The popular Monson had coached at nearby Pasco High School for nine years and senior center Kelvin Smith was a PHS Idaho made a lengthy trip to South Carolina in January for a nationally televised   Several days after the NIT loss in Corvallis, Monson expectedly left his alma mater for the University of Oregon in Eugene; he led the Ducks for nine seasons in the Pac-10, with three NIT appearances. Assistant coach Barry Collier applied for the Idaho vacancy, but athletic Bill Belknap hired Bill Trumbo, a junior college head coach from northern ; the Vandals returned to the cellar of the conference in each of the next three seasons and attendance In March 1986, Trumbo was succeeded by Tim Floyd, an assistant under hall of fame head coach Don Haskins at   With Monson for all five seasons at Idaho, Collier joined him at Oregon for three more, then was at Stanford for three seasons under Mike Montgomery. He became a head coach at his alma mater Butler in 1989, led the Bulldogs for eleven years, then went to Nebraska for six seasons. This ended the best four-year stretch in the history of the program; the freshmen that entered in the fall of 1979 (Brian Kellerman, Phil Hopson, and reserve Ben Ross) and Monson led the Vandals to an overall record of and three national postseason appearances. (In each of the previous five seasons of the late 1970s, Idaho had finished last in the Big Sky.) A four-year starter, Kellerman was first-team all-conference for three years (honorable mention as a and was the Big Sky player of the year as a sophomore, the second of three consecutive years in which that honor went to a Vandal guard. (From the Tri-Cities, Kellerman was the player of the year in Washington as high school senior in 1979, but was passed on by the Pac-10 schools.) For the four seasons, Idaho had a home record of with a 43-game winning streak. With only two home games, they went overall against the four Northwest schools of the Pac-10, the strongest at the time was Oregon State; the Beavers won three of the five. Oregon dropped all three, the Cougars lost the last three, and Washington the last two. The Vandals also swept all four games from Gonzaga, (with hall of fame point guard John Stockton for the last and won consecutive Far West Classics   !colspan=9 style=| Big Sky Tournament !colspan=9 style=| National Invitation Tournament