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Tuesday, February 3, 2015.
Boise State has never won a men’s basketball game in Logan, Utah. Never. The Broncos are 0-18 in the Cache Valley. Barring a matchup in the Mountain West Tournament next month, tonight marks the Broncos’ last chance at a breakthrough during USU’s Stew Morrill era, as the coach is retiring at the end of this season. Ten of Boise State’s 18 road losses to Utah State have been with Morrill at the helm. Only five active coaches in Division I have more career wins than Morrill's 614: Mike Krzyzewski of Duke, Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, Bob Huggins of West Virginia, Roy Williams of North Carolina and Rick Pitino of Louisville. That’s pretty tall company—and it makes Morrill the winningest active coach from a non-power conference.
More immediately, though, Boise State is trying to extend its five-game winning streak and avenge the 62-61 defeat at the hands of the Aggies in Taco Bell Arena last month, the one that was lost when David Collette hit a three-point prayer at the buzzer. In basic terms, it’s a really important Mountain West game. Boise State is 5-3 in conference, and Utah State is 5-4. The Aggies were inspired after taking down the Broncos in Boise. “There’s still a long way to go but they don’t want to finish where they were picked,” said Morrill at the time. “They were picked 10th in the preseason poll but we still have a long way to go to show people that we’re not a tenth-place team.”
Derrick Marks played only one game last week, but it was enough to earn him a third Mountain West Player of the Week honor this season. Marks scored 26 of his 28 points in the second half to rally Boise State past Colorado State 82-78 last Tuesday. He scored or assisted on 25 of the Broncos’ final 27 points. Marks leads the country in scoring in the new year, averaging 25.9 points per game.
We know that Marks’ game has taken a quantum leap in his senior year, and the numbers only magnify that. His overall scoring average has gone from 14.9 points per game as a junior to 19.6 so far this season. In Mountain West play, his scoring has jumped to a 23.6-point average from 13.3. Marks’ field goal shooting has improved from 44 percent to 52 percent, but the difference in his three-point shooting is stunning—29 percent last season and 54 percent so far this season. Marks' free throw shooting has been money, too, up to 86 percent this season.
In case you didn’t wade through the Sunday inserts in the paper, Boise State incoming freshman Brett Rypien was named an honorable mention quarterback on the 2014 Parade High School All-America football team. Rypien, who’s already enrolled at BSU, set a state of Washington record last season with 13,044 career passing yards. One name on the Parade All-America list stood out to me, at least for future reference. Who knows what’ll happen with Wyoming once Craig Bohl gets his own guys in? Cowboy commit Kellen Overstreet, a 6-0, 190-pound running back from Hamilton, MO, was named to the first team.
Tomorrow is National Letter of Intent Day, and Rypien’s intent has been clear for 10 months. He visited Washington, Washington State, Arizona State and Oregon State—and he chose Boise State. KTVB’s Jay Tust visited Rypien last month during his final day of class at Shadle Park High and his subsequent departure for Boise the next day. Tust ran the story Sunday night after the Super Bowl. “I can’t wait,” said Rypien just before pulling out of the driveway. “These past eight months it’s been talk-talk-talk. Social media is so hyped up these days with recruiting. I mean, obviously there are a lot of expectations and I’m hoping to live up to those. But it’s been all talk at this point, and I just want to get to work.”
Boise State’s recruiting class numbers 19 now in the 24 hours before Signing Day. Yesterday’s addition was Sam Whitney of Folsom, CA, who doubles as a linebacker and defensive lineman. Whitney had previously committed to Sacramento State but elected to accept a grayshirt offer from the Broncos. Boise State is well-stocked at linebacker, so maybe strength and conditioning coach Jeff Pitman gets the 6-3, 219-pounder locked into winter conditioning a year from now, puts about 30 pounds on him, and turns him into a defensive end. Whitney sounds like a good chip-on-the-shoulder guy. “I wear a (San Jose State) bracelet everywhere because they told me I was too small,” Whitney told Scout.com.
Utah has replaced departed offensive coordinator Dave Christensen with co-coordinators, and one of them is not Dennis Erickson. Coach Kyle Whittingham has promoted Aaron Roderick and Jim Harding to fill those duties. Erickson, the two-time former Idaho coach (among other places) will remain running backs coach, although Whittingham has given him the title of assistant head coach. Christensen had taken the O-coordinator post with the Utes after being fired as head coach at Wyoming following the 2013 season. He has since left Utah to become offensive line coach at Texas A&M.
Speaking of former Idaho coaches, Robb Akey has climbed one more rung on the NFL ladder, hired as defensive line coach by Washington. Akey, whose 20-50 record at Idaho included the 2009 Humanitarian Bowl victory, took a year off after being fired by the Vandals in 2012. This past season he joined the Minnesota Vikings as defensive line coach. Akey has ties to new Washington defensive coordinator Joe Barry, having coached alongside him for three seasons at Northern Arizona from 1996-98.
The Idaho Steelheads season is at a crossroads with word from coach Brad Ralph that goalie Olivier Roy is lost to the team for two to four weeks. Backup Henri Kiviaho will have to step up, beginning tomorrow night against the Utah Grizzlies in CenturyLink Arena. Roy has a record of 22-9-3 and a goals-against average of 2.47 this season—the 22 victories are tops in the ECHL.
The Idaho Stampede’s latest road swing continues tonight against the Delaware 87ers. While the scoreboard may cause you to avert your eyes, Jerrelle Benimon is worth your attention as the season progresses. The 6-8 forward has 17 double-doubles, which is three short of the most by a Stamp since the franchise joined the D-League. Stampede all-time great Randy Livingston recorded 20 double-doubles in the 2007-08 season, while Lance Allred logged 18 in both 2007-08 and 2008-09.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by BBSI…partners in profitability.
February 3, 1940: The birthday of one of the great scramblers in NFL history. Fran Tarkenton starred at quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants. His first NFL game was the Vikings first-ever game in 1961. Tarkenton led Minnesota to three Super Bowls in the 1970’s, all of which resulted in Vikings losses. He threw for 47,003 yards and 362 touchdowns in his NFL career—and rushed for 3,674 yards and 32 TDs. Fran Tarkenton…75 years old today.
(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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