Boise State hoops hits ‘rock bottom’ as visiting Utah State wins in blowout
Leon Rice’s phone was buzzing with texts from old friends and players in the hours after Boise State’s “soft and selfish” 75-58 home loss to Grand Canyon earlier this week.
“What the heck was that?” one text read. Another was along the lines of “that wasn’t Boise State.”
He’ll likely be getting a few more texts Saturday night and Sunday in the aftermath of Boise State’s 93-68 loss to Utah State at ExtraMile Arena.
The 25-point loss was the largest home defeat for the Broncos since Rice became head coach in 2010. The previous high mark of 19 came in a 76-57 loss to Nevada in 2017, and Wednesday’s 17-point home loss to Grand Canyon now sits at third.
“That’s painful, because they put so much into this program,” Rice said about the texts from his former players. “That jersey means so much to them that you don’t want to feel like it’s flushed away.”
The 93 points Utah State scored were also the most Boise State has allowed at home under Rice. The previous mark was 91, set by UNLV in a 93-91 overtime win for the Broncos in 2018.
The growing list of unwanted records in recent days has the Broncos (9-7) at a point of inflection. They have lost three straight games, going back to the triple-overtime heartbreak to San Diego State last week, a game in which they overcame a 24-point deficit.
Sitting at 1-4 in conference play with this pair of blowout home losses, and sporting a home loss to Division II outfit Hawaii Pacific in November, Boise State’s hopes of playing in the NCAA Tournament are becoming increasingly slimmer — to the point of almost not existing.
“Every great thing that’s accomplished has to go through a valley of death,” Rice said. “I guess we’re in the valley, and you’ve got to decide how long you want to stay in the valley of death.”
Rice hoped his team was ready to pull itself out of the valley heading into Saturday’s game, and described the last two days of practice as “efficient.” Then the game started, and the Aggies (14-1, 5-0 Mountain West) took a 10-0 lead within the opening 100 seconds.
Rice found himself asking whether the team “even knew who they were playing.”
The slow start provided immediate feelings of déjà vu for the home crowd, who watched the Broncos fall down 8-0 to Grand Canyon in the opening minutes on Wednesday.
However, unlike the Grand Canyon game, in which the Broncos rallied back to lead in the first half, that didn’t even seem like a possibility on Saturday. A 3-pointer from freshman guard Aginaldo Neto made it 10-3, and that’s as close as BSU would get to the Aggies.
“We came out on our heels, and that’s what happens when you’re not aggressive,” said junior forward Andrew Meadow, who ended the game with nine points on 3-for-4 shooting.
By halftime, the Broncos trailed 46-23 and were shooting just 7-for-25 (28%) from the field.
The second half was more of the same. A small run early in the half, spearheaded by sixth-year forward Dominic Parolin, brought the Broncos to within 16 points at 51-35. But the Utah State guard duo of MJ Collins and Mason Falslev quickly struck back, sinking four straight free throws to go with a layup from Karson Templin to restore a 22-point lead, 57-35.
Collins finished with 25 points, while Falslev tied with Boise State guard Dylan Andrews for the second-highest scorer in the game with 16 points. Both Utah State guards had an easy time getting into the paint and creating high-percentage shots; the Aggies ended the game outscoring the Broncos 40-26 inside.
High-scoring Utah State, which averages 86.6 points per game, shot 57% from the field (33-for-58), including going 11-for-24 on 3-pointers, and had just three turnovers. Boise State was 21-for-57 (37%) from the floor and hit just 7-of-26 treys.
“You would have thought we said, ‘Let them drive in and score layups,’” Rice said. “... That can’t happen. We’ve got to be able to do what we’re working on.”
Andrews had a 5-for-13 shooting effort, an improvement on recent games, in which he’d made just seven of his past 48 field goal attempts. But for the second straight game, he registered zero assists, and that was compounded by the fact that Neto, who started alongside him against the Aggies, had only one assist.
Boise State’s offense continued to struggle overall, registering just 10 assists, five of which came from Parolin. The starters combined for just two assists, and the Broncos had 12 turnovers.
“It just looked like we had no plan,” Rice said. “You couldn’t recognize our plan.”
There’s no time to rest for the Broncos, who will try to regroup against athletic and physical UNLV (7-8, 2-2) on Tuesday at 9 p.m. Mountain time in Las Vegas. And Rice seems ready to make drastic changes, going beyond simply shuffling the starting five.
“The definition of insanity is to just keep doing the same thing. And we did the same thing two games in a row,” Rice said.
“I’m not going to be insane. I’m not going to keep doing the same things. We’re going to fix it. ... You declare rock bottom, and I’m gonna find the five guys that want to represent us and play for each other.”
This story was originally published January 11, 2026 at 12:02 AM.
