Without a big man the Viking’s season will be good but not great

As basketball practice heats up, Head Coach Ken Bone instructs the team to split into separate groups with big men lumbering down the court to work on interior moves and the perimeter players conducting a shooting drill on the near basket.

If you were scouting the team, there would be no use venturing to the far basket to watch the big men practice their drop-steps and jump hooks.

Because the Vikings success this season rests on the shoulders of just four players, and it just so happens that each of those talents play on the wing.

Seniors Jeremiah Dominguez and Andre Murray form the best starting backcourt in the Big Sky Conference.

Add the ever improving play of the able Phil Nelson and the brilliant play of Dominic Waters off the bench, and the Vikings could probably match up favorably with any four players from Pacific-10 schools or even some national powerhouses.

Heck, the foursome certainly demonstrated their character and competence in a Dec. 23 victory at Gonzaga, just the Bulldogs’ third loss in 58 games played in their home gym.

In that contest, the four players accounted for 66 of the 77 points that the Vikings had to put up to beat the perennial powerhouse.

But their outstanding performances have only highlighted the Vikings one glaring deficiency: a man in the middle.

The departure of graduated center Scott Morrison from last year’s squad coupled with the ineligibility of 6-foot-10 center Donatas Visockis, who transferred from Butte Junior College, have left Bone’s squad without a backbone.

Bone, like any basketball fan, knows that fancy dribbling and three-pointers are nice, but championships are often won or lost in the paint.

While it was Dominguez who got and deserved much of the credit for the Vikings tear through the Big Sky in 2008, Morrison’s defensive presence and rebounding were just as important.

Jamie Jones and Julius Thomas have been forced to fill in at the center position, where their overmatched frames—both players come in at 6-foot-7 or under—have been serviceable but foul prone against talented opposing post players. 

Junior “power forwards” Kyle Coston and Tyrell Mara seem content with watching the rest of the squad guide the Vikings back to the promised land of March Madness. 

Coston looks like a shade of the player that hit big shot after big shot and played aggressive defense en route to earning a spot on the Big Sky All-Tournament team.

The tallest member of the starting lineup this season at 6-8, Coston is averaging less than seven points and four rebounds per game.

Outside of an occasional post up and jump hook by Jones, the guard-heavy lineup is forced to rely on a perimeter game, which comes mainly from behind the three-point arc.

Portland State players have attempted 399 three pointers going into this weekend’s action, compared to just 275 attempts from their opponents.

Despite posting a solid 12-4 record, the Vikings are being consistently outshot from the field by their opponents. Included in that telling statistic is the fact that Coston and Mara are hitting less than one of every three shots.

Does the glaring lack of big men mean instant doom for the team that will likely roll over Big Sky foes for the next several weeks?

No, but it does spell trouble come March for two reasons.

If you rely on the perimeter game and the three-point line to help win, they will also likely lose you games even with the accurate Waters, Nelson, Murray and Dominguez hoisting up shots.

What if the foursome has an off game on March 10 when the Vikings will be likely playing in the Big Sky semifinals?

The more problematic issue is that this team, despite a victory in Spokane, will probably do no better than a 15 seed when the NCAA Tournament field is announced.

That means the squad will be matched up, again, with a powerhouse team from an elite conference.
It could be Duke, UCLA, Wake Forest or somebody else.

But unless Dominguez, Waters, Nelson and Murray are playing four on four, the opponent will not matter.
Without some big bodies inside, the Vikings can only go as far as the Big Sky takes them.