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Monday, February 23, 2015.
All the way through the Leon Rice era, Boise State has had this thing about how it performs when it scores at least 70 points. The Broncos are now 77-15 under Rice when hitting the 70-mark after annihilating Nevada 78-46 Saturday in Taco Bell Arena. But how about that "46" number? The story this season has been the role of defense, especially since Anthony Drmic's season ended in early December. The Wolf Pack was held to 36 percent shooting and went just 1-for-12 from three-point range. It was the fourth time in five games the Broncos have held their opponents under 50 points. For the first time in school history they've recorded five sub-50 games defensively in conference play. That's quite an accomplishment when you think back to the Bobby Dye era and the great defenses he put on the floor.
Speaking of the Bobby Dye era, Boise State has ties to it on another count. The victory over Nevada was the Broncos' 20th, giving them their third straight 20-win season. The only other time they've accomplished that was during the three of the glorious and heavily-attended Dye seasons from 1986-89. Leon Rice now has four 20-win campaigns in his five years at Boise State. Only Rice and Dye have hit the 20-victory plateau four times in BSU history. Whereas the Broncos declined a postseason opportunity in one of the secondary tournaments last March, they seem destined to play on this year.
Derrick Marks continued his run toward possible Mountain West Player of the Year honors with a vintage performance against Nevada. It wasn't that Marks scored 18 points versus the Wolf Pack, or that he made three steals. The Boise State star dished out seven assists, two short of his career high. Four of them turned into buckets by James Webb III, who led BSU with 22 points. Marks has become a consistent, complete player in his senior year. Not that his scoring wasn't key in the rout. An 18-2 run by the Broncos after the score was tied 4-4 gave them all the separation they would need, and Marks scored nine points in that stretch. He is now the Mountain West's seventh all-time leading scorer with 1,784 points.
Jay Ajayi did what he had to do at the NFL Combine Saturday. Assuming the eminently confident Ajayi's interviews with various team officials went well late last week, he is set up well for the NFL Draft April 30-May 2. The most visible event at the Combine is the 40-yard dash, and the former Boise State star clocked 4.57 seconds, ninth-best among the 31 running backs in Indianapolis. Ajayi was in the top five in all the other on-field drills except for the three-cone drill and finished second in the 60-yard shuttle. Next stop for college football's 2014 co-touchdown king is the Broncos' Pro Day on March 18.
I wrote Friday that the Idaho Steelheads were “in somewhat of a rut.” Well, forget about it. Beginning with a brilliant 1-0 shutout from goalie Jack Campbell Friday night, the Steelheads swept a three-game series at Stockton to move back within two points of first-place Colorado in the ECHL Pacific Division. It was a fisticuffs-filled weekend, at least until the finale. There were three fights Friday, including a huge melee at the end of the game that resulted in a six-game suspension for Stockton’s Klarc Wilson. There were two more fights in the first six seconds of Saturday night’s game, plus another midway through the first period of the Steelies’ 6-3 victory. Yesterday’s 5-2 Idaho win was tame by comparison, with only five minor penalties called the entire game.
It was a rough day for the leaders in the final round of the Northern Trust Open yesterday. Entering the day in second place and playing in the final group with Retief Goosen and Sang-Moon Bae, Graham DeLaet started his round with a birdie on the first hole before double-bogeying the second and bogeying the third at Riviera Country Club. That led to a two-over 73 and a tie for eighth place, but it still earned the former Boise State star $187,600. It was worse for Goosen, who had led by two shots after the third round but blew up yesterday with a four-over 75 and ended up in that tie with DeLaet.
A "double double-double" led the Idaho Stampede to only their sixth win of the season—and their most impressive—Saturday night as they took down the Bakersfield Jam 124-116 in CenturyLink Arena. Jack Cooley scored 23 points and pulled down 15 rebounds, while Jerrelle Benimon put up 21 points with 14 boards. The Stampede exploded for 45 points in the fourth quarter in upending the first-place team in the D-League West Division. Kevin Murphy scored 14 points in his return to the Stamps following a stint in China.
The men’s and women’s ski teams at the College of Idaho are headed to the USCSA National Championships at Mount Bachelor near Bend next week. Both squads finished second behind Rocky Mountain College in the alpine-combined at the USCSA Western Regionals Saturday at Brundage Mountain. Also headed to nationals on the women’s side are Air Force and Washington, while the Falcons and Colorado School of Mines were the other two national qualifiers among the men.
More hoops items: the Idaho men dropped a 79-77 overtime decision at Southern Utah Saturday night. Assistant Chris Helbling was back on the Vandals bench after being sent to the locker room by coach Don Verlin in the middle of the loss to Northern Arizona Thursday. In an incident that went viral, Verlin yelled at Helbling several times before grabbing his binder and play cards and throwing them to the floor. After dismantling Evergreen State 100-67 Friday night, the College of Idaho men closed the regular season with a stunning 66-60 loss Saturday at Northwest University. The Coyotes host Oregon Tech Wednesday night in a Cascade Conference quarterfinal. And the Boise State women frittered away most of a 16-point second-half lead in Reno Saturday, but not all of it. The Broncos survived to beat Nevada 51-47.
Other various and sundry things: Boise’s Brian Scott finished 25th Saturday in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Florida 300 at Daytona International Speedway after failing to qualify for yesterday’s Daytona 500. Scott was derailed by a crash on the 112th lap of the 120-lap race. A couple championship defenses didn’t happen for Boise State over the weekend. The Broncos were edged by San Diego State at Mountain West Swimming & Diving Championships in San Antonio. And the Boise State men’s tennis team saw its two-year run of titles at the Blue & Gray Classic in Montgomery, AL, come to an end with losses to South Florida and Auburn. But the 15th-ranked Bronco women’s gymnastics team did travel to Ohio State and upended the 23rd-ranked Buckeyes Friday night. BSU won three of the four team events and scored a 196.025.
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February 23, 1989: Boise State makes its first national TV appearance in the Pavilion, hosting Idaho live on ESPN. Senior Chris Childs led the Broncos to an intense 63-61 victory before a sellout crowd of 12,422—still the second-largest in school history. BSU was defending Big Sky champion and would win the conference regular season title, but the Vandals would topple the Broncos in the championship game of the Big Sky Tournament in the Pavilion to earn a trip to the NCAA’s the following week to play UNLV…in the Pavilion.
(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 93.1 The Ticket. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
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