Sunday, March 22, 2009

Only in Boise....

Anticlimatic finish when Marquette's Lazar Hayward steps on the line, trying to inbound the ball with 5.5 seconds and down 2 points.....Lazar, you robbed me of another Tyus Edney moment ( against the MIZZOU, no less). pic from BARSTOOLSPORTS
Just previous to the above pictured inbounds play, Missouri's J.T. Tiller gets fouled in the act and goes down like he was hit by a sniper. Then Mizzou gets to insert Kim English into the game for the gravely injuried Tiller, to shoot the free throws, and ends up knocking down both of them. Right after the second free throw went down, Tiller returned to the game as if he was never injured ever at all.



National Anthem
J.T. Tiller hitting a free throw in the first half

People can sometimes think of Boise as a western outpost, that receives mail once a week, has one stop light per community or even perhaps just received running water. These pics are not circa 1980 but rather of today during the Wisconsin vs Xavier & Marquette vs Missouri. While the hardwood floor is brand new this week, the scoreboard is still reminiscent of the dark ages.....Then they had issues after the first game where the scoreboard malfunctioned and the scoreboard could not be changed to reflect the proper teams. The scoreboard should have reflected Missouri and Marquette, instead we received Missouri and Wisconsin. Only in Boise, do they settle for antique scoreboards. Yes, they show the important stuff like the score, time left and the teams involved ( usually correct). Lucky for the fans, the scoreboard shows the numbers of the player fouled and how many points the player might have ( usually). I know it is not cool to bag on the home team, but this scoreboard is embarrassing. The only thing that is worse is the BroncoVision board out in the football field, which struggles game to game ( not to mention the speaker sound/volume issue which is atrocious).
So what does the Taco Bell Arena staff decide to do? Put up a white plastic sign that reads the proper name, Marquette, and then use tape to mask the remaining lights that creep from behind the new "Marquette" display. Only the best for you Clark- think any Griswold vacation movie! Here is the staff working hard........
While here are some pics featuring press row.......
A full hour before the first tipoff, I asked Max Corbet ( above, sitting on press table) if it was possible, that before the game, the early arriving fans could watch the scoreboard to see the current live game being shown off the CBS feed. Max said, "No" as if the question was totally unheard of. Oh well.......just trying to create some buzz for the early arrivers. The halftime show was null and void during the Wisconsin Xavier game....no entertainment as all ( at least from what I could see while in the Parquet section- stretching the legs). The Mizzou Marquette game featured a lame two set dance performance from 5-6 Mizzou dancers. Snore....... Enough of the negative, the second half was fun to enjoy as Marquette fought back only to lose a shot at glory ( Tyus Edeny-style) as the inbounding player stepped on the line with 5.5 seconds left, down by two points. Here we have Mike Prater(standing) from the Statesman, who happened to wear shoes today instead of the regular flip flops. Also sitting down in the orange shirt is Phil Dailey from the Idaho Press Tribune. Also saw, but refused to take pics of, Mark Johnson- KTVB, Joe Hughes- KIVI and finally Ed Vining- former KTVB sports dude and now right hand man to Mike Prater( they rubbed shoulders during both contest today).



As for the games, Marquette traveled the best followed by Wisconsin/Xavier. Missouri fans were heard being labeled as rednecks but I did not see this behavior. In both games the overall majority of the fans were rooting for the underdogs.....

Will have more pics and videos later this week.....