They gather at the Arguinchona Basketball Complex for a party Sunday afternoon.

The Boise State men's basketball team, coaches, school officials, their families and at least one former player crowd around the TV for a potential celebration.

There is pizza and soda and other snacks. There is a nervous excitement, but also a sense that Sunday - Selection Sunday - is going to be good day for the Broncos.

And then the brackets start to fill up.

Middle Tennessee State and Saint Mary's are in, meeting in Dayton in a first-round game. Two bubble teams in. Two less spots for the Broncos.

There is still time.

No. 6 UCLA pops up. The room buzzes. This could be it.

No.

It's Minnesota, which grabs the spot opposite the Bruins in Austin, Texas.

"I want to play UCLA," says 9-year-old Kade Rice, the youngest son of head coach Leon Rice.

"Kade Brackets," as his dad calls him, knows very well that the Bruins just lost their second-leading scorer to a broken foot.

Here comes Butler, another No. 6 seed. Another chance for the Broncos to slide in. But it's Bucknell that appears next on CBS.

And another commercial.

The nervous excitement that filled the room just minutes earlier is gone.

Excitement has bolted for the door.

Nervous remains all alone.

There is hair-pulling. Nail-biting. Face-rubbing.

And just one bracket left, the West.

Gonzaga will go here. So will New Mexico, one of Boise State's Mountain West conference mates. That cuts the bracket in half - the selection committee won't place the Broncos and Lobos in the same half of the regional.

What seemed like endless possibilities at the top of the hour is down to just two or three realistic chances.

"This isn't fun anymore," Ryan Watkins tells teammate Jeff Elorriaga.

Says Elorriaga: "It was turning my stomach."

Rice begins to wonder how he is going to help his guys recover from the disappointment of missing the tournament.

"I didn't want to fix a lot of broken hearts," he says later.

As expected, Gonzaga earns the No. 1 seed. Rice, a longtime assistant in Spokane and close friends with Zags' coach Mark Few, claps.

The rest of the team can barely breathe.

"You get to the last bracket. Ok, this is kind of getting serious now," Elorriaga says later.

Wisconsin pops up on the screen as the region's No. 5 seed.

This is it, 15-year-old Brock Rice - the coach's oldest son - tells Elorriaga. Brock gives him a nudge and cracks a smile. This is it.

Except it's not.

Ole Miss, surprise winner of the SEC Tournament, is the No. 12 seed. Elorriaga spins around.

The room groans.

And before it quiets down again, CBS displays No. 4 Kansas State.

It's here or never.

This is really it.

With New Mexico still to come, this is the last potential landing spot for the Broncos.

And .... here they are.

Before CBS can announce Boise State's name, the room erupts in joy. The players dog pile on each other, landing on the couch. Rice throws up his arms. Few even see that the Broncos are headed to Dayton, Ohio, to face La Salle in one of the tournament's "First Four" games. Few care.

"That was probably one of the best moments of my life right there," Elorriaga says later. "Of our lives, I should say."

Says Watkins: "I don't know if it will hit me until we get on that plane."

The jubilation only lasts a while. Before long, the assistant coaches are breaking down La Salle film. Travel plans are being made. The players grab pizza and head home.

A long few days await.

"I never had to deal with quite so heavy of a bubble. It's a tough thing to go through," Rice says. "But, again, it's a great feeling when it happens."

Kade Rice is making the trip, one that was an annual event during the family's days at Gonzaga.

"You make the traveling squad? Your grades good enough?" Rice asks his youngest. "I want a note from Ms. Parsons that you can go."

Hopefully she delivers the good news faster than the selection committee.

Brian Murphy: 377-6444, Twitter: @MurphsTurph