NCAA Tournament projections: Boise State among first four out in latest update

Jerry Palm of CBS Sports has Broncos just outside field of 68

Boise State Broncos forward O'Mar Stanley. / Brian Losness-Imagn Images

It’s been an up-and-down season for the Boise State men’s basketball team.

Picked to win the Mountain West Conference in the preseason coaches poll, the Broncos looked like a surefire NCAA Tournament team opening night in a runaway victory over Oakland. Three days later, Boise State suffered an 11-point loss at San Francisco. 

The season-long rollercoaster ride peaked again Wednesday night as Boise State took down MWC-leading New Mexico at home, 86-78. It was an important victory for the Broncos (18-8, 10-5), who sit alone in fifth place in the conference standings, 3.5 games behind the Lobos (22-5, 14-2).

Entering Saturday’s 4 p.m. Mountain time road matchup with Nevada (15-11, 7-8), Boise State is back in the picture for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid. 

The Broncos were among the first four teams out in the latest NCAA Tournament bracketology update from Jerry Palm of CBS Sports. Palm had Texas, Oklahoma, Xavier and Georgia as the last four teams in the field with Indiana, Arkansas, North Carolina and Boise State knocking on the door. 

Palm has three MWC teams in the field of 68: New Mexico (eight seed), Utah State (nine seed) and San Diego State (nine seed). No other MWC teams were included in Palm’s bubble watch.

Boise State remains in solid shape in the NCAA NET Rankings (No. 45) but holds just a 2-5 record against Quad 1 opponents. The Broncos are 1-5 overall against New Mexico, Utah State (23-4, 13-3), Colorado State (17-9, 11-4) and San Diego State (18-6, 11-4), the four teams above them in the MWC standings. 

Wednesday’s victory over the Lobos was a much-needed confidence booster for Boise State. 

“I think when we looked back at the film of both San Diego State games and the first New Mexico game, we just didn’t play hard enough, especially on offense,” Broncos senior forward Tyson Degenhart said. Degnerhart scored a career-high 32 points in the rematch with the Lobos. 

“They kind of just took our ball down in Albuquerque, and it was the same thing in San Diego, so we knew we had to be tough with it. They were going to pressure us, and we just had to be physical with the ball.”

Under head coach Leon Rice, the Broncos have reached the NCAA Tournament in each of the last three seasons. Boise State was among the last four teams into the field of 68 a season ago and fell to Colorado in the First Four, 60-53.