Lance moving on

After spending just one season at Idaho, Carson City resident Lance Buoncristiani will transfer and continue his collegiate basketball career at another school.

Buoncristiani's desire to transfer was confirmed on Wednesday by his father Adrian Buoncristiani, an assistant coach at Galena High.

"It just wasn't a good fit," said Adrian, the former coach of Gonzaga University. "Lance appreciates the opportunities Idaho gave him."

If Lance does transfer, he would have to sit out one season before playing. He has not used his redshirt season.

Adrian said Lance, who will finish out his freshman-year classes within a month at Idaho, doesn't know which school he will now attend. Lance had indicated to Adrian he was potentially interested in transferring another Big West school, but that is unlikely as a transfer within the Big West Conference would, due to a conference rule, force the point guard to sit out two seasons rather than one.

"The real issue is receiving a scholarship for a redshirt year," Adrian said. "There are a lot of places Lance is interested in, we're just not sure of the needs at those schools for point guards."

Buoncristiani could transfer to Nevada without losing two seasons, as the Pack is scheduled to join the Western Athletic Conference next season. But the Pack does not appear to have a scholarship available for a point guard.

Santa Clara, another school Buoncristiani would likely be interested in because his friend Brian Vaka plays for the Broncos, also does not have a scholarship available for a point guard.

Although he would preferably like to transfer to a NCAA Division I program, another option for Buoncristiani would be to attend a junior college next season. If he were to attend a junior college right away, Buoncristiani could play next winter, but he would then have only two seasons of eligibility remaining should he transfer back to a Division I program.

Two Idaho junior colleges and one Oregon junior college have expressed an interest in Buoncristiani. One of the Idaho schools was Southern Idaho, where his former teammate Matt Seibrandt played last season.

"Right now, everybody is fishing for players and Lance has to find the right match," said Galena coach Tom Maurer, who will help Lance in his search for a new school. "He's interested in any program, not any specific program. When he comes back, we'll sit down and get a game plan."

At 5-foot-8, many people believed Buoncristiani's size would hamper him defensively against Division I players. But Maurer and Adrian both felt Buoncristiani dispelled that idea during his freshmen season. For example, Gonzaga's Matt Santangelo shot only 3-for-14 when being guarded by Buoncristiani.

"Many people had doubts that Lance could play at this level, but no one went off on him," Adrian said.

"He did a good job against all of the teams I saw him play against," Maurer said.

For a freshman, Lance saw plenty of playing time. Before he was sidelined late in the season with an appendectomy, he was averaging nearly 30 minutes a game. He finished the season with an average of 21.8 minutes per game and led the Vandals with 73 assists.

A likely reason for Buoncristiani's desire to transfer was the fact he was given a limited role within coach Dave Ferrar's Vandal offense. Despite playing in 27 games for the 12-17 Vandals, Buoncristiani took only 103 shots from field and averaged 3.7 points per game - a far cry from his senior season at Galena, when he accounted for 65 percent of the Grizzlies' points.

"I would like to see see Lance playing for a very good, intellectual coach who does more running," Maurer said.