Boise State women take out frustration in unexpected way; men on historic pace for assists
First-quarter lulls have been directly responsible for three of Boise State’s four losses this season, so women’s basketball coach Gordy Presnell knew he had to get creative.
That explains why a pinata made an appearance at ExtraMile Arena recently.
“We decided that we would hang a pinata with ‘first quarter’ written on it and gave them a baseball bat,” Presnell said. “We didn’t even blindfold them, just kill that thing. So that’s what we did, and they got all into it. That kind of fired them up.”
The Broncos (6-4, 2-0 MW) will find out if their first-quarter demons have been exorcised when they host BYU (3-3) in a nonconference game at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The Cougars advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season and were picked to finish second in a preseason poll of the West Coast Conference’s 10 coaches.
“It’s going to be a great game for us. It’s one of those games, along with others, where we’ve tried to upgrade our (nonconference) schedule,” Presnell said. “It’ll be a really, really formidable opponent.”
The Cougars and Broncos announced the home-and-home series over the summer. Boise State will travel to Provo, Utah, during the 2020-21 season. Wednesday’s game is the first meeting between the programs since Nov. 27, 2002 — a 67-53 BYU win in Provo — and the Cougars lead the all-time series 11-7.
BYU lost 2018-19 leading scorer Shaylee Gonzales to an ACL and lateral meniscus tear over the summer, but the Cougars still return a slew of talent. Junior guard Paisley Johnson leads the way at 15.7 points per game, and 6-foot-7 junior center Sara Hamson (8.0 ppg, 9.0 rpg) will provide a tough test for 6-5 Boise State center Mallory McGwire, who just received Mountain West Player of the Week honors.
When Boise State’s nonconference schedule was first released in June, Presnell said it was “the hardest one we’ve ever had here.” That’s proving to be true. The Broncos already have played three 2019 NCAA Tournament teams in No. 7 Louisville, No. 20 Missouri State and Portland State, plus a TCU squad that advanced to the semifinals of last season’s WNIT.
Boise State lost to Louisville, Missouri State and TCU, but the Broncos get another chance at a resume-building victory Wednesday against the Cougars.
“I thought with this schedule, if it doesn’t ding us and we can win one or two of those … I think it’ll really help us down the road,” Presnell said. “But I think we lost a little confidence at it (with the losses).”
After a stretch of three losses in four games, the Broncos have since won back-to-back games against Mountain West foes New Mexico and Colorado State. Presnell hopes it’s a sign the three-time defending Mountain West Tournament champions are regaining their swagger.
“Right now everyone’s just worried about BYU. We want to win one of these really formidable non-league games,” Presnell said. “If we can, we move to 7-4. Then we have three games left before Christmas. It sure would be great to be 10-4 going into conference.”
Men’s basketball: Broncos sharing the rock
Eight games into the 2019-20 season, the Boise State men’s basketball team is on pace to be the most charitable in coach Leon Rice’s 10 seasons.
The Broncos (5-3, 1-1 MW) are averaging 14.3 assists per game going into Wednesday’s 6 p.m. MT nonconference matchup at Tulsa (7-2). If the Broncos can keep it up, they’ll surpass Rice’s 2017-18 and 2015-16 squads for the best assist average in his tenure. Both those teams averaged 13.4 assists per game.
“We have guys with high feel for the game. That’s been our big emphasis this year is the ball movement,” Rice said. “We’re going to score out of ball movement. When we do, we’re really good offensively and we get good shots and we make them.
“When we don’t, we don’t make them. The guys are understanding that, and we need to keep getting better at it. If we do, then we’ve got a chance to be a really good offensive team throughout this year.”
Senior Alex Hobbs and redshirt junior Derrick Alston are averaging 3.5 and 3.0 assists per game, respectively. The Broncos haven’t had two players finish the season averaging 3.0 assists or more per game since the 2009-10 season.
“Watching film from last year, I saw that there was a lot more opportunities for me to be a playmaker,” Hobbs said. “Being it’s something that we want to get better at, I kind of took it upon myself to try to get better at that.”
Hobbs set a single-game career high with seven assists against Life Pacific, and he passed out six assists in the Broncos’ most recent win over Colorado State. Alston also recorded a career-high seven assists against UNC Wilmington and had six dishes at New Mexico.
The increase in assists combined with 91 turnovers, tied for the 19th-fewest in Division I this season, has the Broncos chasing another program record. Their 1.25 assist/turnover ratio would be the best in program history according to digital records dating back to the 1993-94 season.
“Right now we just have an emphasis on being elite ball movers, like coach is always talking about,” Hobbs said. “We’re really hitting it on the head with that, and as you can see, I think it’s paying off.”
Notes: The BSU women’s game against BYU will be streamed online at Broncosports.com/mwn, or listen on the radio at 1350 AM. ... In support of their annual Toys for Tots drive, fans who bring a new, unwrapped toy to donate will receive free admission to Wednesday’s women’s game at ExtraMile Arena. ... The BSU men’s game at Tulsa will be broadcast on ESPN3 and 670 AM.
