Big Sky Basketball: In-depth look at Idaho State star big man Brayden Parker
By Bryan Mauro
It is time for another installment of the “Mid-Major Breakout player”. The first three weeks took us to the Atlantic Sun, America East, and the Atlantic 10, and week number 4 takes us to the Big Sky conference. The difference this week between the other weeks so far is the player this week plays for a team that likely won’t win many games, and while they may finish in the top half of the league, nationally they are going to be irrelevant. The player is also a long shot to win the conference Player of the Year but he is still due for a huge breakout.
It has been 37 years since the last time that Idaho State made the NCAA tournament and in that time they have only had a winning record five times. If everything goes according to plan this season, the fans in Pocatello should be treated to a better season and it should be a season where on Bengal gets the recognition that he should have gotten before. Brayden Parker is a graduate transfer big man who enters his final season as one of the better Bengals in the last 10 years.
It has been a long time since any Idaho State player has had the preseason expectations that their big man has for this season. Hopefully, head coach Ryan Looney can get his team to play well around Taylor and make sure that he is impacting the game whenever he is on the floor. There may not be another player in the country who is going to get the kind of usage that Parker is going to get when he is on the floor.
He makes Idaho State better and with a breakout year, he can find himself on the all-conference teams as well as making sure the Bengals finish in the top half of the Big Sky for the 3rd time in the last four years.