Boise State - 11/27/10

BOISE, Idaho - It's a snowy day in Idaho, which of course is no real surprise to anyone.

Of course, the cloud cover seems appropriate, based on this town's disappointment at the Boise State football team's loss at Nevada last night.

The Pioneers are hoping to extend the Broncos fans' disappointment to the hardwood tonight at Taco Bell Arena.

Like many schools, Boise State built most of their athletic venues in a close proximity to one another. Unlike most schools, though, the Broncos put their complex near the corner of University and Denver streets. Hopefully, that's a good omen on Saturday night.

While Boise State may be better known for the blue turf in its football stadium, Taco Bell Arena has some of its own lore.

Taco Bell Arena has hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament seven times. You might remember a few of those games, although if you're a Big 12 fan you may not want to:

• In 1995, UCLA's Tyus Edney went coast-to-coast in 4.8 seconds for a layup at the buzzer that that knocked off Missouri en route to the Bruins' NCAA title.
• In 2001, 15^th-seeded Hampton upset No. 2 seed Iowa State

The arena, with a capacity of 12,380, has seen its share of sellouts, including a 12,649 standing-room only crowd that watched the Broncos play Idaho on March 5, 1993. The largest crowd in the arena's history? That belongs to Neil Diamond, whose Nov. 6, 1996 concert drew 12,897 fans.

A Sort of Homecoming: DU trainer extraordinaire Pat Hoxsey has returned to his roots this weekend. Hoxsey grew up in nearby Payette, Idaho, and graduated from Boise State in 1991.

Hoxsey, who has helped keep the Pioneers healthy for the past 15 years, enjoyed leftovers from Thanksgiving with his parents, sister and niece.

For a guy who has spent the past 15 Thanksgiving weekends with his basketball family, Hoxsey was thankful that fortuitous scheduling meant he could spend some time this weekend with his family.

Granted, the football score might have made the night a little less festive.

Famous Broncos: In addition to Hoxsey, Boise State is the alma mater to a few more people you may have heard of, including Coby Karl, who is both third on the Broncos' all-time scoring list and the son of Denver Nuggets head coach George Karl; Earl Boen, who has been in everything from Spiderman to Terminator to the World of Warcraft video game; and Pro Football Hall of Famer Dave Wilcox, who also happened to be roommates with Gary Hoxsey, Pat's father.

Since We're in Boise, Seems Like We Should Mention Football: Yes, the Boise State football team is once again flirting with the top of the polls, and the blue turf of the football field is just steps from Taco Bell Arena.

But we're Denver. And for 50 years, we've been doing just fine without football. In fact, Wednesday was the 50^th anniversary of DU's final football game. On Nov. 24, 1960, the Pioneers beat Colorado State 21-12 at Hilltop Stadium in front of a crowd of 6,927. DU announced a few months later that they would be dropping football.

Thanks to our friend (and season ticket holder) Steve Fisher in the Penrose Library for that tidbit. 

Exactly how well has Denver done without football? For the past three years, Denver has won the NCAA Division I-AAA (schools that don't have football) Director's Cup, which is awarded to the top athletic department based on the success of its teams in all NCAA sports.

Happy Birthday: We would like to send a very happy birthday out to redshirt sophomore Trevor Noonan, who turns 21 years old today.

Yearly travel totals:  
Total Flights, regular season only - 3

Total Mileage by Air, regular season only - 2,603

Total Mileage by Air, including Spain - 12,846

Total Mileage by Bus, regular season only - 156

Total Mileage by Bus, including Spain - 1,907

Total Number of Hotels - 2

Total Number of Different Airports - 3

Total Number of Airline Delays - 0

Total Number of Cancelled Flights - 0

Total Number of Bags Lost This Year - 1

Total Number of Trips the Radio Voice and SID Have Flown Through San Francisco While the Team Flew Direct - 2

Alcorn State - 11/23/10

DENVER - The campus is quieter than usual. Finals are over for the quarter, and most of the students have headed home until January.

Most of the student-athletes are still around, of course, which means the Ritchie Center remains busy. There's always a sigh of relief when everyone can concentrate on getting better on the court without the pressures of exams and essays hanging over them.  

The Pioneers are looking to turn things around tomorrow night, when Alcorn State comes to town.

Since it's the night before Thanksgiving, the Pioneers also are giving fans the opportunity to put off cooking for one more day.

You can get a "One Price" ticket for $15 which includes all the concessions you care to eat. The only exclusions are alcohol, bottled drinks and prepackaged candy. Call it an appetizer for Thanksgiving Day. Regular priced tickets are still available, starting at $9.

About Alcorn State: Located southwest of Jackson, Miss., near the Louisiana border, Alcorn State was founded in 1871 and named after James L. Alcorn, who was the governor of Mississippi at the time. Alcorn's most notable alum is Steve McNair, the late quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens and Tennessee Titans. However, Alcorn State has also produced Donald Driver of the Green Bay Packers; Jesse Smith, who was better known as Justice on American Gladiators; and Michael Clarke Duncan, an actor perhaps best known for starring alongside Tom Hanks in the Green Mile.

Happy Birthday and Thanksgiving: Assistant coach Jon Jordan is celebrating his birthday on Thursday. We would like to send our best wishes and say happy birthday to Coach J.

A Look Ahead: Drew Cannon of BasketballProspectus.com wrote a column on Nov. 12, predicting what college basketball team had the best chance of going undefeated. His answer is surprising. And it's on the Denver schedule:

Trivia question: What team has the highest probability of an undefeated season according to the current kenpom.com projections? Duke? Second place. Ohio State? Kansas State? Gonzaga? Memphis? All wrong. At 1.14 percent, the most likely team to win every game they play before tournament season is Utah State.

The Aggies roll into Magness Arena on Dec. 1, right before Utah State travels to Georgetown. You can get $5 off your ticket to the DU/USU game by showing any Colorado mountain Ski Pass at the Ritchie Center Ticket Office.

North Dakota State - 11/14/10

EUGENE, Ore. - After last night's game, the team returned to the hotel for a late night dinner of chicken sandwiches and French fries.

The eating schedule on game days are strange enough, but it's amplified with night games. Yesterday's breakfast was at 10 a.m., pregame (lunch) was at 4 p.m. and dinner was at about 11 p.m. This morning's breakfast was at 8:30 a.m., and pregame will be right after shootaround at about 11:30 a.m., since today's game is at 3:30 p.m. local time (4:30 p.m. MT).

Speaking of food, the restaurant across the street from the hotel has a sign advertising Tapas night on Wednesdays. After the team's trip to Spain this summer, that sign seemed somehow appropriate.

Delta Tau Chi: We've held off on mentioning this, as we spread the blog about Eugene out to three blogs. Call it saving the best for last.

While walking around this campus, dozens of landmarks jump out. Yes, the University of Oregon was the filming location of one of the most iconic films in history. That's right. Animal House.

The Delta Tau Chi house, or the building used in the film, was torn down in 1986. According to one source, at the time of filming the building served as a halfway house for convicts.

It seems like everywhere you turn on this campus brings back memories of another scene in the movie, and more than a couple lines from the movie have been uttered during the trip. The following video is Mitch Hyder's best imitation of John Belushi's character, John Blutarsky, sneaking into Dean Wormer's office. The Oregon president at the time allowed the crew to use his actual office for the filming.


The Fish Bowl Cafeteria was nearby, but Hyder refrained from imitating a zit or starting a food fight.

Finally, because we like to bring everything in the blog back to focusing on Denver, we leave you with this bit. According to the most accurate source available, Wikipedia, the first screening of Animal House occurred in the Mile High City.

About North Dakota State: NDSU is located in Fargo, N.D. The team turned NCAA Division I a few years ago and became the first team in history to reach the NCAA Tournament in its first year eligible. Current Colorado State head coach Tim Miles held the same position at NDSU.

Famous Bison include former defensive back Tyrone Braxton, who won a pair of Super Bowls with a certain football team in Denver, and Bob Backlund, who beat "Superstar" Billy Graham to win the World Wrestling Federation's heavyweight championship.

Happy Birthday: It's a little early, but just so we don't forget, we'd like to send a happy birthday out to sophomore Chase Hallam, who turns 20 on Wednesday.

Missed Opportunity: Devoted reader and Buffalo Bills fan Dan W. from Denver points out that I missed a couple famous alumni from this weekend's opponents. Former Duck Jarious Byrd led the NFL in interceptions last season, and former Bison Phil Hansen was a second round pick in the 1992 NFL Draft. Not sure how I missed them. My sincerest apologies.

Oregon - 11/13/10

EUGENE, Ore. - Tough loss last night, but the guys are ready and back at Mac Court for shootaround, which is later than usual today because the Oregon women's team had an afternoon game.

After the game last night, the team took in about ¾ of the Ducks game against North Dakota State (the Bison took Oregon to overtime, but the Ducks ultimately won by five points in the waning moments.)

The players had a nice dinner at the hotel before calling it a night. This morning, the team gathered for breakfast around 10 a.m., followed by a brief team meeting to discuss tonight's game.

Tonight's game has a late start (8:30 p.m., local time - 9:30 p.m. MT), which conveniently will allow Oregon fans to watch their football team take on Cal before coming down to The Pit.

Did you know?: Two college mascots were created by Walt Disney (the man, not the company): Oregon's Duck and Denver's former mascot Boone. In 1947, the Oregon athletic director struck a deal with Disney to use Donald Duck as the school's mascot, adopting the cartoon character originally created in 1934. Disney actually created Boone for the University of Denver in 1968.

About Oregon: This school may best be known for a company that spawned from a head coach who made running shoes with the help of a waffle iron and one of his former runners.

That coach was Bill Bowerman, the Oregon legend who played basketball, football and ran track for the Ducks prior to taking over as the track coach and leading the team to four national championships.

The runner was Phil Knight. Bowerman invented waffle soled running shoes and with the marketing prowess of Knight helped found Nike. In fact, Oregon is sometimes called Nike University.

Another one of Bowerman's runners at Oregon also worked briefly for Nike. However, Steve Prefontaine is better known as arguably the best American distance runner of all time. Prior to his tragic death at the age of 24 in 1975, Pre set 15 American records at every race distance between two miles and 10,000 meters. You can't go anywhere in Eugene without seeing references to Pre.

Anyone interested in learning more about running in Eugene can check out "Track Town USA," a coffee table book filled with photographs and essays that was published by our friends over at Rich Clarkson and Associates, the official photographers of University of Denver Athletics. The book hits the shelves this Monday.

Today, fans know the Ducks as the top rated football team in the nation. But Oregon has a rich tradition on the basketball court. In fact, the team won the very first NCAA men's basketball championship in 1939. The gigantic banner is hard to miss, hanging high above one of the baskets. It may be bigger than the American flag on the opposite end of the arena.

Like many colleges, including Denver, Oregon celebrates all its teams with display cases filled with pictures and memorabilia. As we walked by the basketball display, we had to take a second look. One of the photos was taken the last time Denver played here in 1999.

Welcome Pioneer Fans: A good number of Denver supporters made the trip to Eugene, including the families of Alex Pickert, Chase and Travis Hallam, Brian Stafford and assistant coach A.J. Kuhle, as well as Joe Scott's father, Bob, and avid DU fan John Kirby, who also is a favorite caller to the Joe Scott Radio Show every Monday night.

UC Santa Barbara - 11/12/10

EUGENE, Ore. - It's been a great week for the University of Denver. While the men's basketball team was traveling to Oregon for this weekend's BTI Tournament, a few in the travel party, including head coach Joe Scott, stayed behind for the big announcement that Denver will join the Western Athletic Conference.

Afterward, Scott and company jumped on a plane and joined the team in Eugene, ready for today's season opener against the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos.

The team is currently at shoot-around in historic McArthur Court, a.k.a. Mac Court. It's also The Pit, which is painted inside the lane, and with apologizes to our friends in Albuquerque, this place is the original, built in 1926 with the first game on Jan. 14, 1927.

McArthur Court is the second oldest on-campus arena in college basketball (bonus points if you know the oldest without the help of Google. Answer at the end of the blog.)

As we walked into the arena, the players looked high into the stands, which are comprised of seven rows in the lower bowl and three balconies. The place holds a total 9,087 fans, who create a rowdy atmosphere. The Sporting News called it the best gym in America in 2001.

All of that said, Mac Court is in its twilight with Oregon opening Matthew Knight Arena in January 2011, about 600 yards from where Denver is practicing.

The Pioneers are geared up for the games this weekend. After playing six games in Spain a couple months ago, there has been a feeling that the season started in August with an extended break between September 5 and today.

Everybody around this program has been looking forward to the start of this season since March, and nobody is more excited than the 12 players on the court.

The countdown is on. The tip is set for 5:30 p.m. MT.

Lunchables: For those of you who read Kyle's Chronicles during Denver's tour of Spain, you might remember senior captain Kyle Lewis' consistent references to "Coach Scott's Famous Chicken and Pasta."

Following shootaround today, Lewis was asked what was on the lunch menu. He just smiled.

Upon returning to the hotel, the team headed immediately to a meeting room on the 12^th floor to dine on, you guessed it, Coach Scott's Famous Chicken and Pasta - the first of 30-plus such pregame meals the team will enjoy.

Junior Brian Stafford decided to mix things up early, putting his chicken and part of his salad on a roll and enjoyed a chicken sandwich.

About UC Santa Barbara: The Gauchos have won the Big West Tournament and appeared in the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons, and they are currently ranked 12^th in the Mid-Major Top 25, just behind St. Mary's.

Among the school's alumni base are actor Michael Douglas, singer Jack Johnson, sports radio host Jim Rome and 2008 Olympic hero Jason Lezak, who anchored the 4x100 freestyle with an unbelievable comeback to win the Gold. Colorado Rockies outfielder Ryan Spilborghs played college ball with the Gauchos.

Happy Belated: We had full intentions to write a blog or two last week, but since they did not happen, we would like to send our best belated birthday wishes to Andrew Hooper, who turned 22 on Nov. 7.

Yearly travel totals:  
Total Flights, regular season only - 1

Total Mileage by Air, regular season only - 977

Total Mileage by Air, including Spain - 11,220

Total Mileage by Bus, regular season only - 48

Total Mileage by Bus, including Spain - 1,799

Total Number of Hotels - 1

Total Number of Different Airports - 2

Total Number of Airline Delays - 0

Total Number of Cancelled Flights - 0

Total Number of Bags Lost This Year - 1

Trivia Answer: Rose Hill Gym at Fordham University in New York City was opened on Jan. 16, 1925.