Boise State tries to rebound from holiday blues against new-look New Mexico
No matter how much stuffing, turkey and pudding RJ Keene ate over the holiday break, he still couldn’t get a very bad taste out of his mouth.
Just five days before Christmas, Boise State traveled to Reno, Nevada, on a four-game winning streak, including big victories over Butler and Saint Mary’s. The Broncos were opening Mountain West play against Nevada and trying to keep their momentum going; instead, they were run right out of the Lawlor Events Center in an 81-66 loss.
“The sour taste in your mouth with that loss, it stinks,” Keene said Monday afternoon. “Because you try to mentally just push it away, because you want to be with your family, you want to kind of forget about it, but, man, that just lingers.”
Even Boise State head coach Leon Rice, who’s led the Broncos since 2010 and has spent his fair share of Christmases coming off a loss, said that losing can “ruin” the holiday, and he has to remind his players to flush away the game and appreciate the season and time with loved ones.
The good news is that Rice, Keene and the Broncos finally have reached the time when they can do something about it on the court.
Boise State (8-4, 0-1) will host New Mexico (10-2, 1-0) at ExtraMile Arena at 9 p.m. Tuesday. The 10-day gap between games is the longest Rice said he can remember having, and Keene said he now knows what it’s like to be a football player, having to wait so long after a game when all you want to do is play.
“Two or three days ago, we were like, ‘Are we supposed to be playing today?’ Your body clock tells you, you’re supposed to be playing,” Rice said. “We always try to take it as a blessing; that gives us more time to keep getting better at things.”
What do the New Mexico Lobos bring?
The Lobos are coming off one of their best seasons in program history. They won the Mountain West regular season title with a 17-3 record — before losing to Boise State in the conference tournament semifinals — and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament as a 10 seed, finishing 27-8.
But nothing looks the same this season — except for the winning.
Four-year head coach Richard Pitino left the program to take the head coaching job at Xavier, and two players went with him. Last year’s Mountain West player of the year, Donovan Dent, transferred to UCLA, and three of the program’s top five scorers graduated.
Longtime UC San Diego head coach Eric Olen — who had a 30-win season and NCAA Tournament team in 2024-25 — replaced Pitino and started over. Of the Lobos’ top five scorers, not a single one was on the team last season.
“(Olen) brought some guys with them, so there was some continuity to it in that way,” Rice said. “But you’re learning your team all the way through February nowadays, and I’ve seen that team evolve and then really start to play to their strengths.”
Even with all of the turnover, New Mexico is finding success so far. The Lobos have victories over VCU and Mississippi State, and one of their losses came by 12 points to Nebraska, which is 12-0 and ranks 13th in the AP Top 25.
New Mexico does an excellent job of keeping teams out of the paint — of the 702 field goal attempts against the Lobos, 360 (51.2%) have been from 3-point range, with Olen’s team holding opponents to 30% shooting.
How will that play out for Boise State? Hard to say.
When things are going well for the Broncos, they can be lethal, as evidenced by the 12-for-21 3-point shooting against Duquesne, and the pair of 10-for-22 nights against Utah Valley and UTRGV (Texas Rio Grande).
But there have been plenty of games when the shots aren’t falling, such as the 5-for-25 day in the 70-67 loss to USC at the Maui Invitational, or the 10-for-33 outing against Hawaii Pacific, or the 8-for-28 performance in a narrow win over Montana State.
It has all added up to 35% shooting from behind the 3-point line.
New Mexico’s offense is a picture of balance, with five players averaging at least 10 points per game. The Lobos, who have seven guys playing more than 20 minutes per game, are shooting 45.6% from the floor, a little higher than Boise State’s 44.9%.
“One of the most important things as an indicator of who’s going to win a game is the team that gets the best shots wins,” Rice said. “And I think that they have an understanding of who needs to shoot in what spots and where.”
