ABOUT THE GAME
Monday's game is a rematch of the late November game between the Vandals and the Norse. Northern Kentucky won that game, 79-74, at Moscow. Idaho is coming off an 86-39 victory over Walla Walla University, while NKU won 83-60 at Morehead State last Friday.

The Norse are led by Tayler Persons, who averages 12.6 points and 4.1 rebounds per game.  Since winning at Idaho, NKU has gone 2-3 with the victory at Morehead State and a home win over UC Clermont. The Norse have home losses to UT Martin and West Virginia as well as a road loss at Chattanooga.

NKU is a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference, which also includes Florida Gulf Coast, South Carolina Upstate, North Florida, Lipscomb, Kennesaw State, Jacksonville and Stetson.

ABOUT THE VANDALS
Senior guard Mike Scott has the Big Sky Conference's best and the nation's second-best assist-to-turnover ratio with 4.75 assists to each turnover. He is the league's assist leader (32nd nationally) in assists per game at 5.7 and the total assists leader (30th nationally) with 51. Bira Seck in the league's leader in double-doubles with three, which is 39th nationally.

The Vandals are proving to be a strong rebounding team with Seck second in the conference (20th nationally) in defensive rebounds per game with 6.75 and total rebounds (38th nationally) with 10.4 per game.

Connor Hill hasn't lost his outside touch and remains among the nation's and conference's best. He is second in 3-point attempts (93) and 3-pointers made (four per game), which has led to his being second in 3-point percentage as well (.430).  He is second in NCAA Division I among active career 3-pointers made with 259. San Diego's Johnny Dee leads the current active players with 297. Oakland's Travis Bader (2010-14) has the NCAA record with 504.
 
HEAD COACH DON VERLIN
Verlin is in his seventh season with the Vandals after 15 seasons as an assistant at Utah State University. He is 102-101 overall and has a 64.8 (59-32) winning percentage at home. With the Vandals' victory over Walla Walla University, he became the all-time winningest coach at Idaho. He surpassed Charles Finley (1947-54) and David MacMillan (1920-27) - both with 101 career victories.

TAKING TO THE SKY
Idaho returns to the Big Sky Conference, where it was a founding member in 1963. The Vandals staying in the Big Sky was from 1963-1996. They were in the Big West from 1996-2005, and the Western Athletic from 2005-2014.