Here's Steve Sneddon with a word or two about predictions

Here's a portion of Steve Sneddon's latest column which points out just how surprising the Boise State season has been so far, with both the media and coaches missing the boat on the Bronco rise (we didn't see it either):

WAC notebook: Boise State has bucked expectations
STEVE SNEDDON
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
3/4/2008

Almost everyone overlooked the Boise State men's basketball team at the Western Athletic Conference Media Day in October.

Neither the coaches nor the media had the Broncos in their top four in the conference preseason polls. Each poll had Boise State pegged at No. 5 after the Broncos lost senior Coby Karl. But coach Greg Graham's team reloaded faster than almost everyone anticipated.

The Broncos (22-7 overall) have already earned a share of the WAC title at 12-3 with one regular-season game against Utah State in Boise left to play Thursday. They can win the title outright. It's also possible that the Broncos could find themselves in a four-way tie at 12-4 to end the regular season, and in that scenario they would enter the WAC Tournament as the No. 4 seed.

"To get the share of it and know you have it is a great thing because of how good the conference is and how hard we've worked over the past years to get there," Graham said on the WAC coaches' weekly conference call Monday. "But yet we still have a game left. We have a chance to win it outright.

"There's still a lot to play for and we talked about it with our guys. We let them celebrate a little bit, but (told them to) keep our focus for the games coming up,"

The Broncos clinched the tie with a 78-71 win at Hawaii on Saturday, when they were forced to play without forward Matt Nelson, who sprained his foot at San Jose State. Nelson, who is expected to play against Utah State, and three other senior starters have been the nucleus of the success.

"Probably, two things have been the biggest plus," Graham said. "We've, knock on wood, fortunately, shot the ball most of the year and we've been able to give a combination of inside with Reggie (Larry) and Nellie and have been able to shoot the ball with Tyler (Tiedeman) and Bausch (Matt Bauscher) and Reggie outside as well.

"I think the other thing that that has shown well for us is Saturday we set a school record for 11 road wins. I think that bears into the fact of the age of our team. We start four seniors and three are fifth-year seniors."

For the season, the Broncos are 11-4 at home and 11-3 on opponents' home courts...

Go here for the remainder.