Of BS-C Refs, Missed Opportunities and Sleepy Scorekeepers

So Idaho State was the victim of incredible workings of...

Sabotaged ourselves, that is. Idaho State held a 13-point lead over the Weberians and thanks in large part to Daviin Davis' death-raining 3's (Davis allegedly screamed "DEATH FROM ABOVE!!!" with each one. Even if he hadn't, it would have been appropriate) and the Real McCoy's gritty, 15 foot effort (even though he's only 5'7") in snagging a crucial rebound from Big Meetch in the last few minutes that set up a game-tying 3 by that spooky assassin, Daviin. That death maker sent the game into overtime, where ISU is 1-2,000,000 in the Era d' O'Brien. The Weberians outscored the Bengalians in overtime 13-4 to seal the deal with a big win. With the Vikings being defeated in an unsuccessful raid on the Fortress Dahlberg, the Weberians move to being by themselves atop the Big Sky Mortal Kombat Tower.

The sad thing is, Idaho State could have won this game with nary a whisper. ISU was fouled with 14.5 seconds remaining in reg-yu-lay-shun and Amorrow Morgan had God's Golden Opportunity to win the game by one point. However, after making the first free throw, he missed the second. Matt Stucki did the Incredibly Awesome thing by forcing an Incredibly Awesome jump ball that gave ISU the ball back. The crowd roared its approval of such Incredible Awesomeness and with the game tied, all ISU had to do was get it in for a score. However, Stucki was Incredibly Awesomed out and his 3 pointer rimmed in and out. Ov-are-tahm ensued and you know what happened next (see above).

In other Thursday night-related happenings, BS-C referees were in top form, either making terrible calls or not making any at all (Felix Caspari could have been like, maimed on this one play, yo). Such was the discontent over the BS-C calling that many a plastic basketball was tossed in the court's general direction. After informing the P.A. that such dissent would be rewarded by a technical foul, the crowd backed off (but still voiced their disapproval). To highlight the quality of the BS-C officials, Coach O'Brien not only smashed his clipboard but he also killed a guy. This was done so fast nobody really noticed until after the game when the cleanup crew found the body tucked safely away underneath the student section. Reprisal is not expected from the Mao Doug-Tse Fullerdong regime, as criticsm of officials is not tolerated and is typically rewarded with a public reprisal followed by a public execution (only in extreme cases. Usually, the coach in question will be sent off to a summer's worth of hard labor in Western China). It is notable that the regime denies any wrongdoing by any of its officials; in fact, outright denial of crappy refs is the focal point of Red Doug's policies.


Bad officiating does not exist here, Comrades

Adding on to the logs of fire were the astonishing mistakes of the scorekeepers. In fact, the mistakes made last night were of Alger Hiss-proportions. Felix Caspari and that spooky assassin, Daviin Davis, both should have fouled out in regulation. Davis played a vital role in assassinating things with his 3's that tied the game that sent it to overtime which resulted in the Weberians emerging victorious. Had he fouled out like he was supposed to, ISU could very well have won the game by 6-7 points. It's one thing to be outdone by the shenanigans of an officiating crew, quite another to be outfoxed by your own scorekeepers. ISU can't catch a break, eh? The thing is, this shouldn't have mattered so much had we held that 13 point lead. ISU has nobody to blame but ourselves for this soul-crushing loss (it would have placed us 1 game behind Weber State for 1st place). Now everyone involved must go to an emergency Friday church service, pause, and reflect on the wonders of holding a 13-point lead over the #1 team in the BS-C with a 2nd match-up coming on Saturday. The implications are impressive, I'll tell you that.

That's it for this game review, more to come on the women's game tomorrow!

Weber Week #2: Women's preview

Carla Taylor hopes to match Angela Munger's "Sacred Defense of 1,000 Wailing Dogs" this Saturday night*

*(The game, for logical reasons and time constraints [only so many trenches can be dug in 2 days] has been moved to The Somme, which is located in France. The last great game that took place there was July 1st, 1916, when the Allies tied the Germans in the infamous "Battle of the Somme.")

On to previewing the women's game on Saturday, which *FINALLY* will take place at night (who the hell schedules women's games for the early afternoon, anyway?!)

Both teams are nearly identical in OOC play, with ISU fielding a 6-14 overall and WSU fielding 6-13 overall. Also, both teams have had plenty of close losses as both have a tendency to be defensive-minded. This should make for a very fun match on Saturday. Fun as in a World War I-style, trench-fighting, yard-by-yard death match. Weberian Coach Carla Taylor is famous for producing gritty, defensive teams and with this new coaching staff we have this year, look for the game to be in the awe-inspiring scoring figures of high school girls' basketball games.

Now, going down the list on comparing these two programs and breaking them down:

Idaho State (6-14, 3-4 BS-C):

Best Win: Utah State. Any time you beat a Utah team, it's a good day because many in the region have this odd belief that Utah teams are superior in basketball. I say, nuts to that!

Worst Loss: Point wise, this is hard to do. Angela Munger's "Sacred Defense of 1,000 Wailing Dogs" has indeed kept this team close in many games. Most of the losses with 10 points or more are more or less because of Free-Throw Inflation (FTI). For the gut-wrenching variety, the Portland State loss has to be the worst because PSU is a great team and figures to challenge the Grizzly People for hegemony and the rights to you know, totally dominate this conference.



Bengal fans take out frustration of a bitter home loss to Portland State on a petty street vagrant.

Weber State (6-13, 1-6 BS-C)

Best Win: Hands down, Utah. Sure, it was on Weber's turf. But dem' Wahldcahtz shore took iet to dem' dahhned Yuutes! Like Idaho State, Weber State has since struggled to get a major victory, and like ISU employing Devin Diehl to pick off the wounded (Sac State comes to mind), they have utilized the special marksmanship of Ali Thorderson to pick off and kill any weaker teams with uncanny sniper accuracy seen only in games like Rainbow 6.

Worst Loss: Nebraska, for sure. Any time a team puts 94 points on another team that is defensive-minded, it's pretty bad.

Both teams have some personnel issues (from what I can glean from the rosters). ISU has only 8 active players for the game. Injuries and academic issues have depleted the fresh bodies that are vital to Coach Munger's trench warfare. Expect a stubbornness not seen since Sir Douglass Haig of the British Expeditionary Force and watch the players roll into the meat grinder. Not that we have a problem with it, because the Weberians have issues of their own: a young roster featuring 6 freshman and only 1 senior (the rest are split between Sophomores and Juniors). These young ones have spent the better part of their season constantly in a state of alert and frequently waking up at 3AM to Coach Taylor's poison gas drills and learning how to mend barbed wire (incredibly, Weber State reports no injuries. Kudos to Carla Taylor). The youth and inexperience will ultimately spell doom for the Weberians, as the carnage these young faces will see will be impressed on their fragile minds...FOREVER!!! HAHAHAHA!!! Seriously, though...

Weber State hopes to end a losing skid that has seen one of its worst starts in school history (conference-wise). They come up to Reed Gym where the court has a rather confined feel to it. This is what Munger and the staff want. This is what Sobo wants. This is what Ferdinand Foch wants, even though he's dead (he wants it anyways) and France is at peace with Germany. Another thing to be considered is that WSU hasn't beaten ISU at Reed since that 2005-2006 tournament game, 71-70. All streaks must come to an end at some point...over Jordan Green's dead body, it will. Look for Carla Taylor sending thousands of Weberians into entrenched Bengalian machine gun positions ala the Grand Duke Nicholas on the Eastern Front. That's it. IT'S OVAAH! Also, look for the Weberians to have a pre-drafted peace treaty, ready to be signed when the gruesome battle ends in a 37-32 final score.

For Sobo, Defense, and the Munger Way!

Cultural Awareness: Weber State

Every week here at the Wide World of Idaho State, I will attempt to being some cultural awareness to the BigSky. We are all different in our own beautiful ways, and thus I will shed some light on the various rituals and goings-on for the different cultures here in the BigSky Conference. Please keep an open mind and respect those whose cultural differences are different than yours. Looking down on say, Montana's annual "Everyone Sucks In The BigSky But Us" Sheep Orgy is fine, so long as you keep them to yourselves (or amongst your own fanbases).

And now, without further ado, I present to you...

Nunga nunga zeeber zung...sacrifice the furry one

Yes, what you see is real. Waldo Wildcat (at least, this year's) is being crowd surfed by Weberians up towards what the natives call the Mountain of Fire. Each year, around the time Weber State plays Idaho State in basketball (it used to be football, but given Wezzu's recent run of pillaging, it has been moved to basketball where we have a chance at making it a rivalry...but enough digression), Waldo dons sacred ceremonial robes and is given one last night to indulge in earthly pleasures and at the next home game is lifted by the Weber State faithful up and up and up...until he disappears completely from the Dee Center and is carried away by the fire spirits to the Mountain of Fire. He is then tossed in and his noble sacrifice is complete. This intriguing happening is to ensure the Weberians victory over the Bengalians. Even though this ritual has been scrutinized and criticized by the NCAA (apparently violating early scholarship release regulations), it has been continued to the delight of generations past, present and future Weberians.

Weber State Week

Well, it's Weber Week. And out of the 3 times we play them, we get 2 at home (1 for the men and 1 for the women). To those of you who don't know, Weber State-Idaho State is supposed to be a rivalry. However, these numbers (happily provided by those on the Weber blogs) suggest otherwise-

Weber's all-time record vs ISU: 64-40, 39-9 at home, 25-31 in Pocatello

Pocatello has won the last 6 out of 10, so hope is not lost.

Weber State cannot compete in the Potato Shed very well at all; given the fact that the atmosphere in Holt Arena is slightly cheerier than the Mines of Moria

A comparison:

The Mines of Moria:



Holt Arena:



Provided the Shed fills to capacity, it can actually be a place of terror for opposing teams, teeming with 4-6,000 Bengalians clad in orange, screaming in their faces. However, such clamor hasn't been witnessed since Ronald Reagan began having wet dreams over the Star Wars Defense System.

I predict about 2-3,000 Bengalians clad in street clothes and chic styles and whatnot (i.e., like a Lakers game). The teams will duke it out on their own, fighting another glorious battle worthy of Viking sagas with Channel 6 banners and rusty support beams looking on in earnest, as well as the thousands of little goblins and a Balrog that stalk the hollowed, ancient halls of Holt Arena (constructed waaaaay back in the ancient days when dreams were fulfilled by ambitious, adventurous men undeterred by that great enemy, the general public).

Let's try this again

Ok, let's try this blog thing again, hahaha. For the 44 people who read this blog, most of my posts were rants and tangents; really, nothing much at all. I want to redo this thing and try to make it a little more like everydayshouldbesaturday.com (a hilarious site, you should definitely put that in your favorites. Thank you Orson, Holly, Stranko and the rest! I can't live without my weekly dose of Freekery! I need to learn to do that, hahaha!). I have no intentions on copying them (God, how can anyone copy that vile yet hilarious filth...no seriously...), but it remains a great inspiration to me. Thanks to EDSBS!

In other words, I have a great sense of humor and dammit, I'm gonna use it!