Boise State basketball following football’s lead in bringing players back in stages
Boise State men’s basketball coach Leon Rice echoed football coach Bryan Harsin’s sentiments Friday, saying his players are chomping at the bit to get back on campus. But don’t expect them all to return on June 1.
“We’re not talking about bringing 100 guys in right away and, ‘Lets go up to full speed,’” Rice said on a conference call with reporters. “I don’t think that’s realistic, and I don’t think that’s necessary where we are.”
Most of Rice’s players and staff take time off in May, and last season, he didn’t gather the team for conditioning until the middle of June. He didn’t have a specific timetable on Friday for when players would begin matriculating back to campus, but he said it will likely begin with the six who are already in Boise.
“It makes more sense to get them in a safe, controlled environment where it’s just our practice facility and not that many people use it. It’s not open to the public,” Rice said. “It can be a real controlled environment for them and I think a safe environment, but that’s going to take time.”
Transfers Abu Kigab (Oregon), Mladen Armus (ETSU) and Emmanuel Akot (Arizona) have been in Boise throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Another transfer, Marcus Shaver, Jr. (Portland), and Rice’s son, Max, are also in town.
Rice said Friday that Derrick Alston, Jr. just got back into town. He declared for the NBA Draft on March 30 but has the option to retain his eligibility. The NCAA announced May 13 that it has extended the deadline for players to withdraw from the draft, and a new deadline will be set once a firm timeline for the pre-draft process is in place.
Rice is asking many of the same questions as the football staff about contamination in the weight room and locker room and testing of players and staff. But his staff has the luxury of watching and learning from the football team’s approach.
On Thursday, Harsin said his staff is formulating a plan to bring players back to campus, but it will happen in stages.
“They’ve got a maniac on a mission who is ready to coach a team and get them going,” Rice said. “Football has a real sense of urgency, so they’re going to solve some of these problems for us. They’re going to trial and error some of this stuff.”
The individual nature of many basketball drills and the team’s smaller roster size make training while still maintaining social distancing possible, Rice said.
“A lot of places aren’t as fortunate to have the facilities we have,” Rice said. “Our weight room is huge. We could go every other rack and you’re not going to be within 12 feet of somebody. You can do individual work where each guy has a basket. You can stagger times. There’s a lot we can do basketball wise.”
No fans, no problem
With social distancing guidelines and restrictions on large gathering in many states, a common solution for hosting college athletic events has been to do so without fans in attendance. Rice said Friday that wouldn’t be a problem for his team.
Rice has a saying he often writes on the dry erase board in the team’s meeting room. “Our job is the same whether there’s one fan or 10,000.”
“It’s kind of that Navy Seal thing where we don’t rise to the occasion, we fall back on our training. And our training is not done in front of 10,000 fans,” Rice said. “We’re built to do it in front of zero. We’ve played some of our best basketball in closed-door scrimmages.”
Nonconference games scarce
The coronavirus has created a mixed bag of results when it comes to putting together the Broncos’ 2020-21 schedule.
Rice said Thursday that because most coaches around the country are sequestered at home right now instead of vacationing or traveling for recruiting, there’s been a lot more action around scheduling and he’s actually ahead of schedule compared to recent years.
The flip side of that coin is, as Rice described it, “the grasp of coronavirus on budgets.”
He said nonconference games with guaranteed money are scarce, and many teams are guaranteeing less than in previous years. He also said a lot of programs are trying to save money but cutting travel costs, and the trend of leagues expanding to 20 or more conference games is complicating matters further.
The Mountain West is close to expanding from 18 to 20 conference games, according to a story from the San Diego Union-Tribune.
“Nonconference games are becoming a little harder to find already,” Rice said.
Boise State is scheduled to take part in the 2020 Orlando Invitational on Nov. 26 along with Auburn, Belmont, Gonzaga, Michigan State, Saint Louis, Siena and Xavier. The Broncos are also scheduled to travel to Rhode Island next season as part of the Mountain West-Atlantic 10 Challenge.
