. I'm excited for it."

The young Idaho squad opens the season Nov. 2 with an exhibition game against Lewis-Clark State at Memorial Gym. The regular season opener follows Nov. 6 at UC Irvine.

Without Sherwood, Allen is the only upperclassman on the squad who has been with the Vandals his whole career. Fellow junior Marquell Fraser joins from Midland College in Hamilton, Ontario.

Allen should have point guard on lockdown, but as for the rest of the starting positions, "There's a battle at every spot," Verlin said.

"There's a lot of playing time to be had out there," he said. "You just gotta go earn it."

Fraser, a 6-foot-4 guard, figures to be in the mix after averaging 17.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game and shooting 57.3 percent from the floor last season at Midland. He was a three-star recruit and the No. 2 overall Canadian prospect out of high school.

Other players vying for the guard spots include sophomore Geno West, who played 10 games last season; freshman Cameron Tyson, who has impressed in scrimmages; freshman RayQuawndis Mitchell, who has been a pleasant surprise as a late signee, Verlin said, and Pac-12 transfer Xavier Smith from Oregon State.

Tyson and Smith follow the footsteps of two other recent Vandals. Tyson went to Bothell High in Bothell, Wash., the same school as Callendret, and Smith went to O'Dea High out of Seattle, the same school as former Vandal Sekou Wiggs, who now plays in the NBA G League.

"Cameron Tyson, a phenomenal scorer out of high school ... broke a lot of (NBA star) Zach Lavine's scoring records," Verlin said. "He shot the ball very well.

"(Smith) went to O'Dea and he played for coach (Jason) Kerr who, we've had some guys from in the past. A good solid program and obviously spent a year with coach (Wayne) Tinkle at Oregon State, so he's obviously got some experience and is a little older."

At the forward spots, the Vandals may turn to 6-8 redshirt freshman Jared Rodriguez of Glendale, Ariz. Rodriguez has had a year to settle in and learn the system and it's shown early in the preseason.

"For him not playing last year coming in as a redshirt freshman, I think he's done a lot," Allen said. "He's done really well at his position, rebound the ball, playing hard defensively, understands his role on the team so far - I think he'll be a huge contribution."

Other big men on the roster include 6-9 sophomore Scott Blakney, 6-9 freshman Cassius Smits-Francisco and 7-footer Tomas Domingos of Portugal.

Allen said for such a young team, he's surprised at how quickly the team chemistry has started to come together in the offseason and preseason practices.

"Honestly, working with these guys is pretty easy because I have a lot of hard-working teammates," said Allen, a Clarkston High graduate. "They are young, but they want to learn and they want to get better and I think that's something you can't teach."

Verlin said a big focus for Idaho early is on the defensive side. The Vandals pride themselves on their shut-down defense and were second in scoring defense in the Big Sky last season at 68.8 points allowed per game. Idaho also led the conference in rebounding margin (plus-6.3).

"We've gotta be the best defensive and rebounding team in the conference," Verlin said. "We've been pretty good there the last three years. That's probably been an area that we've gotta do a lot better job than we have in our scrimmages. I'm excited to watch us play and see where we need to go from (here)."

Stephan Wiebe can be reached at swiebe@dnews.com and (208) 883-4629.