Boise State cracks top 50 of KenPom rankings
The Boise State men’s basketball team is up to No. 50 in the KenPom rankings after routing Wyoming, 96-55, Tuesday night in Mountain West Conference play.
The Broncos (13-5, 5-2 MWC) made 31 of 53 field goal attempts (58.5 percent) and shot 13 of 26 from beyond the arc while holding Wyoming to 35.4 percent shooting.
“You’re seeing the parts of our game coming together,” Boise State head coach Leon Rice said after the game. “We were lacking here, we were lacking there. Every team goes through things they need to get better at, and the beauty of the guys I have is when we address things, they can fix them.”
For Boise State, the fixes needed to come on the defensive end.
In the KenPom rankings, the Broncos have an offensive rating of 116.7 (No. 33 nationally) and a defensive rating of 101.3 (No. 84).
Boise State’s defensive struggles were apparent in a recent loss to Utah State. The Aggies shot 61.2 percent overall and 80 percent (16 of 20) in the second half en route to an 81-79 comeback victory.
The Broncos had no problems on offense at Utah State, shooting 52.9 percent overall (27 of 51) with 14 made 3-pointers. The offense remained hot against Wyoming while the defense improved by leaps and bounds.
“Our defense got everything going,” Rice said. “The energy we played with on defense kind of carried over to our offense.”
Boise State is the third-highest MWC team in KenPom behind No. 35 San Diego State (11-4, 4-2) and No. 43 Utah State (16-1, 6-0), the Broncos’ only two losses in conference play.
New Mexico (14-4, 6-1), which hosts Boise State at 9 p.m. Mountain time Friday, dropped to No. 59 following a 71-70 loss at San Jose State (9-10, 2-5). Latrell Davis hit the game-winner for the Spartans, who rank No. 180 in KenPom.
“Another tough environment, Rice said of playing at The Pit after enduring the boisterous student section at Smith Spectrum. “Like I always tell our guys, life doesn’t give you do-overs, but it gives you second chances. Here we go, we get a second chance to go do it Friday in one of the greatest venues in college basketball. We just left one of the greatest venues in college basketball, and now we get to go to another one with one of the best teams right now in the country.”
The NCAA NET Rankings tell a similar story to KenPom with Utah State (No. 33), San Diego State (No. 39), Boise State (No. 44) and New Mexico (No. 62) leading the MWC.
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