Tuesday, March 20, 2007.

It turns out the stretch run of Boise State’s basketball season was as burdensome as it was a year ago for Coby Karl. The Broncos’ All-WAC guard will undergo surgery at St. Alphonsus in two weeks to remove cancerous lymph nodes discovered in January. It is said to be an extension of the thyroid cancer that forced surgery last March to remove Karl’s thyroid, and “prognosis for recovery is excellent”, according to BSU. The timing of the surgery will allow Coby to play in the NABC All-Star Game in Atlanta on March 31 during Final Four weekend—and let him recover in time for the NBA Pre-Draft camp after Memorial Day. Just like last year, Karl elected not to tell his teammates about the cancerous nodes until after the season concluded.

Because of who Coby is, George’s son, and because of his accomplishments as a player, the Associated Press story has picked up across the country, through and including today’s New York Times. In the 11 days since BSU’s season ended in the WAC Tournament, we haven’t properly put a wrap on Karl’s Bronco career. He ended up third all-time in scoring with 1,698 points, trailing only Tanoka Beard and Steve Connor. Coby is also the Broncos’ career leader in three-pointers with 256 and in games played with 127. He’ll go down as one of BSU’s greats.

UNLV has snuck up on America. Who’d a thunk the Rebels would ever be anonymous? But it’s another example of “be thankful for what you’ve got” for WAC schools—even with the sometimes strained relations between the conference and ESPN. Luke Winn gets the UNLV coming-out-of-nowhere phenomenon right in his Tourney Blog at SI.com: “Mostly, I blame the Mountain West's TV contract; the Rebels played one game on ESPN (ESPN2, actually) all season—and that was only because they were potentially the backdrop for Bob Knight's record-breaking victory in December (they postponed the General's party).

Winn points out that “the rest of their contests appeared on either CSTV, which isn't on standard cable in reasonably important media cities such as New York and Atlanta; The mtn., a regional subsidiary of CSTV, or Versus, which is more well-known for televising the Tour de France.” Winn thinks that’s why UNLV was only a seven seed. The Mountain West is a better top-to-bottom conference, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say the league has a real crisis on its hands with its TV situation.

This story got notice around the nation yesterday, too: BSU’s quest to sell naming rights to Bronco Stadium for $10 million, give or take (they love those blue turf stories). The first thought is what a natural it would be for one of Boise’s corporate giants to put its name on the stadium. Micron would work, but that company has already poured a lot of money into the university this year. Let’s see…Morrison-Knudsen. Uh, no. Ore-Ida, Boise Cascade—history. Albertson’s? Now we’re talkin’. If Fresno State can have the Save Mart Center, why can’t Boise State have SuperValu Stadium? Sure to make Joe Albertson turn over in his grave.

Alaska cannot be caught by the Idaho Steelheads—the Aces have clinched the ECHL Western Division title already. But there are other benefits to playing the ECHL’s best team head-to-head. Coach Derek Laxdal will get a good gauge on his team’s playoff readiness as the Aces come to town for a three-game series tomorrow night. It’s the only Qwest Arena visit of the season by Alaska. There are only nine games remaining in the regular season, and a strong week against the Aces would strengthen Idaho’s hold on fourth place and first round home-ice playoff advantage in the National Conference. A crash-and-burn versus Alaska would do quite the opposite with Fresno only three points behind the Steelies.

A former Boise Hawk as a Cy Young Award candidate? Well, there has been one, Dontrelle Willis of the Marlins two years ago, but that’s not who they’re talking about right now. Angels righthander John Lackey is getting top billing as he blazes through the Cactus League—Sunday he shut out the Cubs over six innings to lower his spring training ERA to 0.73, with one walk and 15 strikeouts. Lackey was 13-11 with a struggling Angels club last year, but he was in the top six among American League pitchers in earned-run average, strikeouts, shutouts, complete games, innings pitched and opponents' batting average. If Lackey can get the Angels deep into October, he’ll get some Cy Young mention.

Back to basketball—it was interesting to see Channel 7’s file video last Thursday night of Larry Krystkowiak coaching the Idaho Stampede three years ago. There in the middle of the shot was DeSean Hadley, one of the Stampede’s standouts that season, the best to this point in franchise history. Less than 24 hours later, the Stamps announced they had signed Hadley to fill the roster spot vacated by BSU product Jermaine Blackburn. Hadley had a great season under Krystkowiak in 2003-04: 47 games, averaging 17.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 4.2 assists. His contributions to this season’s Stampede have been modest off-the-bench ones so far—12 points in 26 minutes over two games.

This Day In Sports…March 20, 2004:

One of the most unique nights in Boise State basketball history. When the Broncos blitzed UNLV 84-69 three nights before in the NIT, it looked like they’d be traveling for their matchup with Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the next round. After all, the Pavilion was booked all weekend. But a date was hastily arranged with the Idaho Center, and 10,153 BSU fans hastily scooped up tickets to see the Broncos get past UWM, 73-70, on a raucous night in Nampa. Their NIT run would end three nights later with a 66-53 loss at Marquette.

(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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