Friday, June 5, 2009.

On the surface, it's just another day at the office tomorrow night for the Boise Burn. But there are enough sidebars in this game to last a season. The Joe O'Brien angle has been covered. But there's more. The guy who paved the way for O'Brien's comeback coaching gig with the Central Valley Coyotes, Brian Smith, was a Boise State teammate of O'Brien's and a former Burn defensive assistant. Smith is now defensive coordinator with the Coyotes. Then there's Phil Goodman, the Central Valley wide receiver who decided against signing with BSU as a junior college transfer, opting for Temple because it gave him the best chance to get to the NFL. Didn't happen. The Broncos took Goodman's Sacramento City College teammate, Lawrence Bady, and things worked out just fine.

And there's more. Nichiren Flowers, the former star wideout at Nevada who's been tearing it up with the Burn this season, was here last year with Central Valley when it came to town. Flowers went off that night, catching 10 passes for 134 yards and two touchdowns. The Burn are glad Flowers will be wearing a home uni in Qwest Arena tomorrow night. This season, Flowers has 45 catches for 688 yards and 19 touchdowns. He has two more TDs, one on the ground and one via kickoff return.

Scheduling sometimes drives Boise State fans crazy. Especially when the preseason magazines come out, and the Broncos' strength-of-schedule is ranked far south of 100. Then you look at Hawaii. The cupcake 2007 slate aside, the Warriors usually have an attractive schedule. Forget the extension of Hawaii's series with USC announced yesterday (the Trojans and Warriors will open the 2010 season with a Thursday night ESPN game in Aloha Stadium). Let's be more realistic and look at the UH relationship with UNLV. With a five-game home-and-home extension in the books, the Warriors and Rebels will play eight times in 10 years.

It's baffling to me that Boise State versus UNLV, such a natural regional non-conference game, hasn't been played in 32 years. The Broncos and Rebels played a spirited six-year series in the mid-70's--before and after UNLV lured away BSU coach Tony Knap. Let's just chalk it up to location-location-location. Las Vegas and Honolulu like each other as fan destinations. Las Vegas doesn't exactly view Boise the same way. Boise State has to work twice as hard to earn scheduling leverage. Even a record of 108-20 over the last decade doesn't seem to be good enough. Then again, maybe that's the problem.

The Broncos do have their second series set with BYU starting in 2012, though. And that got a little more interesting yesterday, as the nation's top-ranked high school quarterback announced his commitment to the Cougars. Jake Heaps of Sammamish, WA, is 28-0 as a starter with two state championships. Heaps has thrown 69 career touchdown passes going into his senior year, which gives us an excuse to say he'll need 104 TDs this season to reach Kellen Moore's all-time Washington record of 173. Heaps will be a sophomore or junior when BSU and BYU play again. Moore will be gone.

At the beginning of the French Open, I went online to check the men's doubles draw to see if former Boise State standout Wesley Moodie was there. He was indeed, beginning first round play with partner Dick Norman of Belgium. Well, here we are going into the final weekend at Roland Garros, and I'll be darned if Moodie isn't still there. Yesterday, he and Norman upset one of the top-ranked doubles teams in the world, Bob and Mike Bryan, in three sets to advance to the French Open finals. Moodie and Norman had to rally from a 6-love spanking in the first set. They'll face Lukas Dlouhy of Czechoslovakia and Leander Paes of India for all the red clay marbles.

On the same night that Randy Johnson became baseball's 23rd pitcher to win 300 games, former Boise Hawk Dontrelle Willis saw his career teetering. Four years ago, the D-Train was putting up Big Unit-type numbers. Last night Willis went 2 1/3 innings and didn't allow a hit. And he walked five batters, hit another, and allowed five earned runs in a 6-3 loss to Boston. He saw his record drop to 1-3 and his ERA balloon to 6.84. Willis had been on the disabled list early this season with an anxiety disorder--he looked awfully anxious coming off the mound last night. It's painful to watch, as Willis was one of the most popular players ever to wear a Hawks uniform.

The Kelly Cup Finals will go to a Game 7 tonight, as the Alaska Aces again staved off elimination by rallying for a 3-2 victory over South Carolina last night. Matt Stefanishion's goal with less than four minutes left in the game won it, sending a stand-room-only crowd into a frenzy in Sullivan Arena. The Aces like their chances in Anchorage--they're 8-1 and have outscored their opponents 29-10 at home in the Kelly Cup Playoffs.

This Day In Sports...June 5, 1977:

The Portland Trailblazers, led by the most famous Deadhead in the sports world, Bill Walton, beat the Philadelphia 76ers to win the NBA championship. The 109-107 win in Game 6 gave Portland what is still its only NBA title. The Blazers have been back to the Finals twice (1990 and 1992) but haven't been able to repeat the feat.

(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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