1979–80 Idaho Vandals men's basketball team


The 1979–80 Idaho Vandals men's basketball team represented the University of Idaho during the 1979–80 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Vandals were led by second-year head coach Don Monson and played their home games on campus at the Kibbie Dome in
After five consecutive seasons in last place in the Big Sky Conference, the Vandals were expected by most to stay but climbed up to second in the final standings and qualified for the four-team conference tournament for the first
In non-conference games, the Vandals fell to Oregon State, Washington, and neighbor Washington State, but had wins over Penn State, Oregon, and Nebraska. The Cornhuskers traveled to the Kibbie Dome in early led by former Vandal head coach Joe Cipriano, stricken with cancer. The attendance was 5,500, the second-largest attendance for basketball on campus at
Idaho lost their first three conference games in early January, then won nine of eleven to end the regular season at and overall. An NIT invitation was likely if they won their first game of the Big Sky tourney at Ogden, Utah.
The Vandals met Montana in the semifinals, whom they had swept in the regular season, but lost the third meeting on the neutral court. Sensing that Montana was a less formidable opponent in the finals for host Weber State, the Ogden fans sided with Montana and the Grizzlies outscored the Vandals 16–2 in the final five minutes and won by The loss in the semifinals cost them an NIT bid; Idaho missed the postseason and finished at It was their best season in seventeen years, since Gus Johnson packed Northwest gyms and led the Vandals to a record in 1963, Cipriano's final season as
The overtime loss to Boise State on January 12 was the last home defeat for the Vandals for over three years, until

Roster

Schedule and results

!colspan=9 style=| Big Sky Tournament