BOISE, Idaho — Wednesday Weekly…March 6, 2024.
Nevada lived by the three, Boise State died by it Tuesday night as the Wolf Pack ended the Broncos’ five-game winning streak with an impressive 76-66 victory in ExtraMile Arena. While Boise State was trying to find its legs after an emotional Senior Night ceremony featuring Max Rice, Nevada was hitting threes like nobody’s business. Rice and Tyson Degenhart each missed from outside the arc in the first minute, and the Broncos proceeded to go 3-for-14 from deep in the first half and 6-for-23 for the game. Chibuzo Agbo, who walked on Senior Night even though he might be back next season, didn’t hit his first (and only) triple until 11½ minutes remained in the game. Meanwhile, Nevada shot 50 percent from three-point range and Hunter McIntosh made all six of his tries while scoring a game-high 26 points.
Everything seemed to favor Boise State going into the game. The Broncos, tied for first in the Mountain West, were playing their best basketball of the season and seemed to be on the cusp of clinching an NCAA Tournament berth. Many may have forgotten that the Wolf Pack were playing with the same sense of urgency. They were trying to improve their seeding in Las Vegas next week and assure themselves of a place in the Big Dance, and they may have done it with their Quad 1 road victory. The Pack came out of it 25-6 overall and 12-5 in conference and are now tied for second with the Broncos and (surprise) UNLV, which upset San Diego State Tuesday night. Now, do the Broncos need a road win over the Aztecs Friday to be safely inside the Field of 68?
IT COMES DOWN TO THE AZTECS
Despite the happenings of Tuesday night, the Boise State-San Diego State game in Viejas Arena will be one of the best things on TV Friday night. Sure the Aztecs lost 67-66 in ExtraMile Arena in January, but their stumbles had not been significant until their 62-58 loss at UNLV. SDSU, ranked 21st in the AP Poll this week, is now 22-8. It’s March, and the Aztecs are still very comfortable in March with their frequent Mountain West championships and last year’s run to the national title game. The Broncos will need an effort at least equal to the one in The Pit against New Mexico five weeks ago to nab the upset.
THE MAX RICE REVIEW
Rice has watched a lot of Senior Nights from the Boise State bench. I mean, a lot of Senior Nights—five of them. The sixth time was a charm Tuesday night (except for the final score). Rice redshirted in 2018-19—then he saw action as a reserve in 2019-20, averaging 2.7 points. He appeared to break out as a redshirt sophomore, but injuries set him back the following season, as he averaged four points per game and shot just 27 percent from three-point range. Last season was senior year No. 1, and Rice responded with 14 points per game and second-team All-Mountain West honors while hitting 41 percent of his threes. Senior year No. 2 (thanks to COVID) has been just plain good, with 12½ points per game. Max has come up huge more often than not.
LAST LOOK AT THE LOBOS GAME
The New Mexico game seems like a long time ago now. But other than making more buckets in the first half, Boise State couldn’t have played much better than it did in last Saturday night’s 89-79 victory over UNM. Beyond the balance provided by O’Mar Stanley, Degenhart, Agbo and Rice, there were the detail stats that are crucial to winning. The Broncos are all about rebounding, and they outworked the Lobos on the boards 43-35 and pulled down 17 offensive rebounds, much to the chagrin of New Mexico. That’s the same number they had on the offensive end in The Pit at the end of January. Boise State also took care of the ball against a team that lives off steals, turning the ball over only seven times after committing just six at Air Force last week. Unfortunately, there was not a repeat performance against Nevada.
THAT FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
We know that the Boise State football schedule starts August 31 at Statesboro, GA, against Georgia Southern. But man, what a finish. With the release of the slate by the Mountain West last week, we learned that the last game of the regular season will be on the blue turf against Oregon State. The date has been moved from September—it’s tentatively November 30, but it could be switched to Black Friday once CBS and FOX do their picking and choosing. What looked like a September gauntlet has been lightened considerably. The Broncos do go to Autzen Stadium to play Oregon September 7, but then they have a bye followed by a home game against Portland State before hosting Washington State on September 28. The very next week Utah State will visit Albertsons Stadium. Good times.
HOLANI STILL HAS HOPE
George Holani did everything he could at the NFL Combine last Saturday to try to coax a late-round draft pick out of interested teams. He ran a 4.52 in the 40-yard dash, a top 10 time among running backs. Holani’s vertical leap was especially impressive: 39.0 inches, third-best in the RB group. He was also third in the broad jump, sixth in the three-cone drill and 20-yard shuttle and fourth in the bench press. Elsewhere in the NFL involving Boise State grads, veteran offensive lineman Charles Leno Jr. and running back Alexander Mattison are looking for new homes after being released by Washington and Minnesota, respectively.
TALK ABOUT A ROAD TRIP
The Idaho Steelheads couldn’t be much further away the next two weeks. After an 18-hour, three-flight trip to the far reaches of Canada, the Steelheads will meet the Newfoundland Growlers Friday and Saturday before going to Trois-Rivières in Quebec. The Steelies are coming off a three-game series against Utah in which they took two out of three from the Utah Grizzlies. Idaho’s yo-yo with the AHL clubs continues—this time the team gets one back, as defenseman Patrick Kudla returns after a PTO with the Calgary Wranglers. The Steelheads, with a record of 37-15-3, are now nine points behind the Kansas City Mavericks in the ECHL Mountain Division standings.
RETIREMENT FOR A MUCH-DECORATED FORMER HAWK
One of the best players to come through Boise during the Hawks’ Chicago Cubs era was Josh Donaldson, a Northwest League All-Star in 2007. Donaldson hit .346 with nine home runs and 35 runs batted in as a Hawk. He was traded to the Oakland organization in 2008, and four years later his career took off. Just as Donaldson was hitting his peak with the A’s, making his first All-Star Game in 2014, he was traded (as is the A’s habit) to Toronto. The next year he was named American League MVP with 41 homers and 122 RBI. Donaldson’s recent seasons were marred by injuries. And although he planned to play this year, he said he couldn’t find the right fit. Donaldson retired Monday with 1,310 career hits and 279 homers.
THE TROPHY THAT GOT AWAY AT C OF I
College of Idaho was determined to keep the Cascade Conference championship trophy in-house Tuesday night in Caldwell. But Oregon Tech had other ideas and stunned the Coyotes 79-76 in the J.A. Albertson Activities Center. There’s another trophy the Yotes are after, and that’s the one they brought home from Kansas City last March: the NAIA national championship hardware. It’s still in C of I’s sights, as the Yotes will host the first and second rounds of the NAIA Tournament on March 15-16.
THIS DAY IN SPORTS…March 6, 2014, 10 years ago today:
Symbolic of the shift in balance of basketball power in Los Angeles at the time, the L.A. Clippers hand the L.A. Lakers their worst loss in franchise history, 142-94. The Lakers were designated the home team in the Staples Center matchup but were outscored 44-13 in a devastating second quarter. The Lakers, playing all but six games that season without injured superstar Kobe Bryant, were in danger of posting their worst record since moving to Southern California from Minneapolis in 1959. For the Clippers, it was their most lopsided victory in club history.
(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.)
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