Matt Weiner (@mattweiner20) – Basketball Beat Reporter
Photo via Titus Wilkinson of The Spear
Fresno State head coach Justin Hutson handed true freshman power forward Robert Vaihola a harsh, life-altering suggestion following the conclusion of last season.
“He wanted me to leave because I guess he wanted older guys and he wanted me to go to JUCO [junior college] for a year and then come back to Fresno after I went to JUCO,” said Vaihola.
The idea of a severe demotion was enough for Vaihola to enter the transfer portal and put Fresno State in the rearview after just one season.
“It was like, ‘Shoot, I know what I’m capable of. If you’re not messing with me, you don’t know or you don’t believe in me that’s fine. We could be done,” said Vaihola, who officially entered the transfer portal on April 20 of last year.
A head coach did believe in Vaihola and his capabilities:
Tim Miles from San Jose State.
“I felt at home here. I felt wanted,” said Vaihola.
Vaihola has responded to Miles’ belief by playing a key role in SJSU’s ‘you have to see it to believe it’ turnaround.
On Tuesday night, in Vaihola’s first ever return to Fresno State’s Save Mart Center, the Spartans have a chance to clinch their most total wins since the 2016-17 season and sixth conference win, it’s second-most in the last 12 seasons.
Entering the season, SJSU (14-9, 5-5 MW) had won just eight total conference games in the last five seasons combined and have finished with a winning percentage above .223 only once since joining the Mountain West in 2013.
Meanwhile, Vaihola’s become the eighth leading rebounder in the Mountain West (six boards per game) and secured the second most offensive rebounds per game (2.5).
At Fresno State, he averaged 1.5 points and two rebounds per game in 6.9 minutes per game while backing up First Team All-Mountain West center Orlando Robinson, now a member of the Miami Heat.
Vaihola’s vacuuming around the rim have helped SJSU rank ninth nationwide in rebound margin (7.8) and first in the Mountain West. In SJSU’s 8-23 overall and 1-17 conference finish a year ago, the Spartans were 330th nationwide and second to last in the conference in rebounding margin.
The pendulum has swung the opposite way for Fresno State.
The Spartans have leapt up 230 spots in Kenpom, now ranked 103rd while the Bulldogs have fallen 93 spots, sitting at a Mountain West-worst 166.
Fresno State followed up last year’s 23-13 season, which ended in a postseason tournament win, to being 8-14 overall with eight games left to play. With Robinson’s exit, a drop off was to be expected, but not like this.
Fresno State’s descension, and SJSU’s transcension, were on full display when the Spartans curbed an 11-game losing streak to the Bulldogs at home last January, 74-64.
It was Vaihola’s first time sharing the floor with his replacements – senior center Isaih Moore from Southern Miss and junior center Eduardo Andre from Nebraska – and a coach who envisioned him playing community college around this time.
Matters were personal.
Vaihola hoped his teammates knew just as much, too.
“I was telling everybody, ‘We not losing this game. Come correct or don’t come at all.’”
Staying true to his word, Vaihola “came correct” scoring 12 points on a 6-for-7 day from the field, securing seven rebounds, two on the offensive end and ended with a floor-high +17.
“I was just making sure everybody was coming with the same energy that I was coming with that day,” said Vaihola. “I really didn’t want to lose that game.”
What Hutson did wasn’t outrightly malicious or unjustifiable. It was a page out of “The Godfather.”
It’s nothing personal — it’s strictly business.
It’s Hutson’s team, but in a business where life and work are so tightly woven together it did take its toll on Vaihola.
“He went through a traumatic experience there where he did lose trust in the system of college basketball and maybe some of the adults that are involved in it,” said SJSU assistant coach Damany Hendrix.
When Vaihola committed to Fresno State as a late signee on May 3, 2021, it was done over Zoom without stepping foot in Fresno.
A late bloomer on the recruiting scene at San Francisco powerhouse Archbishop Riordan, his recruitment and connection to Fresno State was done through Bulldogs assistant coach Tim Shelton.
“At the time, the assistant coach was saying all the right things and it looked like a good fit,” said Toby Merchant, who’s a trainer, coach and mentor for Vaihola.
“Unfortunately, the assistant coaches can love somebody, but if the head coach doesn’t that puts a dent in things.”
Without Shelton, Vaihola wouldn’t have been lacing up for the Bulldogs.
There was still a possibility, albeit an unlikely one, that Vaihola would return to Fresno State despite Hutson’s brutal year-end review. Done under the guise that Shelton would still be there. Or so Vaihola thought when he picked up a phone call from Shelton after entering his name into the portal.
“He was like, ‘Yeah I just got a job offer at Oregon State,’” Vaihola recalled.
When that call finished, Vaihola marked it as the “breaking point” for his career at Fresno State.
A former Second Team All-State Selection as well as a San Francisco Chronicle San Francisco Player of the Year, Vaihola had interest right off the bat.
“When he hit the portal coach [Miles] was like, ‘Let’s get Rob done,’” recalled Hendrix, who had ties to Northern California’s AAU circuit and developed a rapport with Merchant through playing in adult leagues against him.
Vaihola vividly remembers being taken aback when Miles made the hour drive up to his home in San Mateo County to catch up at a local Starbucks. “That was new to me. I was like, ‘What the hell, we’re getting coffee?’”
“It was just nice knowing that the head coach would come out himself because the head coach at Fresno was not really a part of my recruitment as much. It was mostly just the assistant [Tim Shelton].”
SJSU and Vaihola fit like a hand in a glove.
Vaihola needed a head coach’s loyalty, while the Spartans had a crater-sized hole in their disastrous rebounding and general down-low presence.
Hendrix saw Vaihola as a “guy that had a skillset, had some size, had some toughness and understood how to play the game.” Everything the Spartans needed.
They offered Vaihola a chance to play against Mountain West’s top-tier competition that’s an hour drive away from his family.
“His family support is out of this world,” said Merchant.
During SJSU’s historic 5-5 start to conference play, Vaihola’s become SJSU’s leading rebounder with 6.8 rebounds per game and third-leading scorer with nine points per game.
With a healthy supply of minutes, Vaihola and his old-fashioned approach to the game have flourished.
He sparingly takes shots outside the restricted area, lives down low and feels comfortable existing in pick-and-roll situations with SJSU guards Omari Moore and Alvaro Cardenas.
“Coach Miles, his thing was like, ‘We brought you here to be you,’” said Hendrix.
No better example than his game-winning put-back against Ball State in the Baha Mar Hoops Tournament earlier this season.
The parting of ways doesn’t mean there’s any ill-will held toward Fresno State as a whole.
“I love all of my people in Fresno,” said Vaihola.
His departure nested in not having the support he needed from a head coach.
Support was found. He just needed to fly an hour north.
“I’m happy where I’m at right now of course though.”
Matt Weiner reached out to a Fresno State spokesperson for comment from head coach Justin Hutson on Tuesday, Jan. 31, but didn’t receive an answer back.