Back in action, Boise State basketball needs some big wins in December
With the excitement of Boise State football’s improbable run to host the Mountain West championship game, fans could be forgiven for not paying a ton of attention to the program just across the parking lot that’s heading into the thick of its season.
After a trip to the Maui Invitational and well over a week off, the Broncos’ men’s basketball team will return to action on Saturday against Butler (7-1) inside iconic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. It will be the first game for Boise State (5-3) since before Thanksgiving, when the team went 1-2 in Hawaii, with losses to USC and N.C. State followed by a win over Division II Chaminade.
The game against the Bulldogs will kick off a nine-day stretch in which the Broncos will play their final three nonconference games, against opponents that offer the chance of quality victories. After visiting Butler, Boise State returns home to face Duquesne (5-3) next Wednesday, and then will play Saint Mary’s (8-1) in Idaho Falls on Dec. 14.
If the Broncos want to play their way into the NCAA Tournament at-large conversation, winning at least two of these next three games seems crucial ahead of the Mountain West opener, which comes on Dec. 20 at Nevada.
Boise State’s five wins are against Chaminade, Utah Valley, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Montana State and Wichita State. None of those teams ranks higher than the Broncos’ NET ranking of 82, and only Utah Valley (84) ranks among the top 100.
When coach Leon Rice’s team has had a chance to get a resume-boosting victory, it has fallen just short: a 70-67 loss to unbeaten USC (No. 25 in NET) and an 81-70 loss to N.C. State (45), both in Maui.
“When you’re playing these teams, and you’re on a razor’s edge, you have to play an A-plus game to compete,” Rice said Thursday. “You can’t just roll out and play a C game.”
The Broncos also lost their season opener at home to Division II program Hawaii Pacific. Games against Division II schools don’t affect the NET rankings, but the loss undoubtedly is a significant drawback.
Long story short? Boise State’s resume right now is nowhere near good enough to make the NCAA Tournament. The Broncos were a part of the Big Dance for three straight years before falling short last season, and they’d like to get back. Butler is No. 23 in the NET and Saint Mary’s is No. 29, so those games in particular are huge.
“Those opportunities are what you need to fix your numbers, to increase your resume,” Rice said. “ ... You just take care of business, become a great team, and good things happen.”
Butler and Saint Mary’s are both familiar foes in recent years.
The Bulldogs defeated the Broncos 70-56 in the 2023 ESPN Events Invitational, but Boise State returned the favor with a 100-93 win in the postseason College Basketball Crown tournament last March.
And this will be the third straight year that the Broncos and Gaels have met in Idaho Falls, with BSU winning each of the past two seasons, by a total of five points.
Butler is led this season by junior guard Finley Bizjack, who’s taken a step forward to emerge as its leading scorer, at 19 points per game. Bizjack scored 30 against the Broncos in March, and is one of three Bulldogs averaging double-digit scoring this season, alongside forward Michael Ajayi (16.3) and guard Jamie Kaiser Jr. (10.4).
“(Bizjack) is a hooper and he can get buckets,” Rice said. “Right now, they look like a team that really fits together well. They got all the pieces, and they’ve got size, physicality, shooting, pace. There’s not a lot of holes in who they are right now.”
