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Wednesday Weekly: March 4, 2026.
Boise State opened the game a house afire, building a 17-point lead over San Diego State midway through the first half. The Aztecs got the lead down to seven at the intermission. We’ve seen this movie before. But this time there was an alternate ending. The Broncos built their largest lead of the game with 12½ minutes left at 21 points. You knew the Aztecs would make it interesting, and they did, getting the margin down to seven with four minutes left. But Boise State bore down from there and won it 86-77. The Broncos still have an outside shot at the No. 5 seed in the Mountain West Tournament. At any rate, they’ve clinched a winning conference record, as they’re now 11-8. And that looked dicey after their 1-5 start two months ago.
FIELDER FROM THE FIELD – AND THE FREE THROW LINE
Would Drew Fielder score a point against San Diego State? Inquiring minds wanted to know going into the game. Fielder went notoriously scoreless last Saturday at Fresno State, as the Bulldogs chose to double-team him whenever he touched the ball. They did stop Fielder, but that opened up Javan Buchanan to score 26 points and helped the Broncos win that game 69-53. Fielder had been averaging 19 points over his previous five games. Well, Tuesday night he answered with a career-high 33 points in one of the Broncos’ biggest wins of the season. Fielder went 7-for-10 from the field with a trio of three-pointers and was 16-for-18 from the free throw line.
Not to forget Fielder’s team-leading nine rebounds. And the glass has been central to Boise State’s four-game winning streak. After outrebounding Fresno State by 14 and pulling down 17 offensive boards, the Broncos had a stunning 37-15 advantage in rebounds against San Diego State. I’d think that was a typo if I didn’t know better. On the offensive end? The margin was 12-2. RJ Keene had eight boards, four of them on offense. Boise State is playing arguably its best basketball of the year right now. The Broncos’ final regular season task Saturday is to tangle on the road with red-hot Colorado State, which carries a seven-game winning streak into tonight’s game at New Mexico.
WAY-TOO-EARLY, BUT HERE YOU GO
Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News, who follows the new Pac-12 as closely as anybody, has unveiled his first football predictions for the rebuilt conference—now that rosters and coaching staffs are pretty much set. Wilner has Boise State at No. 1, followed by Fresno State, San Diego State and Washington State in the top half. Then it’s Utah State, Texas State, Oregon State and Colorado State bringing up the rear. Wilner says, “The three-time defending Mountain West champions are the team to beat in the Pac-12 based on their winning culture, coaching continuity and personnel. Defensively, the strength of the unit, the edge rushers, is precisely where you want the strength to be. The Broncos open their next era at Oregon, which should ensure a focused and productive offseason.”
ANOTHER GEM STATE FIRST-ROUNDER
Idaho high school grads have had a presence in the first round of the NFL Draft since the turn of the century, and you can expect that to continue. Skyline High grad Kenyon Sadiq ran a 4.39-second 40-yard dash last Friday, the fastest Combine time ever recorded by a tight end. The former Oregon Duck also produced the second-best vertical leap ever by a tight end and the third-best broad jump. In the days before the Combine, The Athletic’s nine-member panel of writers predicted Sadiq would go No. 23 overall to Philadelphia. Methinks his stock is rising. If Sadiq goes in the first round as expected, he’d be the sixth such pick from an Idaho high school in the 21st century, joining Gooding’s Colston Loveland, Salmon River’s Leighton Vander Esch, Marsing’s Shea McClellin, Fruitland’s Jordan Gross and Nampa’s Rob Morris.
KAGE CASEY’S WAIT
Kage Casey’s draft stock movement was essentially neutral coming out of the Combine. The former Boise State star left tackle was near the bottom in on-field drills, running the 40-yard dash in 5.2 seconds and the 3-cone drill in 8.01. Signs continue to point to Casey transitioning to guard in the NFL based on those results. But there’s little doubt that he was near the top in interview rooms. What kind of a football player is Kage Casey? That is what it’s going to be all about. I think his football IQ is through the roof. Casey’s next stop as an NFL Draft hopeful is Boise State’s Pro Day on March 26.
TAYLEN GREEN ACES HIS EXAM
This question was posed over the weekend: would Taylen Green be considered the first Boise State quarterback ever to be taken in the NFL Draft when he’s selected next month? It’s an interesting one in the transfer portal era. Well, Ryan Finley wasn’t considered that when he was chosen out of North Carolina State in 2019. So no, Green will be an Arkansas quarterback on draft day. But it’s tempting after seeing what he did at the NFL Combine last Saturday. The 6-6 Green ran the 40-yard dash in 4.36 seconds and logged a vertical leap of 43½ inches and a broad jump of 11 feet, 2 inches. All three of those marks are records for quarterbacks since at least 2003, according to ESPN Research. Green still has quirks in his throwing mechanics, but he will be drafted.
AC BOISE: IT’S HAPPENING
Athletic Club Boise’s first game ever is just three days away, as the team prepares for the season opener Saturday evening on the road against the Sarasota Paradise. Two local players will garner plenty of attention for AC Boise. First and foremost it’s Eagle’s Blake Bodily, who five years ago was making his Major League Soccer debut for the Portland Timbers. Bodily will be remembered for contributing a historic assist in a 2-1 win over Houston Dynamo FC. It was the quickest assist by a player making his debut in franchise history. The other local is Meridian’s Keegan Oyler, who made his mark as an All-WAC wingback at Utah Valley. The countdown is on…
STEELHEADS START THE HOME STRETCH BACK EAST
The final month of the Idaho Steelheads’ regular season begins with a five-game road swing—the first three are on the other side of the country against the Norfolk Admirals. After a split last week with the Wichita Thunder, the Steelheads have fallen into a tie for second place in the ECHL’s Western Conference standings with Fort Wayne. There are 18 games left before the Kelly Cup Playoffs.
YOTES ON PINS & NEEDLES
College of Idaho is sweatin’ it out today. After falling 74-62 at Lewis-Clark State in the semifinals of the Cascade Conference Tournament last Saturday, the Yotes have been waiting to see if their season continues—and they’ll get their answer Thursday evening on the NAIA Selection Show. It’s touch-and-go for the defending national champions to get another invite to the NAIA Tournament. C of I is 20-10 on the season after its 35-2 title campaign a year ago.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by HARMON TRAVEL…official sponsor of Boise State athletics.
March 4, 1976, 50 years ago today: After coming within one Candlestick Park wind gust of moving to Toronto, the San Francisco Giants are bought for $8 million by Bob Lurie and Bud Herseth. Owner Horace Stoneham, who had moved the Giants to the Bay from New York in 1958, had agreed in January of that year to sell the club to a Toronto group that included Labatt’s Breweries. Attendance at Candlestick had plummeted since the glory days of the 1960s—in fact, a game against Atlanta at the end of the 1974 season had an announced attendance of 748. The Giants moved to what is now Oracle Park in 2000, and the crowds have been robust ever since.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
