Thursday, June 26, 2008.

Too small to be a power forward, not enough quicks or shooting prowess to play on the wing. Reggie Larry knows what the perceptions are, but he's hoping the NBA sees him as a gamer and calls his name tonight. The former Boise State All-WAC selection has worked out twice for the Golden State Warriors. But there are only two rounds in the NBA Draft. If the Warriors don't opt for Larry in the second round, there's always the free agent route--he'll be playing for the Warriors' entries in a couple of NBA summer leagues. As potent a player as he was in the WAC, it seems like there are lots of Reggie Larry-types available in the NBA Draft. We shall see. He certainly fit the mold at BSU, becoming the first two-year player to score 1,000 career points and leading the Broncos to their first NCAA Tournament berth in 14 years.

Larry is on not on the list of prospects at NBA.com. Three other WAC products are: JaVale McGee and Marcelus Kemp of Nevada and Jaycee Carroll of Utah State. McGee, who left the Wolf Pack this spring after his sophomore year, is a sure-fire draft pick tonight. He's a 7-footer with athleticism and is seen as a guy with a ton of untapped potential, so much so that some mock drafts have him as a lottery pick (among the first 14 selections). Meanwhile, one mock draft has Idaho Stampede guard Mike Taylor going in the second round to Portland, which would mean he could possibly return to Boise next season as the Blazers break him into their system.

With the Steuckle Sky Club nearing completion at Bronco Stadium, the question often arises: what about further expansion? The demand is there for a 40,000-seat facility. Money aside--and that, of course, is why it's not front-burner--let's look at the possibilities. We're told that the water table from the Boise River prevents BSU from removing the track and digging down to lower the field and create more seats. But hey, while the blue turf is in the process of being changed out and the field is down to dirt, why not get a team of engineers in there to check the feasibility of a dig-down? Oh, money? I'm thinking you'll see the south end horseshoed by 2013.

The Boise Burn will see what rewards it can reap from the remarkable come-from-behind win at Stockton when the Tri-Cities Fever come into Qwest Arena tomorrow night. Had the Lightning's 51-42 lead in the final minute stuck last week, the Burn would have been one down-and-out pile of embers. Instead, two Royal Gill touchdown passes in the final 36 seconds may have given the Burn a new lease on playoff life. Boise is 6-6 with four games left in the regular season.

It's being called one of the more remarkable stories in the history of college sports. ESPN's Erin Andrews calls it "a movie". Fresno State last night became the lowest-seeded team ever to win the College World Series, beating Georgia, 6-1. It's being treated like Boise State's Fiesta Bowl upset, and the Bulldogs' national championship is indeed a monstrous accomplishment.

But to be sure, 10 years from now a slew of Americans will be able to tell you who won in Glendale on New Year's Day 2007 (and how it happened), while precious few will be able to tell you who won the 2008 College World Series. On the other hand, this turn of events has to provoke some thought at Boise State. Fresno State got enormous exposure for this in the past week. If all things were equal, and a conference was ready to pull the trigger on an invitation to BSU, only to say, "But you don't have baseball," what do you think would happen?

Last night it was the Boise Hawks' turn to rally for a victory, as they beat Everett 4-3 with a three-run eighth inning. Boise's two returning position players who were first round draft picks, Josh Vitters and Kyler Burke, are a study in contrasts a week and a half into the season. Vitters extended his hitting streak to eight games with a single and double last night and is now batting .351. Burke was mired in an 0-for-22 slump until he kicked off the eighth-inning rally with a double. Burke's average thus nudged up to .111. In the same inning the two Hawks regulars doing worse than Burke, David Macias and Marwin Gonzalez, both hit run-scoring singles. Macias, who ended an 0-for-17 drought, is now hitting .080, and Gonzalez is at .120.

Boise's Janell Howland has a morning tee time in Edina, MN, at the U.S. Women's Open. Howland tied for 10th at a Sectional in Glencoe, IL, securing one of 19 Open spots available at that event. The Meridian High grad has been a pro since shortly after winning her second Idaho Women's Amateur title in 2002. Howland will be rubbing elbows, if only from a distance, with everyone from Annika Sorenstam to Morgan Pressel to Paula Creamer to Michelle Wie...and eight women named Kim.

Former Boise State All-American Wesley Moodie is underway at Wimbledon, winning the first round of men's doubles Tuesday with fellow South African Jeff Coetzee. They defeated Italians Simone Bolelli and Andreas Seppi in four sets. Next up in the second round for the duo are the winners of today's match between Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco of Spain and Tomas Cibulec and Ivo Minar of the Czech Republic. In singles, Moodie had been eliminated in the second round of qualifying. Moodie and Australia's Stephen Huss won the Wimbledon men's doubles championship in 2005. (See below for more on Moodie at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.)

This Day In Sports...June 26, 2003, five years ago today:

Wesley Moodie, the first Boise State tennis player ever to reach the main singles draw of Wimbledon, wins his second round match in four sets over Frederic Niemeyer of Canada. The 24-year-old South African had beaten Switzerland's Marc Rosset in the first round--Moodie would finally be ousted in the round of 32 by 13th-seeded Sebastian Grosjean of France in four sets.

(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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