Boise State is NCAA Tournament bound for third year in a row. Who will they face?
The Boise State men’s basketball team will have to play its way into the NCAA Tournament’s main draw.
The Broncos will face Colorado in the First Four on Wednesday (7:10 p.m. MT, TruTV) in Dayton, Ohio. The winner earns a No. 10 seed and gets No. 7 Florida (24-11) in the first round Friday in Indianapolis.
It’s the first time in program history the Broncos have made the Big Dance in three consecutive seasons. It’s the fifth time Boise State earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament since head coach Leon Rice was hired in 2010. Rice admitted Sunday that he was surprised about where the Broncos landed.
“I thought that we’d be a higher seed because two things were emphasized, the schedule you put together and winning on the road, and we did both of those things,” Rice told reporters Sunday.
Boise State (22-10, 13-5 Mountain West) played a tough non-conference schedule this season that included a win over St. Mary’s, which earned a No. 5 seed this year. The Broncos are ranked No. 26 in the latest NET rankings, thanks in large part to a 6-5 record in Quad 1 games.
Rice said the way things played out is making him question how much putting together an impressive schedule really matters to the selection committee.
“Is that really important, or is it more important to win by 30 or 40?” Rice said.
The Broncos are still looking for their first win in the tournament. They’re 0-9 all-time, including a 75-67 loss to Northwestern last season and a 64-53 loss to Memphis in 2022.
Colorado (24-10) is coming off a loss to Oregon in the Pac-12 Tournament championship game. The Buffaloes are led by junior guard KJ Simpson, who averages 19.6 points and 5.7 rebounds a game. Six-foot-9 forward Tristan da Silva averages 15.8 points a night.
The Broncos are one of a conference-record six Mountain West teams that made the field this year. It’s the most teams the conference has sent to the tournament since five made the cut in 2013.
San Diego State (23-10) owns the Mountain West’s highest seed. The conference tournament runner-up is a No. 5 seed for the second year in a row. The Aztecs made it to the national championship game as a No. 5 seed last season before losing to UConn. San Diego State will face No. 12 UAB in the first round.
Mountain West regular-season champion Utah State (27-6) is a No. 8 seed and will face No. 9 TCU in the first round. Conference tournament champion New Mexico (26-9) enters the tournament as a No. 11 seed and will open against No. 6 Clemson. Nevada (26-7) is a No. 10 seed and will face No. 7 Dayton in the first round. Colorado State (24-10) joins Boise State in the First Four and will face Virginia with a No. 10 seed on the line.
Rice called the way Mountain West teams were seeded a “head-scratcher.”
“I’d love to know what goes on in that room because I don’t know what they were looking at or what things hurt our league,” he said.
Boise State is coming off a loss to New Mexico in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Tournament.
Junior forward Tyson Degenhart — a first-team All-Mountain West pick for the second year in a row — leads the Broncos with 17 points a night, and he’s No. 2 on the team with 6.2 rebounds a game. The former Mountain West Freshman of the Year averaged 18.2 points a game in league play, which ranked No. 2 in the conference this year behind the media’s pick for player of the year, San Diego State’s Jaedon LeDee.
Chibuzo Agbo averages 13.6 points a game, and he’s shooting 44% from the floor and 41% from 3-point range. St. John’s transfer O’Mar Stanley is averaging 13 points and a team-high 6.4 rebounds a night. Stanley was named second-team all-conference by Mountain West coaches. Agbo and sixth-year senior Max Rice (12.5 points a game) were named honorable mention.
Boise State vs. Colorado
NCAA Tournament — First Four
When: 7:10 p.m. MT, Wednesday
Where: UD Arena, Dayton, Ohio
TV: TruTV
Records: Boise State 22-10, 13-5 Mountain West. Colorado 24-10, 13-7 Pac-12.
Series history: This will be the second all-time meeting between the Broncos and Buffaloes. Boise State beat Colorado 68-55 in the fifth-place game of the Myrtle Beach Invitational last season.
This story was originally published March 17, 2024 at 5:33 PM with the headline "Boise State is NCAA Tournament bound for third year in a row. Who will they face?."
