Friday, April 13, 2007.

It’s been 3½ months now since the Fiesta Bowl, and this evening marks the first major Bronco Stadium gathering of Boise State football and its faithful subjects since then. Everything has changed in Broncoland. That’s accentuated by the fact that only the east side of the stadium will be open for the Blue & Orange Game wrapping up spring football. Construction is in overdrive on the new press box and sky suites on the west side, so less than 13,000 seats will be available. And BSU officials won’t be surprised to see every one filled. This event drew 5800 last year and 7500 in 2005. Now it’s genuinely a hot ticket.

A half-full house tonight would be amazing, but not unprecedented. If you’re old enough to remember 30 years ago—and you were here—you’ll recall a stretch of about four years when the BSU Alumni Game was a marquee event in Boise. The BSU Alumni Assoication assembled a large community committee to put it together and sell it, and the Alumni Game peaked at 15,000 fans one year. Today the Blue & Orange Game would likely top that late 70’s standard…if there was room at the inn. By the way, the alumni team drew some pretty good players, too. In fact, in 1976, Jim Criner’s first spring as head coach, the varsity had to rally to beat the alums, 28-27.

To think there could be that kind of crowd there tonight—and there’s going to be no Ian Johnson. But there’s enough interest in the four-way quarterback battle to keep fans riveted for a couple hours. None of the candidates has done anything to win the job, and none has done anything to lose it. And coach Chris Petersen is fine with that. He didn’t expect it to be decided in April and is more than happy to have Taylor Tharp, Bush Hamdan, Nick Lomax and Mike Coughlin carry it on tooth-and-nail into August. That’s not to say that a strong performance by one or two of the OB’s this evening won’t stick in offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin’s subconscious through the summer.

You will be able to follow the game on the scoreboard tonight, if you understand it. There’ll be a quiz on this later. According to BSU: “Friday’s scrimmage will feature a scoring system developed by Bronco coaches to pit the offense against the defense in an even competition. The offense will earn points for touchdowns, explosive plays (run of 12 or more yards or pass of 16 or more yards), three consecutive first downs, extra points and field goals. The defense can score points with touchdowns, turnovers, three and outs, sacks, blocked field goals and extra points and with a sudden change (holding the offense to a field goal or no score when it started the possession inside the 35-yard line).”

After a bye week, the Boise Burn bounces off the boards again tonight when it visits Quad City. The Steamwheelers present no less a challenge than Louisville did two weeks ago (the Burn upset the Fire in that one, 57-52). Quad City went to Spokane last week and handed the defending af2 champion Shock only its second home loss in two years, 60-45. And the ‘Wheelers did it front of an adversarial crowd of 10,560. Again, that attendance number makes your head whirl. The Burn brain trust anxiously awaits the team’s home opener next week.

The Idaho Steelheads go Rooster-less in Game 3 of their ECHL National Conference playoff series in Stockton tonight, with Lance Galbraith suspended for one game by the league for his high-sticking incident Wednesday night. Steelheads coach Derek Laxdal thought Galbriath’s poke in the face on the Thunder’s Tim Sestito was an accident and doesn’t warrant a suspension, while Stockton coach Chris Cichocki thinks Galbraith should be sitting longer. The rest of the Steelheads will be facing a fairly passionate crowd (speaking of attendance again) in Stockton Arena. The Thunder led the 25-team ECHL this season—by a comfortable margin, averaging 6,780 fans a game. And tonight’s contest will mark the first-ever Kelly Cup playoff game there.

In the 10-year history of the Idaho Stampede, there’s never been a player with the flurry of local publicity Randy Livingston has received the past couple of months. At least in the Scott Slant. Life is good for Livingston right now, as the Stamps leader was named NBA Development League MVP yesterday—24 hours after being signed by the Sonics for the final week of the season. The 32-year-old veteran says he’ll be back in Boise next Friday for the Western Division championship game.

You never want to assume you’ll win, but there’s nothing wrong with expecting to win. So the Idaho Stampede looks at the scenario if it gets past the D-League’s Western Division final a week from tonight. That makes the final two games of the regular season tonight and tomorrow night loom large at Qwest Arena, as the Stamps are tied with Dakota for the league’s best record at 31-17. The winner of that derby, should it make it to the NBADL title game, would have homecourt advantage. And the Wizards have the tiebreaker in their corner, having won the season series with Idaho. So the Stampede needs to beat Tulsa tonight and the L.A. Defenders tomorrow night to clear the crystal ball.

Who’s the biggest threat to Boise State winning another WAC championship in men’s tennis? Why, it’s the Broncos’ old friends at Fresno State. The Bulldogs won their sixth match in a row last Saturday with a victory over UC Santa Barbara while BSU was upping its streak to seven with shutouts of Montana State and Loyola-Marymount. “We've got a lot of confidence right now," says Fresno State head coach Jay Udwadia. Confidence is the middle name of BSU’s Greg Patton. The Broncos and Bulldogs face off tomorrow morning at 10:30AM at the Appleton Center in a possible preview of the WAC championship match in two weeks on the same courts. BSU then plays Utah State at 6PM tomorrow evening.

This Day In Sports…April 13, a big day in Masters history:

April 13, 1975: Jack Nicklaus wins his fifth Masters, edging Tom Weiskopf and Johnny Miller by one stroke. April 13, 1986: 46-year-old Jack Nicklaus shoots a 30 on the back nine and a 65 for the final round to become the oldest player ever to win the Masters. And April 13, 1997: 21-year-old Tiger Woods, playing in his first Masters, becomes the youngest player ever to win the tournament, with a record-low score of 270 and a record-high victory margin of 12 strokes over Tom Kite.

(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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