‘Really special’ player could become Boise State basketball’s latest freshman to excel
As the highest-ranked recruit to join the Boise State men’s basketball team directly out of high school, Sadraque Nganga is facing high expectations.
But coach Leon Rice would rather take a wait-and-see approach before declaring him the program’s next Tyson Degenhart, who was named the Mountain West Freshman of the Year last season.
“It’s hard to tell (how quickly Nganga will make an impact),” Rice said. “You look at Tyson. I had high expectations for him. I had high hopes for him, but you didn’t know how quickly he’d get to that. He came in and became that person that we thought he could be right away and was freshman of the year.
“Until they get here and you get to work with them day to day, and they get to play against competition at this level, which is different, you can’t even begin to guess.”
Nganga officially signed with the Broncos on Thursday after previously announcing his commitment on social media in February.
“It’s a pretty special day because of this young man and what I see in him,” Rice said. “I think he’s a really, really special kid, and it starts with the person that he is. He’s got a humility about him. I mean, he could go anywhere and he chose this program because he knows this will be one that develops him.”
The native of Angola is ranked No. 76 in the country by 247Sports.com and 86th by ESPN. Before an ACL injury, he was considered one of the top 15 recruits in the country, with offers from the likes of Memphis, Arizona State, Georgia, Oklahoma, Saint Mary’s, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, UCLA, Arizona and Auburn.
“That’s our priority, is building him for the long term,” Rice said. “... When we look at the plans for the future, that’s where it all starts — the health and the explosiveness that we’ve gotta get back for him.”
Nganga, a 6-foot-10 forward out of Compass Prep in Phoenix, is rated as a four-star recruit by both 247Sports and ESPN. And he might be called on to contribute right away.
The Broncos are having some offseason uncertainty. Both Emmanuel Akot and Marcus Shaver Jr. have declared for the NBA Draft while maintaining their final year of eligibility. Akot also said he was entering the transfer portal. Fellow redshirt senior Mladen Armus, who received an extra year of eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic, has not yet announced whether he will return.
Boise State lost fifth-year senior Abu Kigab to graduation, which means the Broncos could return anywhere from one to four starters from last season’s record-setting team. Boise State swept both the Mountain West regular-season and tournament championships while setting program records for total wins (27), conference wins (15) and consecutive wins (14).
“All that stuff is a work in progress,” Rice said. “I feel great about where we’re going with this thing. We’ve got a lot of moving parts, and talking to other coaches throughout the country, it’s just a new era. The moment the season ends, its roster management and it‘s portal management. The whole landscape of college basketball has changed so dramatically in the last couple years.”
This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 5:07 PM.
