Thursday, April 19, 2007.

Going in last night, it had the look of a series that could go the distance. Turned out to be a short distance, as it hardly made it into the second period of Game 6 before the Idaho Steelheads did Stockton in. It was a 6-1 pounding that sends the Steelheads into the second round of the Kelly Cup Playoffs next week. Rookie John Lammers rocked the Thunder with his first goal of the game with just over six minutes gone, putting Idaho up 2-0. Then his second pretty much turned out the lights on the Thunder less than eight minutes into the second period, giving the Steelies a 4-0 lead. Lammers isn’t your everyday rookie; he jumped right to the AHL in his first pro season, playing most of the campaign with the Iowa Stars. Lammers was sent to Idaho four weeks ago and spent the final nine games of the regular season with the Steelies.

The Steelheads’ goal-scoring was divided into equal parts last night, as Derek Nesbitt and Lance Galbraith also tallied twice. Those two guys were money for the Steelies in the first round. Special teams were, too, as the team’s penalty kill was successful on its last 35 opportunities in the series. And then there’s goalie Steve Silverthorn, who came within 3:17 of his second shutout of Stockton in the first round. Silverthorn turned away 22 Thunder shots on goal, pumping up the crowd of 3,110 (a vast improvement over last week). The Steelheads will now face either Alaska or Las Vegas, depending on who wins the Fresno-Bakersfield series.

It’s late April, and the Fiesta Bowl hangover hangs on. Sales of Boise State’s commemorative DVD on the 2006 season have exceeded the school’s wildest expectations—and continue to do so. More than 12,500 copies of the “Perfection” DVD have now been sold, well over three times the previous record of 3,500 set after the 2004 Liberty Bowl season. BSU can only hope season ticket renewals are met with the same fervor now that the 2007 ticket price increases have been released. But why wouldn’t they? There’s a 1500-person waiting list, and the sky suites and press box project has lopped off much of the top row around the west side of the stadium. There’s a finite supply, and a lot of demand.

Fresno State’s spring session is late this year—the Bulldogs opened drills last week, starting the process of recovery from last year’s surprising 4-8 season. A lot of the program’s detractors focus on the quarterback as a point of contention, with Tom Brandstater trying to replace Paul Pinegar, then getting pulled in favor of freshman Sean Norton, then getting the job back at halftime of a 45-21 loss at Boise State. Fresno State essentially has only two quarterbacks this spring, Brandstater and freshman Ryan Colburn, as Norton has left the program for Northern Arizona. Everybody still wonders about that position. Meanwhile, one big hole to fill is at running back, where Dwayne Wright has opted to skip his senior year for the NFL Draft.

The quarterback position is no more settled going into spring scrimmage no. 2 in Moscow than it was in Boise, but like BSU, Idaho promises to provide the ultimate winner a running game to take the pressure off this season. New coach Robb Akey certainly has options in the backfield, and they were evident in the Vandals’ first scrimmage last Saturday. Andre Harris has appeared and Brian Flowers has reappeared after disciplinary and academic problems, respectively. Flowers, who led Idaho in rushing last season with 561 yards, was the standout Saturday with 69 yards on 15 carries. Harris, the redshirt freshman, contributed 31 yards, and old reliable Jayson Bird chipped in 25.

The Boise Burn home opener Saturday night will have fans getting used to the pinball scores of arena football. In the 33 games played over the first three weeks of af2, the average score is 58-38. Quad City put up 81 points in week 2 against Cincinnati, making the 65 the Steamwheelers scored against the Burn last week pale in comparison. One team has actually been shut out, though—Texas suffering the indignity in a 52-0 loss to Bossier City-Shreveport, only the second shutout in af2 history. The highest-scoring game has been the 130 points put up in South Georgia’s 77-53 win over Louisville. Get ready for a few scoreboard bulbs to burn out Saturday night.

The Idaho Stampede found out its first postseason opponent last night as Colorado crushed Albuquerque 130-100 in the first round of the NBA D-League Playoffs. The 14ers will be in Qwest Arena for the Western Division final tomorrow night, and Colorado coach Joe Wolf gets another shot at his former team in Boise. The other first round game was Tuesday night and saw Sioux Falls rip Fort Worth, 128-105, behind 40 points from Stephen Graham. The Skyforce now plays the Dakota Wizards Saturday night in Bismarck. Should the Stampede win tomorrow, its only hope to host the NBADL championship game is a Sioux Falls victory Saturday. By the way, the Stamps are pushing a “Red-Out”, asking all fans to paint Qwest Arena with red attire tomorrow night.

The Stamps have had a working agreement with the Jazz and Sonics during their first D-League season, and they received one allocation from each during the winter. The NBA regular season wrapped up last night, so let’s check up on those guys. C.J. Miles of the Jazz was here in January and averaged 17 points and 5½ rebounds in eight games. For Utah, Miles has played 38 games and averaged just 10 minutes, scoring 2.7 points per game.

Mouhamed Sene of the Sonics had two stints with the Stampede, and they were valuable. The 6-11 forward from Senegal averaged just under 10 points and just over seven rebounds in 15 games. In Seattle, Sene has played sparingly, averaging 5½ minutes with less than two points and 1½ rebounds over 27 games. But in the Sonics season finale last night, with the game out of hand in a 106-75 annihilation at the hands of the Mavericks, Sene played 22 minutes and pulled down seven boards. Miles and Sene got a lot of playing time in Boise, and that’s what the NBADL is all about.

How about the juggling act in Qwest Arena over the next few days? The crew caught a break when the Steelheads finished their first round playoff series last night, getting an extra 24 hours to turn the barn into a hoops house. Now they cover the ice, as tomorrow night it’s the Idaho Stampede’s first playoff game as a member of the NBA Development League—the Western Division final. Then overnight they’ll pull up the basketball floor and lay down the artificial turf, as Saturday night it’s the home debut of Arena Football 2’s Boise Burn.

This Day In Sports…April 19, 2004:

For now the name has changed back, but three years ago today the Humanitarian Bowl announced a complete name change for the first time in its history. The H-Bowl became the MPC Computers Bowl, with the Nampa-based manufacturer enlisting as a full title sponsor. It was MPC’s second venture into the college football bowl picture, having sponsored the Micron PC Bowl in Miami in the company’s previous life from 1998-2000. That one is now the Champs Sports Bowl and is now played in Orlando.

(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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