She was Idaho’s top girls hoops player a year ago. Now she’s going to NCAA tourney — maybe
Tricia Binford didn’t need any convincing when she saw Darian White play basketball for the first time.
There was a familiarity to White’s game that the Montana State coach recognized immediately.
“It’s funny because we play the game very similarly,” said Binford, who is a former Boise State and WNBA standout. “Obviously, she’s never seen me play, but it’s probably one of the reasons why I loved her so much as far as the way I see the game, how fast I want to play the game, how we want to push the ball. I love the fact that she’s a single press breaker, and then we’ve just continued to refine the things that she already had.”
But even Binford couldn’t have predicted how far White would come in a single season.
White was named the Big Sky Conference’s Freshman of the Year earlier this week, and the Mountain View High graduate and the Bobcats (25-6) were headed to the NCAA Tournament before it was canceled. The Big Sky canceled its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments Thursday amid concerns over the spread of coronavirus, and the Bobcats were awarded the league’s automatic NCAA bid. Top-seeded Montana State (25-6) was originally scheduled to play No. 2 Idaho (22-9) for the title Friday at CenturyLink Arena.
White has started all 31 of the Bobcats’ games this season and was averaging 12.5 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.4 steals per game going into Wednesday’s 76-71 semifinal victory over Northern Arizona. The 2019 Gatorade Idaho Player of the Year has scored a team-leading 19 points in both of the Bobcats’ tournament wins.
“I had no idea that I was going to be playing (this much),” White said. “I knew coming straight in that I’d have to work hard just to see the floor maybe for a couple minutes. But working hard every day, it’s really paid off. Me and my teammates are working hard, supporting each other, and it’s gotten us far.”
Notice how quickly White turns the conversation from “me” to “we.” That’s one of the reasons she’s transitioned so seamlessly on a senior-laden team.
“When we signed her, we had five returning seniors, and after the summer was over and as we got through mid-October practices, we actually sat down with our captains about the fact that Darian was going to start,” Binford said. “She immediately won the upperclassmen over because of her work ethic, how she practiced every day and the fact that she was a great teammate. The seniors made it work, and Darian made it work.”
White’s success this season hasn’t been limited to the Big Sky. Through Tuesday’s games, White’s 2.43 steals per game ranked No. 32 in all of Division I — and No. 2 among freshmen — and her 76 total steals moves her into a tie for 25th. She’s established a reputation as the Bobcats’ defensive stalwart on the perimeter, and that ability was on full display against the Lumberjacks.
White scored 15 of her 19 points in the second half, including nine in the fourth quarter. With NAU threatening to make it a one-score game, White had a steal and layup to push the Bobcats’ lead to 74-68 with 1 minute, 48 seconds to play. She then grabbed a steal on NAU’s inbound play with 18.3 seconds left and Montana State leading just 74-71.
“She’s hard to explain. The kid is timely. She’s a winner. She’s special,” Binford said. “When we need stops, she finds ways to get a steal. When we need points, she finds a way to get to the rim. She finds her teammates, and this team is just having a lot of fun together.”
The 5-foot-6 White is often the shortest player on the court, just like her coach once was, but she’s rendered that measuring stick irrelevant.
“I was told I’m too small my entire life to play Division I basketball,” Binford said. “What I look for No. 1 is heart and competitiveness. No. 2, you can’t coach her speed, you can’t coach her competitiveness, and those things are off the charts. Size doesn’t matter for us.”
Her senior season at Mountain View, White and the Mavericks finished with a record of 25-1, absorbing their only loss in the 5A state championship game. With her current team on a program-record, 17-game winning streak, White has embraced the win-or-go-home scenario of the Big Sky Tournament as a chance at redemption.
“It fires me up. It motivates me to not let that happen again,” White said. “I want to give everything I have to not let that happen again, to not let my girl score on me, to take the shots when I need to, when they’re counting on me. I want to be that player that they can count on.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
