Tuesday, February 13, 2007.

Why even bother playing Montana-Western tonight? Because, as Boise State coach Greg Graham says, it’s better to play a game than practice, and the Broncos are one short after the cancellation of the Colorado State matchup in December. Montana-Western, a 7-19 team, is not meant to draw 5,000 people—it’s not meant to appease fans as an equal trade for CSU, a Mountain West opponent and the most attractive foe on the Broncos’ home schedule next to BYU. Hey, it’s just nice of Montana-Western to come down here; it’s an exhibition for the Bulldogs. And if you want to see the scoreboard light up, this might be your night. The visitors have allowed 100 points five times this season, including a 129-120 loss to Albertson College.

Nevada basketball is approaching air as rarified as Boise State football, having jumped to 10th yesterday in the USA Today Coaches Poll and 11th in the AP rankings. It’s the highest ranking for a WAC team since Utah was sixth in the final AP poll of the 1998-99 season. Now the Wolf Pack just has to do something fantastic in the postseason. Coach Mark Fox wants Pack fans to ride the wave and has appealed to them for sellouts in Nick Fazekas’ final three home games. One of them is tomorrow night against San Jose State, then there’s a BracketBuster game Saturday afternoon versus Northern Iowa. Nevada then has road tests at Idaho, Boise State and Utah State before Senior Night March 3 against New Mexico State (already sold out).

There are many ways to look at college football recruiting season, and Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union-Tribune has one worth a gander. He talks about the struggling San Diego State program and its inability to get over the hump. But, Canepa says, “It can be done—if done right. If done smart. Boise State did it, continues to do it. And Boise State plays football on a blue carpet, in Boise, Idaho, where there isn't a Mission Beach or La Jolla Shores. Chargers and Padres aren't in their neighborhood. All they have are football players who love the game. Think about it. How many Boise State athletes can start on, say, Oklahoma, where blue chippers come whistling down the plains? And yet, which team won the Fiesta Bowl? Which used football ingenuity over brawn and ESPN? Well, guess?”

Canepa goes on to say that BSU recruits football players, not superstars, but that these days there should be plenty of those good football players to go around. “So there aren't many Boise States. Why not? BSU's patent isn't pending on all this.” Canepa basically gets it. The difference between the Broncos and other non-BCS teams is the good judgment in the players they choose, and what happens to them after they get here.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Dan Hawkins has found his replacement for Chris Strausser, who returned to Boise State last week. Hawkins is bringing BYU offensive line coach Jeff Grimes to Colorado. Grimes coached with Hawk under Dirk Koetter at BSU on the 2000 Big West and Humanitarian Bowl championship team. Grimes then followed Koetter to Arizona State and assisted there three seasons before moving to Provo.

Fresno State is getting a lot of scheduling items put to bed. The Bulldogs aren’t totally backing off the “anybody-anywhere-anytime” theme, agreeing to a game at Texas A&M this September and a season-opening date at UCLA in 2008. They’ve also set up a home-and-home series with Cincinnati starting in 2009. If you’re planning on going to Fresno for this fall’s Bronco-Bulldog, you can eliminate November 24 as a possibility. Fresno State’s home game with Kansas State has been moved to that day to accommodate ESPN. The Bulldogs have been using two-for-one deals to get marquee opponents to the San Joaquin Valley—they have Wisconsin coming in next year and, of course, had Oregon in last season.

To Oklahoma’s credit, it acted quickly last August by dismissing quarterback Rhett Bomar and offensive lineman J.D. Quinn and casting its lot with converted wide receiver Paul Thompson at QB. To the Sooners’ discredit, according to the NCAA, they failed to adequately monitor the off-season jobs of several players during the academic year. And now OU has received notice of the NCAA allegations and is scheduled to appear before the NCAA's Committee on Infractions on April 14 in Indianapolis. The Sooners, of course, started a bit slowly but jelled with Thompson and company as the season progressed, winning the Big 12 championship before the you-know-what on New Year’s Day.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and that’s where any talk of love ends as the Idaho Steelheads and Las Vegas Wranglers plan their evening. The Wranglers will be too tired to think about anything except hockey anyway after having to face the best team in the ECHL tonight—they play the Alaska Aces, then high-tail it to Boise. Vegas has to turn right around and play the Steelies tomorrow, Friday and Saturday. Regardless, it’s a turning point week for Idaho. The Steelheads are facing a team that swept three games from them on its last Qwest Arena visit. And they need to protect their turf in the standings, with their sights set on a top four seed in the National Conference Playoffs to get home ice advantage in the first round. Right now the Steelies have the fourth-best record in the conference…by a point (with a lot of hockey left to play).

This Day In Sports…February 13, 1971:

Boise State plays its first basketball game against the University of Montana in its first season as a Big Sky member, and Bronco forward Ron Austin scores 42 points—a school record that still stands. BSU beat the Grizzlies 98-74 that night, and Austin went on to average 24½ points per game for the season—another record still in the books.

(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment Sunday nights at 10:30PM on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on 1350 KTIK/The Ticket. He also handles color commentary on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football.)

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