Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

The WAC has never had a four-way tie for first place in men’s basketball. And if Boise State beats Utah State tomorrow night, there will be no further discussion—the Broncos will win the regular season championship outright. But the Aggies want it to be discussed, setting their sights on the No. 1 seed in the WAC Tournament next week. It’s really rather simple. BSU gets the top seed with a victory tomorrow, and Utah State gets it if the Aggies bring down the Broncos and follow with a win at Idaho Saturday night. To summarize, the survivor tomorrow night advances to at least the NIT (taking into consideration that the Vandals don’t match up very well with the Aggies Saturday). The loser tomorrow has no guarantees of an NIT berth and must look to vindicate itself by winning the WAC Tournament.

He may have a stellar supporting cast at Utah State, but it’s still Jaycee Carroll’s team. And his amazing Aggie career is winding down. He’ll make his last trip to Boise State tomorrow night and will try to keep the Bronco seniors from doing what he did Monday night. In his Logan sendoff, Carroll began the game against Fresno State by kissing the USU logo at midcourt—then he canned four straight three-pointers and already had 15 points just eight minutes into the game. Carroll finished with 33 points, but there was more to his game than scoring. “Jaycee did as good a job defensively as he's ever done,” USU coach Stew Morrill told the Salt Lake Tribune. So not only is Anthony Thomas and/or Matt Bauscher and/or Tyler Tiedeman going to have to tame Carroll, they’re going to have to find a way to go up, over and around him at the other end.

The Idaho Stampede schedule gets spiced by a little variety tonight when the Austin Toros visit Qwest Arena. It’s a battle of first place teams, and it could provide a D-League Playoff preview. The Toros, led by former Duke star and Missouri coach Quin Snyder, will be making their only trip to Boise outside January’s D-League Showcase. And they’re playing well, having won six of their last seven to improve to 23-11 and move into first in the NBADL’s Southwest Division. The balanced Stampede won’t see the league’s second-leading scorer, Austin’s Keith Langford, as the former Kansas star has just left the team. Langford was averaging 24½ points per night.

This is one of those “if I had told you then” moments. How about 2004, when Boise State’s Korey Hall was grabbing three interceptions from Oregon State’s Derek Anderson. Three years later, would you believe Anderson would be starting for the Cleveland Browns, almost leading them to a playoff berth, and then signing a three-year, $24 million contract after the season? And Korey Hall would not be a linebacker, but a starting fullback for the Green Bay Packers, standing next to Brett Favre in the huddle? Hall will forever be thankful for his rookie season, because that’ll be the only one with the legendary Favre, who announced his retirement yesterday after 17 years in the NFL. Hall and fellow former Bronco Daryn Colledge will be telling their grandkids about the experience.

Jeb Putzier didn’t get the fresh start he may have hoped for in Houston when he followed his old Denver offensive coordinator, Gary Kubiak, to the Texans. Maybe Putzier will get one now, as the former Boise State star was signed as a free agent yesterday by Seattle. Jeb was released nine days ago after catching only six passes for 39 yards and a touchdown last season for Houston. But the Seahawks are looking at Putzier’s ability to go vertical on defenses—and his body of work, which includes a combined 73 receptions for 1,053 yards in the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

No bites yet for Rob Morris, at a definite crossroads in his NFL linebacking career. The Nampa High grad was a salary cap casualty last week, released by the Indianapolis Colts. Morris had already been cast off once by Indy for similar reasons several years ago, re-signing for the veteran minimum. Then he worked his way back into the starting lineup, one of the unsung stalwarts of the Colts’ Super Bowl championship after the 2006 season. It’ll be more difficult to go through the “prove it” routine at the age of 33, though. Morris was a first round draft pick of Indianapolis out of BYU in 2000. He appeared in 99 regular-season games, 67 as a starter.

There’s something about those mid-week games for the Idaho Steelheads. They dropped another one last night in Anchorage, as Alaska scored three first period power play goals before the Steelheads got their skates under ‘em in a 3-2 Aces win. Once the Steelies woke up they played pretty well, and John Lammers continued his torrid run with his 22nd goal in the last 22 games. It was Alaska’s 10th win in its last 11 games, and it leaves Idaho in a tie with Victoria atop the ECHL’s West Division, although the Salmon Kings have played three fewer games. The Steelheads and Aces face off again tonight at Sullivan Arena.

Let’s do a Canyon County campus cruise today. Northwest Nazarene goes into the final week of the regular season with games at Central Washington Thursday and Western Washington Saturday. The Crusaders are 17-8 overall and 9-7 in the Great Northwest Conference.
In college baseball, NNU is off to a 10-3 start after taking four of six games at Hawaii Pacific last week. The Crusaders open GNAC play this Friday and Saturday at Saint Martin’s. And the College of Idaho opened NAIA Region I play by sweeping a pair of doubleheaders from Oregon Tech at Simplot Stadium last weekend. The Yotes take a week off now with their 8-6 record, preparing for a three-game home series next week against top-ranked Lewis-Clark State.

This Day In Sports…March 5, 1984:

Quarterback Steve Young, fresh out of BYU, signs a long-term contract worth 40 million dollars with the Los Angeles Express of the United States Football League. According to terms of the deal, deferred payments would be made to Young until the year 2027. When the USFL later folded, Young bought out the contract and jumped to the NFL with Tampa Bay. By the way, future BSU coach Pokey Allen was an assistant with the LA Express that year.

(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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