Can the Mountain West handle Boise State basketball’s ‘two-headed monster’?

During the Mountain West men’s basketball media summit in Las Vegas, Boise State coach Leon Rice compared redshirt seniors Zach Haney and David Wacker to the Looney Tunes animated characters Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog.

While neither player is being continuously foiled in his devious attempts to steal sheep like Ralph, the two bigs have been friendly foes since they stepped on campus as freshmen in 2014.

“I brought them down here so I could put them on a pitch count so they don’t have to run up and down the court so much, because those guys go at it,” Rice said. “Remember the old Saturday morning cartoon with the sheepdog and the wolf? They’d punch their time clock and then they’d just go to battle. That’s what these two do every day at practice. ‘Morning Ralph. Morning Sam,’ and then they’d just go beat each other up.”

Rice’s good-natured joke probably doesn’t sound nearly as funny to his competitors.

Haney and Wacker are two of the most experienced players on the team, and they also happen to be two of the tallest.

While most of the time Haney and Wacker sub in and out for each other, Rice and his staff are considering a matchup nightmare for other teams by putting both men on the court at the same time. Senior Robin Jorch could eventually factor into the Broncos’ post play as well, but he is out indefinitely with a shoulder injury.

“You look at my history back in the old days at Gonzaga, and that’s kind of what we always had, so there’s a part of me that would love to be able to do that,” Rice said. “My biggest thing is I want to get the best players on the floor the most amount of time, the common-sense thing, and these guys are playing the best they’ve ever played right now, so we’re going to look at every different option.”

The 6-foot-11 Haney started all 32 games inside for the Broncos last season, averaging 6.6 points and 5.5 rebounds. His 2.3 offensive rebounds per game ranked fifth in the Mountain West and No. 157 in the NCAA.

The 6-10 Wacker was limited most of 2017-18 as he was recovering from a stress fracture in his left foot and offseason shoulder surgery. But in 2016-17, Wacker started 28 games for the Broncos and averaged 4.9 points and 4.2 rebounds.

“I’m finally healthy again, and that’s just a huge blessing,” Wacker said. “I want to give all I can to really help our team make those jumps, because it really is those fine lines of a rebound here and there, or a stop, and how that can impact a game and impact a season.”

Now entering their fifth and final season as Broncos, Haney and Wacker are more competitive than ever, but in a good way. The two went toe-to-toe during the Broncos’ sixth annual open scrimmage Friday night at Bronco Gym.

“I don’t think our competitiveness against each other has slowed down at all since we’ve been here,” Haney said. “We like to compete, and I know both of us want to win. It’s very good and it helps both of us out with our game.”

Rice said he has not decided on a starting lineup, and with seven new players on the team, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him try a number of different sets throughout the nonconference schedule.

“Zach and I could really be a problem for teams. We see a lot of other teams leaning towards going really small, so being able to still have low-post threats and being able to play that way I think is going to be one of our strengths,” Wacker said.

“Our versatility as a team being able to do different things and then as an individual, with Zach and I both, I kind of think of us as a two-headed monster.”