Idaho is seventh in the Big Sky standings heading into Saturday's game and Montana State is 10th. The Vandals bring the second-highest scoring average in the conference at 77.3 points per game and the league's fourth-best scoring margin of +1.8. Montana State averages 63.9 points per game and has been giving up an average of 71.5.

The Vandals are coming off a double-overtime thriller over Montana, that knocked the Grizzlies out of a tie for first in the league, while the Bobcats lost at Eastern Washington as the Eagles regained a share of the conference lead.

The rivalry between the Vandals and Bobcats is one of the oldest in Idaho basketball history. The two schools first played in 1917. Idaho has a 102-78 edge in the series. That advantage includes this season's 80-71 victory at Bozeman earlier this month.

Michael Dison leads MSU with 14.4 points per game – 11th in the Big Sky, with Eric Norman the team's leading rebounder with an average of 7.3 per game – fourth in the Big Sky.

ABOUT THE VANDALS
Connor Hill has put his name in the record books as the most prolific 3-point shooter in school history – and in the NCAA. He averages 16 .2 points per game and has 91 3-point goals so far this season. He has four of the top seven 3-point totals in school history and, with at least three games to play, could break the all-time single-season record of 99.

Mike Scott, Idaho's senior point guard and team captain, is among the nation's assist leaders and assist-to-turnover ratio leaders. He has 145 assists and likely will crack the all-time single-season top 10 this year. He also is the Vandals' second-leading scorer with 14.4 points per game.

Sekou Wiggs rounds out the double-figure scorers for Idaho with his average of 12.3 points per game.

Bira Seck is Idaho's top rebounder with 7.2 per game to go with 7.8 points per game. True Freshman Arkadiy Mkrtychyan comes off the bench for 8.9 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.

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 109-110 overall and has a 66.3 (65-33) 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.

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.