Thursday, February 28, 2008.

San Jose State certainly commands Boise State’s attention in football, especially considering the Broncos’ narrow escapes at Spartan Stadium during their two undefeated regular seasons. In hoops the Spartans are a lot more anonymous. At least they were until this year. San Jose State’s upset of Utah State last week was no fluke. Nine days earlier, the Spartans had narrowly missed picking off the Aggies in Logan, falling 78-73. SJSU has won more than twice as many games as the last two seasons combined and is fired up about it. More importantly for purposes of tonight’s Bronco game at San Jose State, the Spartans have won at home against Nevada, Fresno State and USU and just missed versus New Mexico State.

The injury to Matt Bauscher last week forced BSU to use its bench a lot more, which is about the only positive it can take from the 93-70 rout by Siena. If Baucher isn’t 100 percent tonight, Greg Graham will see if his reserves have progressed. The Siena game appeared to be valuable experience for Aaron Garner in particular. The JC transfer may have been 2-for-7 from the field, but you could see his confidence grow, especially his ball-handling in traffic. Jamar Greene, the most utilized of BSU bench players, seemed to relish his bigger role. Paul Noonan, on the other hand, did not appear comfortable as a starter. The guy who didn’t see much action last week, Kurt Cunningham, would come in handy tonight against the bigger Spartans. Of Cunningham, Graham says, “He could have—maybe should have played a little bit more (against Siena).”

The Boise State women go for a second straight 20-win season tonight when they host San Jose State in Taco Bell Arena. The Broncos will try to extend their 11-game winning streak and maintain the top spot in the WAC, where they’re tied with Fresno State. They won’t have Amanda Stewart back tonight, but the center from Marsing has an outside chance at some floor time for her Senior Night Saturday against Hawaii. It was against the Rainbow Wahine in Honolulu that she tore her ACL. Sophomore Ja’Lara Walker has filled in since, and in six games as a starter, all she’s done is go 24-of-31 from the field for 77 percent.

As boys state basketball tournaments open today (1A actually already underway), here’s hoping the Treasure Valley can put 2007 behind it. Local teams were shut out of the trophy haul last year, ending up with three runners-up: Borah in 5A, Skyview in 4A, and Greenleaf in 1A. The success of the College of Idaho women’s team has thrown the 4A tourney at the J.A. Albertson Acticities Center a curve. The Lady Yotes need to play a home game against Oregon Tech sometime tomorrow in the Cascade Conference Tournament, so they’ll squeeze that in at about 4PM and move the two afternoon 4A consolation games up an hour to 12:15PM and 2PM.

Now that Orlando Scandrick has answered the critics of his decision for early entry into the NFL Draft with his strong performance at the NFL Scouting Combine, attention turns to spring football and the task of replacing the standout cornerback in the Boise State defense. BSU secondary coach Marcel Yates addressed that yesterday on Idaho SportsTalk, saying sophomore-to-be Brandyn Thompson will start spring as No. 1 at that position, since he got experience there last year as a true freshman. But Yates was quick to say the job is wide open and listed junior Garcia Day, sophomore Keith McGowen and freshman Antwon Murray as candidates. Day redshirted as a JC transfer safety last season, but Yates is going to have him play some corner in spring ball to see if he’s an option there.

Luke Jackson is ready to get back to business this afternoon for the Idaho Stampede, who expect the former Oregon star to be a lot more like his one-game December cameo than his low-key return to the club last Saturday. Jackson, who was released by the Miami Heat after being the odd man out in the trade that sent Shaquille O’Neal to Phoenix, returned to the Stampede last Saturday with a jet-lagged 0-for-6 performance from the field. He had played one game with the Stamps in December before getting the call from Miami, pouring in 30 points and dishing out nine assists. This would be a good time to catch fire again—the Stamps are at Staples Center today to face the L.A. D-Fenders in a prelim to tonight’s Lakers game against, ironically, the Heat. There will be a lot of NBA eyeballs around.

Remember the Idaho Steelheads’ series against Phoenix two weeks ago? A last-place National Conference team coming in knocking the Steelheads off-kilter when they were seemingly riding high? Well, they don’t get any lower tier in the National Conference than Bakersfield, yet the Condors blasted out to a 2-0 lead on the Steelies last night—then finished it 4-3 in a shootout. The Steelheads went 0-for-7 on the power play and were able to tally only once in the shootout. Combined with Victoria’s 5-3 win over Las Vegas last night, the Steelheads are now two points behind the Salmon Kings in the ECHL West Division.

McCall may have some well-known financial problems in city government right now. But its economy is getting a nice boost this week. Masters World Cup Nordic competition starts today at Ponderosa Park with over 1200 racers registered. That makes it one of the top five largest fields in the event’s 28-year history. There are 23 countries represented, with the lion’s share of those entrants from outside the U.S. coming from Canada and Russia. Racers must be at least 30 years old to qualify, and the bulk of the entrants are between 45 and 65. According to the Star-News in McCall, the field includes everyone from U.S. Olympians Leslie Thompson Hall and Laura McCabe to a 90-year-old competitor, Dan Bulkley of Phoenix.

Back to hoops: the College of Idaho did everything it could to extend its season last night, but a second half rally fell short, and the Coyotes were eliminated in the first round of the Cascade Conference Tournament at Oregon Tech, 74-68. A 14-point night saw Josh Owen end his C of I career with 1,561 points, as the Yotes finished the season at 13-18. In Nampa NNU is fighting for its playoff life as it hosts league-leading Alaska Anchorage tonight in Johnson Sports Center. The Crusaders are 16-7 overall and 8-6 in the GNAC.

This Day In Sports…February 28, 1960:

The U.S. Olympic hockey team trails Czechoslovakia, 4-3, after two periods in the finals at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley. The Americans had upset the Soviets the day before and were playing an 8am game against the Czechs—and were out of gas. During the break after the second period, the Soviet captain visited the American lockerroom, and—unable to speak English—used sign language to suggest that the USA use oxygen to re-energize. A tank was rolled in, and the revitalized Americans scored six goals in a 12-minute span to win, 9-4, and capture the gold medal.

(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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