Rob Spear Quotations

We desperately need a home game, and we're frantically trying to find one.

Mike (Kramer) had a very productive interview. I love his energy and his passion. I really like what Mike Kramer brings to the table... And the thing I love most is that he's an Idaho Vandal.

Nick has to do what's best for him. I'm doing what's best for the University of Idaho.

What we want to do is bring someone in from a proven system and we want to bring someone in who could hit the ground running. We feel we have the nucleus of student-athletes here to be successful. We are not going to take a step back.

His plate's pretty full right now. He's not hurting for opportunities.

He just thought that he needed to stay at Gonzaga so he's withdrawing from the search.

I think it's going to open up. Would you be interested?

I think his interest level is pretty good or he wouldn't be coming to interview.

What we've done in this process is been very thorough. We talked to NBA coaches, Division I coaches and my contacts across the country. The theme was that that we have a good guy right down the hall.

We've identified a short list. ... We're already involved in the interview stages, and we're well on our way to having our coaching position filled in the next five to 10 days.

We sincerely appreciate Coach Perry's passion for the game of basketball and his love and commitment to the University of Idaho. But we have decided we need to move in a new direction.

We're disappointed we're losing Nick. But we're Vandals, so we're excited about a Vandal getting an opportunity at the next level.

We're disappointed Nick is leaving, but we are Vandals, and we support Vandals. We wish him the best, and we're moving forward.

We are obviously thrilled. We have been searching for some time for a league that will provide us with what I would call geographic integrity. That geographic integrity does several things for us.

The rivalry helps our recruiting. We're very competitive with them in most programs. With the exception of football.

Sometimes you can go through the process and realize the best candidate is right under your nose.

They've done a wonderful job here. We're doing everything we can to keep our current assistants on staff.

It's a credit to Leonard how hard the kids played. They competed their tails off tonight against a team that was a lot more talented than us. That's something Leonard needs to be very proud of.

It's unbelievable. Our ticket sales are going like hotcakes.

I have several other candidates that are good prospects, so onward and upward.

I love how Mike has built up programs at Montana State and at Eastern Washington. I love his passion, I love his energy and I love that he's an ex-Vandal.

His high level of energy is infectious. I'm so confident we have the right guy.

You watch what Nick has been able to accomplish in one year, how much we've improved, and we're going to continue to get better. And I really like the direction that our basketball program is going. Eventually we're going to be a very competitive program in all our sports in the Western Athletic Conference.