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Wednesday Weekly…April 9, 2025.
Boise State hoops is going to be a rebuild job next season. One particular Bronco to enter the transfer portal, Emmanuel Ugbo, makes it quite apparent. There was a lot of playing time there for the taking moving forward, but Ugbo wants to give it a shot elsewhere. Rebuilding is actually a little easier in the transfer portal era, but at the same time, we forget about the players who are already in the program: the redshirts. What might they bring to the table? Well, no sooner did I mention the Boise State redshirts the other day than one ends up in the portal. Moses Hipps, a 6-4 guard from Voorhees, NJ, by way of Powder Springs, GA, and Arizona Compass Prep, made the jump Tuesday. Hipps is renowned as a three-point shooter (and you know how things went for the Broncos from beyond the arc this season).
Boise State has now lost Hipps, Ugbo unexpectedly—and Chris Lockett and Dylan Anderson expectedly. As of now the other two redshirts, 6-10 forward Ethan Lathan, also from Arizona Compass Prep, and 6-9 forward Dominic Parolin, a fifth-year transfer from Lehigh, are still on the roster. Lathan would be a great post prospect with more weight on his 220-pound frame, and Parolin has some much-needed Division I experience (105 games and 39 starts). But with rosters expanding to 15 next season, there are lots of Broncos scholarships available.
SHERROD’S SURGE
The narrative on the Boise State running backs room has changed—at least temporarily. You’ve heard about Breezy Dubar and Sire Gaines devising a goal of rushing for 1,000 yards each next season. Dubar, for one, is realistic about Ashton Jeanty’s forever school record of 2,601 yards last year. It’ll take two to tango. But you also heard that neither Dubar nor Gaines played in last Saturday’s scrimmage. Dubar’s injuries are nagging, while Gaines’ issues date back to the Portland State game last September. So the door couldn’t be open much wider for Fresno State transfer Malik Sherrod, and he reportedly responded in the scrimmage. Sherrod could do to others what he did to the Broncos in 2023, helping the Bulldogs to a victory with a 95-yard kickoff return and a 52-yard touchdown run.
JEANTY’S BIGGEST JOB INTERVIEW
In college recruiting terms, you’d call it an “official visit.” Former Boise State star Ashton Jeanty was in Henderson, NV, yesterday to meet with the Las Vegas Raiders. I can’t imagine that it didn’t go well. Raiders general manager John Spytek famously said last week that his 10-year-old son, Jack, told him “he is walking out of the family and he is gonna find somebody else” if the team doesn’t take Jeanty No. 6 overall in the NFL Draft in two weeks. The Athletic’s Vic Tafur has talked to a lot of people who agree, including one-time Raiders running back Maurice Jones-Drew, who Jeanty has been compared to (along with Marshall Faulk).
“Both Jeanty and Faulk played with a bunch of future warehouse workers at a small school, and nobody could stop them,” Jones-Drew told Tafur in a rather back-handed compliment to the Broncos and San Diego State. “Jeanty is the best prospect I have seen in the last 10 years. The Raiders should definitely just take him,” he added. “You know Pete Carroll wants to run the ball, and this guy is a great fit and can come right in and be a workhorse, and help him and Geno (Smith) get some wins right away.”
BACK TO KELLEN THE PLAYER FOR A MOMENT
Catching up on national nuggets: There was a “Top 90 Quarterbacks of the 21st Century” feature last week on the college football homepage at ESPN.com. Of course, we want to know where they put Kellen Moore. He was 14th. The synopsis: “50-3. Fifty and three! That was Boise State’s record with Moore behind center. The Broncos went 6-0 against power conference teams, and two of their three losses were to teams with QBs on this list (Colin Kaepernick’s Nevada, Andy Dalton’s TCU). Ruthlessly efficient for four straight years.” We also want to know who the 13 ahead of Moore were: Johnny Manziel, Colt McCoy, Trevor Lawrence, Robert Griffin III, Marcus Mariota, Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, Deshaun Watson, Joe Burrow, Tim Tebow. Vince Young, Cam Newton and No. 1 Baker Mayfield.
THE STEELIES STARE DOWN A BIG WEEK
The Idaho Steelheads have only missed the playoffs once in their 28-year history. This week, the Steelheads hope to avoid it becoming twice. With a season-long five-game winning streak and victories in eight of their last 10 games, the Steelies have played their way into the fourth and final Mountain Division spot in the ECHL’s Kelly Cup Playoffs. But they have to keep winning. The good news: the final three games of the regular season are in Idaho Central Arena, beginning tonight. The bad news: they have to do it against the No. 1 team in the division, the Kansas City Mavericks.
AVERY GOES UP THE COAST
What an interesting move by former Boise High star Avery Howell, going from one West Coast school in the Big 10 to another. Howell, who got serious playing time as a true freshman at USC, entered the transfer portal last week. And on Tuesday, she landed at Washington. Howell averaged 7.5 points and shot a shade under 40 percent from three-point land this season, and her court time ballooned after Trojans superstar JuJu Watkins tore her ACL in the NCAA Tournament. Howell played 37 minutes against Kansas State in the Sweet 16 and 36 versus UConn in the Elite 8. Maybe it was NIL, maybe she wanted to be closer to home, maybe she was just plain unhappy at USC. Regardless, it’s a new chapter for one of the best girls hoops players to come out of Idaho.
This Day In Sports…brought to you by BBSI BOISE…payroll, process and prosperity for your business.
April 9, 1993: An Opening Day crowd of 80,227 at Mile High Stadium greets the Colorado Rockies, as big league baseball comes to Denver with an 11-4 Rockies rout of Montreal. But the big story was the crowd—as it would be all season. The Rockies drew almost 4½ million fans that year, a major league record, averaging 56,751 fans per game. (For comparison’s sake, the L.A. Dodgers led the majors in attendance last season with 48,657 per game.) Coors Field, which opened two years later in Denver, has a capacity of 50,398.
(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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