Nothing has come easy for the Boise State men’s basketball team in its first season in the Mountain West.
The latest hurdle thrown in the Broncos’ way is a coaching change at Air Force, which adds a little more intrigue to Saturday night’s matchup between teams at the bottom of the conference standings.
Assistant Dave Pilopovich was promoted to replace the fired Jeff Reynolds on Wednesday.
“I’ve never had to prepare for something like this,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said. “It’s hard because you can’t speculate on what different things (Air Force might put in). I can’t imagine there will be an overhaul. They weren’t far off. When they came here, they were terrific.”
Air Force beat Boise State 74-59 on Jan. 14. That was the last time the Falcons (11-10, 1-6 MW) won a game. The Broncos (10-12, 0-7) have yet to win a game in 2012 and remain one of 10 Division I teams (out of 340) that are winless in conference play.
“We can’t hang our heads,” said forward Anthony Drmic, who needs one 3-pointer to become the school’s all-time freshman leader in that category. “We’ve got to come out and just play hard. What’s been letting us down has been our starts in some of the games. We’ve just got to be ready to go and come out hard. That’s what we need to do.”
The game starts the second half of MW play. The young Broncos, who have only two seniors, have learned a thing or two about the conference that is ranked No. 5 of the 31 conferences in the country.
“We learned there’s not a lot of room for error,” senior Tre’ Nichols said. “You’ve got to come out and play the whole 40 minutes and give it your all.”
Nichols and fellow guard Wes Perryman are the team’s two seniors. Nichols has elevated his game in conference play, averaging 8.1 points after scoring 4.6 in nonconference action.
“Opportunity kind of presented itself and I had to make sure I took advantage of that opportunity,” Nichols said.
Nichols scored 17 points in the loss at San Diego State and followed with 10 points and five assists against New Mexico.
“Tre’ has really made some big strides lately,” Rice said. “He’s shown the kind of basketball player he can be. He’s had some great games against quality opponents.”
Some of Nichols’ minutes have come at the expense of Perryman, who has played less in conference play.
“Wes has had a struggle lately,” Rice said. “We need him to keep growing, even though he’s a senior. He can keep improving right down to his final game.”
Perryman is the only Bronco to start every game this season. That streak could end Saturday.
“We’re always adjusting it and we’ll look to adjust it this weekend and see what’s best,” Rice said.
The second-year coach said he would like the seniors to finish in style and put their stamp on the program.
“Their legacy,” Rice said. “The thing I hit them with pretty hard is they could be the guys who brought in all these young guys and helped us get through this first year of the Mountain West, really helped these young guys and showed them there is a right and a wrong way to do things and what we expect during that basketball program.”
Nick Jezierny: 377-6420
