What Boise State head coach Leon Rice said about UNLV win, burning Pearson Carmichael’s redshirt

‘I’ve just been watching him and I know what this team needs,’ Rice said of Carmichael

Boise State Broncos head coach Leon Rice. / Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

Senior forward Tyson Degenhart posted his third double-double of the season with 21 points and 11 rebounds as the Boise State men’s basketball team blew by UNLV, 81-59, Tuesday night in Mountain West Conference play. 

The Broncos (12-4, 4-1) led wire-to-wire and were never threatened at ExtraMile Arena. It was UNLV’s (9-6, 3-1) first MWC loss of the season. 

“I’d say we played 38 great minutes,” Boise State head coach Leon Rice said after the win. “We came at them in waves. That’s what I envisioned for this team, to be able to play a lot of guys to really keep the heat on you.”

In his first action as a Bronco, freshman wing Pearson Carmichael made two 3-pointers off the bench and finished with eight points and three rebounds. Carmichael, a deadly 3-point shooter, was a two-time Oregon Class 5A state player of the year for Bend’s Summit High School. 

Here are the highlights from Rice’s postgame radio interview. 

On taking the redshirt off Carmichael

“I’ve just been watching him and I know what this team needs, and we’ve talked about the 3-point shooting a lot. I’m sitting there going ‘This is one of our best shooters, one of our best wing shooters.’ And his body has changed. When you get these guys now, you get them in June. So it’s not just that we’ve had him for two months, we’ve had him for six. When he came in, he was a high school kid. Now he’s starting to look like a college kid.

“And then he was just lighting us up on scout team. That’s a hard thing to evaluate. Sometimes you get to play so free and easy on scout team. I asked him ‘Do you think you can do that in a game?’ You can tell a lot by how a kid responds, and he didn’t hesitate. He was like ‘Yeah, I can coach.’ 

“I just think with the way college athletics is going, you’re going to get a lot of years. You’re not going to run out of years. And when you look at it, he probably would’ve been playing eight to 12 minutes a game. So he really only missed 110 minutes or so. And he’s been practicing every day, he’s been involved in it. We’re not looking back saying ‘Oh, we should’ve done it sooner.’ But it was a necessary sub because (RJ) Keene was out tonight. … I really loved what I saw tonight.”

On O’Mar Stanley playing well off the bench

“Twelve points and four rebounds in 22 minutes. He made some intimidating plays, which he can do. He’s a rim protector, and when they see him in there, they are maybe a little bit more hesitant to go at him.”

On shooting 22 of 31 on two-pointers

“We’ve got good guys who can finish around the rim. They’re big and they’re strong, and we’re bringing a bunch of them in. I mean, we’re bringing in an all-conference guy off the bench right now in O’Mar. And Javan (Buchanan), when he’s finishing at the rim … those possessions are the ones that get you away. Instead of it being an eight-point lead, it’s a 15-point lead and then it goes to 20 right before half.”

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