Friday, June 6, 2008.

I have never seen Boise State go into such excruciating detail on a coach's contract. And parts of Greg Graham's new three-year deal announced yesterday are excruciatingly detailed. But you can sum it up by saying, "Just win, baby." There are myriad ways to extend it by one, two or three years. The bottom line to get the contract lengthened beyond the original three years is this (or, are these): Earn an NCAA Tournament at-large berth, or win a regular season WAC championship, or win a conference tournament championship, or advance to second round of the NIT, or win 10 regular season conference games, or win 21 games during the regular season, the WAC Tournament or the NIT.

Graham's base salary will be $345,000 per year, with bonuses built in for many of those incentives in the contract, plus supplemental pay for meeting Academic Progress Rate requirements. What's surprising is that there's no clause in the deal for attendance at Taco Bell Arena. That's one of BSU's biggest challenges. It's been almost 12 weeks since BSU won the WAC Tournament in a triple-overtime classic at New Mexico State and moved on to its first NCAA Tournament in 14 years. After a 79-61 loss to Louisville, the Broncos finished 25-9, breaking the 20-year-old school record for victories.

We'll see how this shakes out, but the Cubs' first round pick in yesterday's Major League Draft, Andrew Cashner, might be a good fit for the Boise Hawks this summer. Cashner, the 19th overall pick, is a 6-5 righthander who was TCU's top closer this season. He won nine games, recorded nine saves, and held opponents to a .122 batting average. Cashner's fastball tops out at 96-98 miles per hour--if the Cubs want to make him a starter, Boise would be a good proving ground. He was scouted by former Hawks manager Trey Forkerway. Other possibilities for the Hawks include supplemental first round pick Ryan Flaherty, a shortstop from Vanderbilt, second round selection Aaron Shafer, a pitcher from Wichita State, and third round pick Chris Carpenter, a hurler out of Kent State.

The Cubs last went for a pitcher in the first round in 2005, and that hasn't worked out so well. Not yet, at least. That's when they selected southpaw Mark Pawelek, who has been injury-plagued and struggled to a 1-2 record and a 9.24 ERA last season in Boise. The Cubs website says Pawalek is headed back to Boise again this year. That would make him, in my book, the first four-season Hawk. He pitched one game in Boise in 2005, then spent significant parts of the past two seasons in Boise.

He's no longer the 12-year-old with bleached blonde hair representing the South Central Boise All-Stars at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA. He's now a third round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox. Stephen Fife, now a pitcher for the University of Utah, has made the decision to turn pro. The Red Sox obviously think he's ready to go. Fife went 7-5 with a 3.72 ERA this season for the Utes.

So what's the big deal about Boise State's player-run practices? The good ol' PRP's that are underway now? They're just little one-hour sessions three times a week. Well, with 100 percent of the Broncos "voluntarily" spending their summers in Boise for the sake of these things--not to mention Tim Socha's summer conditioning program--they are huge. The value of those practices in the summer of 2006 cannot be overstated, as Jared Zabransky got on the same page with Drisan James, Jerard Rabb and Legedu Naanee once and for all. That was a key to all the things that followed that season.

On the surface, the Spokane Shock look invincible as they come to Qwest Arena tomorrow night to challenge the Boise Burn. The Shock, at 9-0, are the only unbeaten team left in af2 after the Tulsa Talons suffered their first loss of the season last Saturday. But interestingly enough, after a 70-12 slamming of Stockton in Game 2, the Shock haven't won a game by more than 20 points. And they've had one win by four points, two by three points, and another by just two. Spokane can be had. The Burn are 0-3 all-time against the Shock.

The Idaho Steelheads are no longer the reigning ECHL champions, as Cincinnati won the Kelly Cup last night with a 3-1 win over Las Vegas. The Cyclones took the series four games to two. How about the crowd last night in Cincinnati? The attendance of 12,272 was the largest in the 20-year history of the ECHL. The coast-to-coast league began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states and has grown to be a coast-to-coast league that will play with 24 teams in 16 states and British Columbia in 2008-09.

This Day In Sports...June 6, 1996:

Seeded 13th and thought by many to be more style than substance, Andre Agassi defeats Andre Medvedev in five sets (after dropping the first two) in the finals of the French Open. With the title, Agassi became only the fifth man to complete a career Grand Slam--joining Fred Perry, Don Budge, Roy Emerson and Rod Laver. Agassi was also the first to do it on three different surfaces: clay, grass and hardcourt.

(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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