Idaho guard Kolton Mitchell making the most of newfound opportunity with Vandal men’s hoops

Your casual Idaho basketball fan divides Kolton Mitchell’s career as BNC and ANC — Before Northern Colorado and After Northern Colorado, when Mitchell scored 25 points and made a 30-foot last-second winning shot against the Big Sky Conference-leading Bears on Jan. 23 that became an ESPN play of the day.

More invested Vandals fans would point to Dec. 18 and 21, when Mitchell scored 26 points against UC Davis and 32 against Pacific, respectively.

And the dedicated Mitchell admirer would look back to March 2023, when Mitchell, current University of Virginia center Blake Buchanan, and former UI linebacker Zach Johnson teamed to lead Coeur d’Alene’s Lake City High to an undefeated season and the Idaho Class 5A boys basketball state championship.

The narrative thread running through all of this is that Mitchell, a marginally sized point guard, rose to the challenge of big opportunities to show he was more than big enough to play.

As Idaho heads into a rivalry matchup with Eastern Washington in Cheney on Saturday — with a one-game lead over the Eagles in the Big Sky standings for fifth and sixth places — Idaho coach Alex Pribble has a different view.

Pribble said of his starting guards, Mitchell, a redshirt freshman, and Kristian Gonzalez, a sophomore, “Coming into the season, the ask of them was to always be learning, always improving. Now it is time for you guys to be playing a little older. Both are doing a great job of that.

“(Mitchell) has the confidence and the swagger to make plays when our backs are up against the wall.”

Mitchell is listed on the roster as 6-foot-1 and he said he’s 160 to 165 pounds. That made him an average-sized high school guard.

Mitchell said following his career at Lake City he got a lot of looks from Division I teams but was routinely told he was too small, too slow and not strong enough.

The only team willing to take a chance was Idaho State. He spent his freshman year with the Bengals and got into 10 games as the first player off the bench, he said, before a finger injury sidelined him for the season.

“After I got hurt, I realized how much being at home was important to me,” Mitchell said.

He has nothing bad to say about ISU.

“It just didn’t work out for me,” Mitchell said. “There is nothing personal between us.”

But Mitchell entered the transfer portal and said he was in it for only about an hour before he got a phone call and an offer from Pribble to join the Vandals.

He waited a week and listened to other offers, including one from current Washington State coach David Riley, who was then coaching EWU. Riley had told Mitchell out of high school he was too small to play Division I basketball, but Mitchell said when he was in the portal Riley told him, “I don’t think that anymore.”

Mitchell took Idaho’s offer, though.

“I haven’t regretted one single moment of it,” he said. “I love this university. I love the town of Moscow. I love being close to home.”

The Vandals are a tight bunch, the players regularly say. According to Mitchell, while his teammates all enjoy hanging out together, last summer they especially enjoyed hanging out on weekends with Mitchell, whose family has a cabin and a boat at Coeur d’Alene.

“Having the guys over was great times,” Mitchell said. “But for some of the California guys the water was a little cold early in the year.”

In his mind, Mitchell said, the games against UC Davis and Pacific were defining. They convinced him he was good enough to play Division I.

He is averaging 11 points and 3.4 assists per game, and his concept of playing point guard for the Vandals has broadened beyond being a scorer.

“I just like the point guard position,” he said. “It is like being the quarterback on a football team.

“I make sure everyone knows the plays. I make sure everyone is not losing their mind if someone goes off on a run. I make sure we are unified.

“I do whatever the team needs from me.”

As a scorer, though, he brings more than a reliable 3-point shot to games.

He knows how to change pace when he is handling the ball, which he said is a necessary skill for a shorter player. He’s also fearless about attacking defenses and going to the basket.

“In my mind, I have to be aggressive, especially in the paint, or I am going to get bullied,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said he paid only passing attention to Idaho and Moscow while growing up. His sister attended Vandals volleyball camps, and his older brother played high school football in the Kibbie Dome, and his Lake City basketball teams played Moscow.

“(Moscow) is a hard place to play,” Mitchell said. “We got beat there on a buzzer beater when I was a freshman.”

The local team he followed was Gonzaga. Now, before his Idaho career concludes in three years, he wants to play against the Bulldogs.

“I told (Pribble) that is No. 1 on my bucket list,” he said. “That is the team I watched growing up. I want to play in the Kennel.”

Mitchell said he wants to see the Vandals close out their final six regular-season games on a run and head into the Big Sky Tournament with momentum.

“I am someone who wants to do it now,” Mitchell said. “Go to March Madness this year. Win the (Big Sky) tournament. People have seen spurts of our team and how good we can be.”