Traveling to play ranked Utah State team, how can Boise State overcome zone defense?
Utah State’s basketball arena is one of Alvaro Cardenas’ favorite road venues.
The rowdy fans typically give no quarter to visiting players, something Boise State’s senior point guard knows quite well — just not yet as a Bronco.
Cardenas played at Dee Glen Smith Spectrum multiple times during his three years at San Jose State. He remembers Utah State fans cursing at him in Spanish — “I’m not gonna say what they say, it was a little bit disrespectful,” Cardenas said with a laugh Thursday — but that’s all part of the allure for him.
He also remembers having the chance to sink a game-winning bucket for the Spartans, but he missed. He still recalls seeing the fans be “a little bit scared.”
Cardenas is hoping to do more than just scare the Aggies now that he’s a Boise State starter. The Broncos (12-4, 4-1 Mountain West) travel to Logan to take on No. 25 Utah State (15-1, 4-0) in a big conference game Saturday at 7 p.m.
The Aggies are in the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2021, when they were No. 24 in the final rankings of the season. Their sole defeat this season was a 75-73 home loss to UC San Diego in mid-December.
The Broncos have lost their past four against Utah State and have not won in Logan since January 2022.
“It’s been a tough place to play since the dawn of man, since they’ve had basketball there, and it’s nothing new,” Boise State head coach Leon Rice said. “It’s a great atmosphere and great energy, and a great team.”
If Cardenas and the Broncos want to leave Logan with a win on Saturday night, they’ll have to contend with Utah State’s pesky zone defense. The Aggies have the 20th-best scoring margin in the nation, with an explosive offense (83.4 points per game) feeding off a good D (67.4).
“We’re definitely going to have to do different things,” Cardenas said. “Maybe our plays that we usually run won’t work.”
Utah State does an excellent job of keeping opponents out of the paint and forcing them to shoot from beyond the arc. The Broncos can’t afford that, given that they’re shooting just 29.9% on 3-pointers this season — their worst mark in at least the past decade.
“It’s important to get paint touches and not abuse the 3-point shot,” Cardenas said.
The opportunity to take quick 3-pointers likely will present itself, and Utah State does rank 173rd in the nation for 3-point percentage allowed, with opponents hitting 32.6% of those shots.
Rice said he hopes that the Broncos won’t need to rely on getting inside the paint and that their 3-point shooting finally will reveal itself. At the other end of the court, Boise State is no slouch defensively, limiting foes to just 65.9 points, but will have its hands full trying to limit the Aggies.
The reason for the drop in BSU’s 3-point shooting from last year is partly easy to explain: The team lost its top two shooters, Chibuzo Agbo (40.9%) and Max Rice (34.9%).
However, senior forward Tyson Degenhart has taken a step back, shooting 31.6% last year to 25% this year. The Broncos also hope to see more consistent 3-point shooting from sophomore forward Andrew Meadow (32.9%), and they recently burned the redshirt of freshman guard Pearson Carmichael because of his shooting ability.
“When you have a bunch of guys who are good shooters,” Rice said, “but they haven’t made a ton in games yet ... the more game experience, the more games they get comfortable, the better they are handling a few misses, and then the ball starts going in more consistently.”
Utah State and Boise State both made the NCAA Tournament last season, after the Aggies won the Mountain West regular season title. They beat TCU in the first round before being routed by Purdue. The Broncos fell in the First Four to Colorado.
