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Wednesday, April 30, 2014.
There was a lot to chew on after 137 minutes of ice time Wednesday night, so let’s do some mopup here on the longest game in ECHL history. Idaho goalie Josh Robinson’s 83 saves not only tied an ECHL record set 10 years ago, it demolished the Steelheads record for saves in a game. By 28, for cryin’ out loud. Jerry Kuhn had 55 in a December, 2011, game versus the Las Vegas Wranglers. Robinson nearly doubled his previous career high, by the way—45 stops in an overtime loss to those same Colorado Eagles last April in the first round of the playoffs. Also, offensive sparkplug Justin Mercier had only two points in the six-game series, but both came within a 16-second span Monday night via an assist and a goal that tied the game.
The Steelheads already had the distinction of being involved in the longest scoreless tie in ECHL history. It was four years ago that the Steelheads and the Stockton Thunder went into three overtimes in the Kelly Cup Playoffs without having so much as scored a goal. The game ended 36 seconds into the third OT, as the Thunder finally defeated the Steelheads 1-0 in Game 3 of the National Conference Finals in Stockton. Idaho would go on to the Kelly Cup Finals, though, falling to the Cincinnati Cyclones in five games. The Steelies fly to Anchorage today and open the National Conference semifinals against the Alaska Aces tomorrow night.
Boise State tied for second with Duke (behind Army) among FBS schools yesterday for the number of players named to the 2014 National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society. The Broncos’ seven honorees also ranked first in the Mountain West. The criteria: significant contributors who are completing their eligibility and maintained a grade-point average of 3.2 or higher throughout their careers. Boise State’s representatives are Spencer Gerke, Trevor Harman, Gabe Linehan, Ebo Makinde, Kirby Moore, Matt Paradis and Joe Southwick.
Mountain West champion Boise State drew the University of San Diego yesterday when the round of 64 was unveiled for the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships. The Broncos face the Toreros a week from Saturday at UCLA’s Los Angeles Tennis Center. If BSU advances, it gets the winner of the match between the Bruins and Cal Poly. After winning their first WAC championship, the Idaho men have the pleasure of facing the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, USC, at the Trojans’ Marks Tennis Stadium. The Vandal women, first-time WAC champions as well, also face USC in the first round next week.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s landmark lifetime ban of L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling yesterday certainly siphons attention away from this. But the lasting image of former Idaho Stampede power forward Josh McRoberts going into the offseason will be his hard foul on LeBron James in Game 2 of the Charlotte-Miami series last Wednesday. McRoberts gave James a forearm to the throat as he drove to the hoop and was ultimately fined $20,000.
McRoberts, a member of the Stampede’s 2007-08 D-League championship team, averaged 8.5 points a game in the regular season and stepped it up a bit in the playoffs, scoring 11.5 per game as the Bobcats were swept by the Heat. Another former Stampede power forward, Anthony Tolliver, was also on the Charlotte roster this season. Tolliver averaged 20 minutes in 64 games and scored six points per game during the regular season but averaged just five minutes per game in the Miami series.
Gary Stevens’ career resume in Triple Crown races is rather symmetrical. The Idaho native has won each of the three legs of horse racing’s trilogy three times, including his thrilling victory in last year’s Preakness Stakes at the age of 50. A fourth win at Saturday’s Kentucky Derby would tie late Hall of Fame jockey Bill Shoemaker, one victory behind record-holders Eddie Arcaro and Bill Hartack. Shoemaker was ageless—kind of like Stevens is turning out to be—as he won the last of his Derbys at the age of 56 in 1986.
The former Boise Hawk with the most interesting start to the season is the Cubs’ Jeff Samardzija, who played here in 2006 before his senior season as a wide receiver at Notre Dame. Samardzija, of course, chose baseball and Chicago, and the latter has worn on him after all these years. He allowed two runs and seven hits in 7 1/3 innings last Wednesday on Wrigley Field’s 100th anniversary—and got a no-decision when the Cubs bullpen blew up. Last night at Cincinnati, Samardzija went 5 2/3 innings and yielded three runs on eight hits in a 3-2 loss to the Reds, dropping to 0-3 on the season.
Incredibly, Samardzija is winless in six starts this year despite a sparkling 1.98 ERA. His last victory, in fact, came last August against San Diego. Former Cubs teammate Matt Garza, now with NL Central rival Milwaukee, has recommended to Samardzija that he needs to “pitch your way out of there.” Samardzija could do that, as he’s set to become a free agent at the end of the season and would be premium trade bait by July if he’s seen as valuable.
Boise State’s Tara Glover became the career hits leader in Mountain West softball yesterday as the Broncos pounded Idaho State in Pocatello, 11-5. Glover singled in her final two at-bats to reach 266 hits, breaking the mark set by BYU’s Angeline Quiocho from 2007-10. Glover collected her first 55 hits as a freshman at Utah (when the Utes were still Mountain West members) before transferring to Boise State. The Broncos resume conference play when they open a three-game series Friday against New Mexico at Dona Larsen Park.
Sunny Smallwood, a star Boise State women’s basketball player from 1979-83, is returning to the Broncos as associate head coach under Gordy Presnell. Smallwood comes back to BSU after nine seasons at Nebraska, the last six as the associate head coach. Smallwood has also been on the staff at Cal, Washington and Washington State. At UW she spent eight seasons coaching with former Boise State coach June Daugherty. Smallwood started her coaching career as head girls coach at Boise High in the 1980s.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by HARMON TRAVEL…the art of travel—perfected.
April 30, 1993: One of sports’ most infamous moments, as tennis star Monica Seles is stabbed in the back by a deranged spectator during a tournament in Hamburg, Germany. The attack was carried out by a fan obsessed with Steffi Graf—at a time when Seles was No. 1 in the world and Graf No. 2. Seles was the three-time reigning French Open champion and had also won two straight Australian and U.S. Opens. The injury took only a few weeks to heal, but she would not return to competitive tennis for more than two years.
(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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