ALLEN, Texas — I’ve decided not to wear my tie into the building.



The Idaho Steelheads coaching staff noticed. They approve of the decision.



“No tie,” head coach Neil Graham says. “Now you really are a member of the Steelies.”



Three days earlier I had arrived in the visiting coaches’ office at Allen Events Center already wearing my tie at 4 p.m. It quickly became a point of conversation with Graham and Steelheads assistant coach Everett Sheen, who told me to “relax a bit, we’ve got lots of time before the game.”



The office is a simple room nestled across the hall from the locker room.



There’s a television mounted to the wall with the in-arena feed. A folding table is set up against the one wall, while another folding table with a few chairs is set up in the middle of the room where Graham and Sheen prepare for the game.



There’s a restroom attached with a mirror,...