Timberline Looks for A Marquee Win

January 4, 2012, 1:44 pm
With eight teams in the conference having a nice layoff over the Christmas holiday, two teams were treated to extra long breaks as Timberline and Vallivue decided to push their scheduled game back to later in January.

With that being said, the Timberline Wolves had a few extra days of preparation to get ready for the Borah Lions, who are currently on a 5 game winning streak where they have dismantled all of their opponents by double digits.  So far this year, Timberline has beaten the teams they were expected to, but have faltered against Mountain View and Eagle.  Now they will get another opportunity to make a statement as they try and knock off Borah, who has moved into a tie for first place in the SIC behind their stellar defensive play.

An interesting matchup will take place when Mountain View travels to play at Vallivue.  The Falcons are dead last in scoring, but Scott Moore has had a lot of time to try and work out the kinks and he will need his team to score a bunch if they want to keep up with the Mavericks, who are currently leading the SIC in scoring.  Brandon Luedtke will look to get back into double figures as he has had two games in a row where he has been held to 6 points or less.

The Boise Braves looked very good against Mountain View a few weeks ago, but consecutive losses to Borah and Meridian have sent them back to the middle of the pack.  The Braves made a statement earlier this year as they held their opponents to less than 40 points per game the first part of the season, but have allowed 50 points or more five games in a row.  Centennial has officially turned the corner after starting the season 0-2 and are only one game out of first place as we begin 2012. 

The pieces are starting to come together for Capital, but the end result has stayed the same so far as they are winless in conference play.  The offense has picked up significantly and they even out-rebounded Centennial in their one game over break so there are plenty of positives that Paul Rush is hoping will translate to wins.  That will be tough to do tonight against Eagle, who will look to bounce back after a tough loss to Mountain View.  The Mustangs have a stretch of four consecutive games against teams in the bottom half of the SIC, so expect them to make a push for the top spot throughout the next two weeks.

Don't look now, but the Meridian Warriors are starting to figure it out.  Mike Graefe has installed his system and the kids are starting to buy in and that was evident in their win at Boise High over the break.  Rocky Mountain is looking to find some consistency and bounce back after a loss to Borah over the break.
 
Remember, all of these games will take place tomorrow night as we did the Coaches Show one day earlier because we will be out at Beef O'Brady's from 4-6 PM in preparation for Tanner Mangum playing in the Under Armour All-American Football Game.  Come see us tomorrow at Beef O'Brady's.

Bowl Mania

January 2, 2012, 12:15 pm
We all know by now the NFL takes priority over everything else and that is the reason for the awkward circumstance of these bowl games taking place on January 2nd, a Monday no less.  Regardless of that, fans have six games to sink their teeth into, with the most exciting bowl game of all 35 taking place tonight in the Fiesta Bowl.

If there is a way to sum up the bowl season so far, I think it would be that the teams have been matched up evenly with each other, providing competitive games, but there really hasn't been too many marquee matchups until today.  Sure the Washington vs. Baylor game was exciting, but besides that one, which one was the most thrilling? Toledo vs. Air Force?

The reason for the lack of compelling games in December is simple: conference affiliation.  If it weren't for bowl games having to pick the 6th place team in the ACC against the 5th place team in the Big East, fans would be better off in the long run.  If you don't agree, tell me why Boise State played in the MAACO Bowl Las Vegas? This is another reason why the Broncos are making a leap to the Big East in hope for a better bowl matchup in upcoming years. 

For now, its time to enjoy the Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl as four teams with high-flying offenses will almost certainly provide fans with better games to watch than the National Championship game next week.

Watson Commits to Idaho

December 28, 2011, 3:10 pm
We have been talking on the show about how the University of Idaho needed to stay in- state and recruit two of the top players in their own backyard to try and turn the program around.  Well, Robb Akey did just that after Deon Watson gave his commitment to the Vandals earlier this week.

Happy Holidays From The Fan

December 23, 2011, 12:49 pm
Here is a mini-capsule of the sporting events that will take place while we are off the air, so you are all caught up to speed on what we will talk about January 2nd.

Make sure to enjoy all of the bowl games that will take place between Christmas and New Years.  The two biggest games I would keep my eye on are both on December 29th when Florida State takes on Notre Dame during the day and Robert Griffin III tries to potentially cap off his storied career with a win.  We will be back on the air January 2nd which will be during the Rose Bowl, so we will talk about all of those big bowl games on that day as well as preview the upcoming BCS games.

In the NFL, particularly the AFC, there is not too much drama for the final two weeks of the regular season.  It looks like the Broncos will be headed to the playoffs and with the Texans tanking, the Patriots and the Ravens should clinch the top two spots and a first round bye.  If that's the case, the Steelers will have to travel to the Mile High City to try and end Tim Tebow's season.  For the last spot, its between the Jets and the Bengals (that's not a misprint). 

In the NFC, the only two spots up for grabs are who will get the two seed between New Orleans and San Francisco and who will win the NFC Least, I mean NFC East.  My predictions are Green Bay and San Francisco will clinch the first round bye and New Orleans and Dallas will be the other two division winners.  The wild cards will be Atlanta and Detroit.  Of course, all of these predictions are very premature, especially with two weeks remaining in the NFL, where we found out last week that anything can happen.

For the High School Scene, the boys in the 5A SIC will all play one game on December 29th.  Besides that, we aren't missing a thing! The big matchup on the 29th is Eagle vs. Mountain View where the defending state champions will look to avenge their first loss of the season.  The big matchup down low will be Brandon Luedtke against Braiden Shaw.

Enjoy your Holiday Season and we will see you on January 2nd.

Coaching Wisdom at its Finest

December 22, 2011, 11:43 am
Coming off of a district championship last year and with six players returning off that squad, expectations were high for Centennial, but they got off to a shaky start losing their first two games and, in turn, fell to 3-4 overall.  With a big game upcoming for the Patriots, head coach Tom Aipperspach called for a 5:00 AM practice the day before the game against Mountain View and his plan worked to perfection.

The Patriots were stellar defensively with most of the credit going to Junior Daryl Robertson as his suffocating defense was troublesome for whoever was running the point for Mountain View on Tuesday night.  The Mavericks were held to 40 points, by far their lowest output of the season.  Brandon Luedtke struggled which was evident by a few missed layups that we aren't accustomed to seeing.  Aaron Maffey carried the load offensively for Centennial as he had 21 points, including three huge trifectas when the Mavericks tried to get the game close.  We all knew Mountain View was not going unbeaten, so this loss might help them refocus going into Christmas Break, but for now it creates a three-way tie at the top of the 5A SIC Standings.

The other two teams tied with Mountain View at the top are Borah and Eagle.  The Lions have played like a completely different ball club after their one point loss at Mountain View.  Ben Tucakovic has been outstanding on both ends of the floor and he had a double-double against Boise to lead the way offensively.  Super sophomore Isaiah Wright is starting to find his groove offensively and if his shots start falling on a regular basis, Borah is nearly unbeatable. 

Eagle just continues to quietly roll their opponents.  Braiden Shaw had yet another double-double, but against Timberline, two other players were in double figures.  Connor Kent had 18 points and DJ Dean chipped in ten of his own and Eagle scored 61 on the night.  Timberline is still the biggest mystery of the 5A SIC because all of their wins are teams they are supposed to beat and their losses are to superior teams, so at this point, the middle of the pack is right where they should be.

Rocky Mountain defeated Vallivue as the Falcons continue to struggle on the offensive end.  The Grizzlies have been competitive in every game and moved into sole possession of 7th place in the 5A SIC.  In a battle of two winless teams, Meridian came out on top which gave head coach Mike Graefe his first conference win.