Milkshakes, middle fingers just part of Boise State’s wild history with Utah State
The pain in his left knee was enough to keep Bernard Walker awake, so the Boise State senior guard watched replays of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” at 1 a.m., 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. while roommate John Coker slept soundly in the hotel bed next to his.
When the team returned to Boise, a doctor determined that Walker had a torn meniscus that would require surgery.
Walker’s knee injury occurred on Jan. 2, 1995, when he slipped in a strawberry milkshake and hyper-extended his knee during the Broncos’ road game against Utah State at Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
It sounds ridiculous, but it’s entirely true. And it’s just one example of the chaos that has erupted between the Broncos and Aggies over the years. The unpredictable Mountain West series resumes Saturday in Logan, Utah. Tipoff is 8 p.m. Mountain time on CBS Sports Network.
“The game was on ESPN, and the crowd was really excited,” Walker told the Idaho Statesman in a phone interview from his home in Dallas. “It was like the first play of the game and (Utah State center) Eric Franson happened to get a dunk. When he dunked it, they went crazy.
“They threw confetti and streamers. It was like a New Year’s celebration or something. They threw all kinds of stuff on the court, including something like Muscle Milk in those little small containers. They threw them all over the floor, and of course they had to stop play, clean the floor off and get everybody calmed down.”
A description of the game from the Idaho Statesman archives reads: “Fans at The Spectrum threw toilet paper, peanuts and even a strawberry milkshake onto the court. … Officials spent most of the rest of the game trying to clean up the mess left by the milkshake.”
Walker — whose nickname was “Sky” Walker because of his impressive vertical leap — slipped in the milkshake mess while fighting for a loose ball with a Utah State player. He ended up playing the rest of the game, not realizing the severity of his injury.
After beating the Aggies 81-68 in Boise earlier in the season, the Broncos lost the “milkshake game” 66-61, and Walker missed two weeks following arthroscopic surgery.
“Utah State, they used to just terrorize the Boise State fans that went down there,” said Paul J. Schneider, who was the Broncos’ radio play-by-play announcer from 1973 through the end of the 2008 basketball season.
“After games, a lot of times the Boise State fans would leave with a few minutes left in the game to avoid confrontations. It was pretty intense there for years and years and years.”
Not much has changed, it would seem.
In 2016, Utah State’s student section heckled Boise State’s Nick Duncan throughout the game because of his weight. When Duncan pulled down the final rebound to seal an 83-80 victory, he turned to the student section and raised his middle finger. The gesture was caught on camera and spread on social media.
“It’s a crazy atmosphere,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said. “I’d always heard about it before I went there and played. We had a really good team, maybe my first year, and we got destroyed down there. It wasn’t really because we played that poorly, it’s because of what they did. I think they made 10 of their first 11 shots or something like that.”
From 1974 through 2014, the Broncos went 0-18 at Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. But Boise State has gone 3-1 in games played at Utah State (18-7, 7-5 MW) since 2015. In the last 11 meetings between the two programs, 10 have been decided by six points or fewer or in overtime. Boise State (16-8, 8-4) won 88-83 in overtime on Jan. 18 at ExtraMile Arena in a game that saw freshman RayJ Dennis score 19 points in the final 3 minutes, 27 seconds of regulation to rally the Broncos to what Rice called an “improbable” victory.
There’s no way to predict what might happen Saturday in Logan.
“Anytime you can go into somebody else’s place and it’s a packed house, that’s what you dream of,” Boise State senior Alex Hobbs said. “That’s what you grew up watching on TV watching college basketball games.”
Note: Rice said the status of junior forward Abu Kigab will be a game-time decision. Kigab sustained a hip pointer against San Jose State on Jan. 29. He missed most of the Nevada game and sat out at Wyoming.
Alston finalist for national award
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced earlier this week that Boise State redshirt junior Derrick Alston Jr. is one of 10 finalists for the 2020 Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award.
The former walk-on is averaging 19.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game for the Broncos. He has scored at least 20 points in 13 games this season and was named to the five-player Preseason All-Mountain West Team.
The Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award recognizes the top small forwards in Division I men’s basketball. Starting Friday, fans can vote for their favorite player at hoophallawards.com, and the top five in the fan vote will get an additional vote toward making the next round.
The finalists will be reduced to five in March, and the winner will be presented at The College Basketball Awards on April 10 in Los Angeles.
Women’s basketball: Another record going down?
Boise State redshirt senior point guard Jayde Christopher is averaging 7.7 assists per game and has passed out 184 total helpers this season.
With a single-game career high of 14 assists, it’s possible Christopher will break the program’s single-season assists record against Utah State on Saturday at ExtraMile Arena. Tipoff is 2 p.m.
Yaiza Rodriguez owns the record with 192 assists in 33 games during the 2016-17 season.
Saturday’s contest is one of three remaining home games for the Broncos this season. Boise State defeated Utah State 65-59 on Jan. 18 in Logan, and the Broncos (16-8, 8-4 MW) have won 10 of the last 12 meetings with the Aggies (6-17, 1-11).
Boise State is fourth in the Mountain West standings, with losses to the three teams above it in the standings (UNLV, San Jose State, Fresno State). The top five teams during the regular season receive a first-round bye in the Mountain West Tournament, which runs March 1-4 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
This story was originally published February 7, 2020 at 3:47 PM.
