BOISE – With the 2023-24 athletic season over for Boise State, it’s time to turn our attention over to the 2024-25 season. With that, we look at 25 story lines to focus on for Boise State over the next year. Today, we look at Summer Storyline 4: Is this the year Boise State men’s basketball team breaks through in the NCAA Tournament?
The Boise State men’s basketball team will enter the 2024-25 season with a familiar question looming over its head: What will it take to get a win in the NCAA Tournament?
Of course, the Broncos will need to make the NCAA Tournament for the fourth year in a row before it can even worry about it, but over the past three years that question has only been amplified.
Three straight one-and-outs at the Big Dance have now dropped Boise State to 0-10 all-time in tournament games.
They were close this year, or at least closer than they had been in each of the past two seasons, leading Colorado with four minutes to go in their First Four matchup before sputtering late in a 60-53 loss. But when it comes to the NCAA Tournament, close doesn’t count. Teams are judged by whether or not they can get the job done. So how can Boise State get the job done?
For coach Leon Rice and Co., it starts with getting back to the tournament. The more chances you get, Rice said, the more likely it is you eventually find a way.
“When you keep knocking on the door, then eventually you get the seed you deserve, you get the match-up, those things come,” Rice said in the moments following the loss to Colorado. “But it’s a hard tournament to get to.”
Sure, getting there is half the battle. Prior to Rice arriving in Boise in 2010, Boise State had been to the tournament just five times. In the 14 years since, that number has doubled. And with the Broncos now making it three years in a row for the first time in school history, a couple of post players returning in Tyson Degenhart and O’Mar Stanley and three high-profile transfers coming in, the expectation is to make it four in a row this season.
The other part of the question lies somewhat in the draw you get. Take this past year’s selection, for instance.
Ignoring the conversation of whether the Broncos were under seeded, the four at-large teams selected to the First Four were Boise State, Colorado, Colorado State and Virginia.
In order to have Colorado State avoid any regular season rematches, the committee needed to pair the Rams with Virginia and Boise State with a Colorado team that had won eight straight games before falling in the Pac-12 championship game and had three players selected in last month’s NBA Draft.
The Buffaloes proved to be a tough matchup for Boise State while Virginia was only able to muster 42 points in its loss to Colorado State.
Now, that’s not to say Boise State would have necessarily beat Virginia had they drawn them, but it would have provided different matchup challenges for the Broncos, perhaps challenges the Broncos might have been able to handle easier.
So to answer the question, yes, the Broncos can absolutely win an NCAA Tournament game this year. But it will come down to making it, then having things go the right way for once one day in March.
“You hate to move on and turn the page, and I’m not ready to do that, but the program’s growing every year,” Rice said after the Colorado loss. “And that’s what we’re proud of. And now the next step is to make a big run, and we’ll get there.”
