Monday, February 19, 2007.

I liked Nick Jezierny’s tie-in with the number 11 in his Statesman game story on Boise State 83-82 win over Albany Friday night. In fact, my son Ricky and I were talking about just that at halftime, when Gerry Washington was being wheeled out on the court to be honored by the crowd of 4,300 and receive his framed no. 11 jersey. The current 11, Anthony Thomas, had just launched a near-halfcourt buzzer-beater to give BSU a four-point lead at the break. Thomas had earlier wowed the throng with a behind-the-back pass that Reggie Larry converted into a monster jam. The freshman guard was bonding with the fans the way Washington used to in the late 90’s. Thomas, of course, hit the winning three-pointer in the final minute to cap a game that had an incredible 33 lead changes.

The BracketBuster event has taken some shots as being a waste of time. It very well might be for those teams not in the TV field, matched up against mediocre competition (that would fit BSU’s profile a year ago when it was matched up with mid-level Big West member Cal State Northridge). But you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who was in Taco Bell Arena Friday night who regrets going. Albany was game, despite its prolonged in ordeal in getting here. The Great Danes were amazingly active defensively and did not wear down.

George Karl has taken advantage of just about every little window in the Denver Nuggets schedule to watch son Coby play for the Broncos this season. The NBA All-Star break gave him a chance to assume his customary spot in the section behind the Bronco bench Friday night. Coby’s far too mature to let his dad’s presence affect his play, but he was off his game against Albany. Karl was 2-for-9 from the field and missed his only two free throws. Add in the San Jose State game a week ago, and Coby is 3-for-19 versus BSU’s last two Division I opponents. Here’s another oddity. He and Matt Nelson are two of the more dependable Broncos—they combined to go 3-for-14 against the Great Danes, while the rest of the team was lights-out at 30-for-44.

News of Chris Petersen’s proposed contract revision immediately hit the national wires Friday and beyond. All the state board of education had to do was post details of the five-year, $4.25 million dollar deal, and the math was done: if Boise State wins 12 games this year, Pete tops a million. His base will be $850,000, with a $161,500 bonus for a 12-win season. That’s a meteoric rise for a program that was paying $157,500 a year just five years ago when Dan Hawkins was coach (Hawk got it up to half a mill before he left for Colorado).

Sports Illustrated printed three letters to the editor in this week’s issue about the recent feature on Boise State’s trick play trio that brought down Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. One guy from Niles, MI, says for inspiration he watches the end of the game every day on YouTube. Another from Elkhart, IN, pays tribute to the comment from Oklahoma’s Rufus Alexander that “it was an honor just to play in that game.” And there’s this from Mark Sievers of Lincoln, NE: “While reading your article on Boise State’s amazing win over Oklahoma, I was thankful that college football does not have a playoff. Imagine hearing afterward, ‘Great game, Boise State. Good luck next week.’” I’m with him. For the Broncos—and football fans everywhere—it was the perfect ending.

The Idaho Steelheads may have found a launching pad to the stretch run of the ECHL season with their performance against Las Vegas over the weekend. The Steelheads erased the bitter taste of a home sweep at the hands of the Wranglers 2½ months ago to take two out of three games from the league’s second-best team. The rubber match Saturday night was a defensive gem, as the Steelies allowed only 16 shots on goal—two in the second period. And only one made it past goalie Steve Silverthorn, who recorded his 23rd win of the season. The Steelheads have a President’s Day matinee this afternoon at Utah.

The Idaho Stampede can call their 24-year-old guard from Alabama-Birmingham “Roundabout Ronell” Taylor right now. Get a load of the about-face Taylor did in back-to-back games at Arkansas the end of last week. On Thursday he went 0-for-11 and the Stampede lost, snapping their NBA D-League record 12-game road losing streak. Then Friday he scored 27 points with 11 rebounds and six assists as the Stampede stopped the RimRockers, 112-105. Furthermore, he was summoned to Las Vegas for Saturday’s D-League All-Star Game when a hamstring injury kept teammate Randy Livingston from making the trip. The Stampede’s other All-Star, Peter John Ramos, also missed the Vegas extravaganza when went down with a knee injury in the second quarter of Friday night’s win at Arkansas.

Going into the National Team Indoor Championships, Boise State tennis coach Greg Patton said BSU “wants to play the big dogs—we’re in the dog pound now.” Well, it was a sobering experience—the Broncos got run off the porch in a 4-0 loss to Ole Miss and a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Texas. BSU did salvage a 4-1 win over Penn yesterday in consolation, and Luke Shields was named winner of the tournament’s Sportsmanship Award. Patton says he was “disappointed, but not disheartened” by the trip to Chicago. “This national tournament was basically like graduate school for our team to be able to become a dominant team in the nation. For a team that consists of entirely of juniors, sophomores, and freshmen this is what we need.”

This Day In Sports…February 19, 1984:

Brothers Phil and Steve Mahre make history by winning the gold and silver medals in the Olympic slalom at Sarajevo. Steve has the fastest first run, but Phil’s combined run is 21-hundredths of a second faster than his brother’s. That story matched Bill Johnson’s upset win in the downhill as the biggest of the 1984 Winter Games. The biggest story of those Olympics now is the tragedy that has befallen Sarajevo since then.

(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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