Presented by BBSI BOISE.
This Day In Sports…March 13, 1976:
In its first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament, Boise State runs into the Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV in the first round of the West Regional in Eugene. The Big Sky champion Broncos trailed by only seven early in the second half, but the Rebels ended up with another 100-point game—putting up an incredible 87 field goal attempts in their 103-78 victory to improve to 29-1 in their third season under the legendary Jerry Tarkanian. Sophomore guard Steve Connor, son of Boise State coach Bus Connor, was the game’s high-scorer with 26 points.
The Broncos were led that season by a trio of sophomores: Connor, Trent Johnson, Terry Miller and Danny Jones. Miller transferred after the season, but Connor, Johnson and Jones starred through their senior season. Connor, a former Borah High star, had a sweet left-handed jumper and would have had a heyday if there’d been a three-point line back then. Connor was Boise State’s career scoring leader for 15 years with 1,927 points. (His record was broken by Tanoka Beard’s 1,944 points—the mark Tyson Degenhart is chasing as we speak.)
Johnson was determined on the boards and is still fifth in Broncos history with 702 career rebounds. After graduation, he coached at Boise High for five seasons before embarking on a distinguished college coaching career. Johnson was head coach at Nevada, Stanford, LSU, TCU and Cal State Northridge. He led the Wolf Pack to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in 2004 and took the Cardinal to the Sweet 16 in 2008, when he was named Pac-10 Coach of the Year. Jones is one of 35 1,000-point career scorers at Boise State and shot 60.6 percent from the floor as a senior, still the 10th-best number in school history.
Boise State wouldn’t face UNLV again until the 2004 NIT, where the Broncos defeated the Rebels 84-69. That was a cherished victory, as the UNLV brand was still strong only 14 years removed from a national championship. The next matchup after that came in Leon Rice’s first season, a 75-72 loss in non-conference play at the Thomas & Mack Center. All the rest of the games in the series have been in Mountain West play, and the Broncos have dominated the past 11 years. Boise State leads the overall series 20-11, including wins in 19 of the last 24 meetings.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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