Tuesday, January 6, 2009.

The good news is, parity appears to be returning to WAC basketball. The bad news is, there doesn't appear to be much cream at the top. Therefore, the WAC is looking like a one-bid league in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year. The WAC was rated 21st among the 32 Division I conferences in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) last season, a key ingredient in the selection process. This season the WAC is 15th, but that could be due to improvement among the conference's bottom tier. There's not a lot happening at the top. Utah State is 13-1 and Boise State 10-3, but neither has a signature win yet. New Mexico State has been average so far, and Nevada has been a major disappointment. That doesn't look like a two-bid group--this from a conference that has sent two schools to the NCAA's in 23 of the past 25 years.

Idaho is the most noticeable among those teams on the rise, sitting at 7-8 after last night's 70-61 loss at Utah State. That the Vandals are around .500 in January is an accomplishment coming on the heels of a string of disastrous years under George Pfeifer and Leonard Perry. New Idaho coach Don Verlin returned to the site of so much success experienced in 11 years as an assistant under USU coach Stew Morrill and gave it a good go. The Vandals survived a wild introduction of new Aggie football coach Gary Anderson, fresh off his Sugar Bowl triumph as defensive coordinator at Utah, and trailed just 54-51 with seven minutes to go until USU got separation.

Has it hit you yet that Ian Johnson's Boise State career is over? Hey, it's been two weeks now. Time to think about the next Johnson. That would be Malcomb Johnson, the running back out of Sam Barlow High in Portland who committed to the Broncos back in June. Johnson was featured in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" for his performance in a victory over Centennial this season. He rushed for five touchdowns, but that's almost a sidebar. Malcolm carried 36 times for...458 yards. BSU, of course, has Jeremy Avery, D.J. Harper and Doug Martin all returning in the offensive backfield this year. It would seem that Johnson is a prime redshirt candidate. But he might to too good not to play.

Well, it bore more of a resemblance to the 2007 Fiesta Bowl than anyone thought it would. Underdog Ohio State, who aced Boise State out of a BCS bowl bid this season, staged a wild fourth quarter rally to go up 21-17 on Texas. The Longhorns were trying to make a case for a shared national championship with the winner of Thursday night's Florida-Oklahoma game. They didn't do that, but they did score a dramatic touchdown on a 26-yard throw from Colt McCoy to Quan Cosby with 16 seconds left to win the Fiesta, 24-21.

Tonight you get a chance to see the team that could have come to Boise one week ago against a team that will come to Boise in 2010. It's Ball State and Tulsa in the the oddly-scheduled GMAC Bowl, right between the Fiesta and the BCS Championship Game. The Cardinals, who declined a Roady's Humanitarian Bowl opportunity, are 12-1, while the Golden Hurricane is 10-3. This could be Jacob Bower's team when the Broncos travel back to Tulsa next season. Bower, the Mountain View High grad, played in mopup behind David Johnson this year, going 11-of-14 for 138 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

Things get a little dicey now between USC and Washington in the Pac-10. Trojan coach Pete Carroll was excited for former offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian's opportunity to be head coach for the Huskies. Hard to say how excited Carroll will be upon losing his defensive coordinator, too, though. Former Idaho head man Nick Holt, back at Carroll's side at USC since leaving the Vandals almost three years ago, is set to be introduced as UW's new D-coordinator today in Seattle. Holt may have gone just 5-18 at Idaho, but his defenses at Southern Cal have been nails. The key to doing something similar with the Huskies lies in recruiting.

The Idaho Steelheads will take a hit at the gate due to the folding of the Fresno Falcons. The Steelheads were supposed to host the Falcons next week on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. The Steelies will keep the Wednesday game and play the Utah Grizzlies instead. But they lose the lucrative weekend dates, having to replace those with Tuesday home games against Utah February 24 and Phoenix March 31. The Steelheads do still have a matchup a week from Saturday, but now it'll be on the road at Stockton.

Back to college basketball--there's a good one in the valley tonight. The College of Idaho hosts Eastern Oregon in an intriguing matchup. The Mountaineers are No. 22 in the NAIA Division II rankings, although they started the season at No. 6 after making the Sweet Sixteen of the national tournament last spring. The Coyotes are looking to kick-start 2009--they're is 6-8 overall and 2-2 in the Cascade Conference. Eastern Oregon is 8-2 overall and also 2-2 in league play.

Jermareo Davidson doesn't have to wait for today's Idaho Stampede game at the annual D-League Showcase to get his NBA audience. The Stampede center had already been noticed and has a 10-day contract with the Golden State Warriors. Davidson has started every game for the Stamps this season, averaging 16.1 points and 10.1 rebounds. It's a second chance of sorts with the Warriors, who drafted Davidson in the second round of the 2007 NBA Draft out of Alabama. They then traded him to Charlotte on draft night, and he played 23 games for the Bobcats as a rookie. Davidson didn't have to catch a plane for his new assignment, since the Warriors were in Utah to play the Jazz last night. The Stampede play the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in their 11AM D-League matinee today.

This Day In Sports...January 6, 1994:

One of the most infamous incidents in Olympics history takes place a month before the Winter Games. Figure skater Tonya Harding and ex-husband Jeff Gillooly had her bodyguard hire hitmen to whack rival Nancy Kerrigan on the knee after practice at the U.S. Olympic trials, hoping to keep Kerrigan off the American team in Lillehammer. Kerrigan was given a spot on the U.S. team anyway, and Harding got one, too, before pleading guilty to obstruction in March and being banned from competitive figure skating for life in June.

(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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