Doing my usual thing with the remote Sunday afternoon I decided to check out Altitude Sports to see which Big Sky Conference basketball game was being telecast.

Turned out to be a great game between Northern Arizona and Portland State in Portland. NAU shot an ungodly percentage from the field and upset the Vikings, needing every point they could manage while letting an 18-point lead dwindle to five before pulling it out.

Former Griz player and assistant coach Nate Duchesne, now the top assistant at Portland State, got a little more air time than he had probably envisioned going into the game when the head coach was ejected late in the contest.

Another interesting thing happened while I was watching.

The two-man broadcast crew sent it to a sideline reporter for a timeout  update during the second half, and that reporter ended up being new Griz football coach Robin Pflugrad’s daughter, Amanda, better known as a cheerleader at the University of Oregon.

Seemed like old home week all of a sudden.

And the game was a lot more interesting than Minnesota’s playoff “battle” against the Dallas Cowboys.

- Bill Schwanke