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The first to four wins:Will BSU men’s basketball separate itself from Fresno State Thursday night?
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The records aren’t bad for the Boise State and Fresno State men’s basketball teams this season. However, after three weeks of Western Athletic Conference play, neither team is posting extraordinary numbers in the win-loss columns either.
Through the first six games of the regular season BSU has gone 2-1 at home and 1-2 on the road for a perfect .500 winning percentage. Fresno State, meanwhile, is recovering from a three game skid during the last two weeks of the season. Fresno opened the season with home wins over Idaho and Utah State. Since USU, the Bulldogs have dropped road games at University of Hawaii, San Jose State and University of Nevada, Reno.
Monday night Fresno got back to its winning ways with a 67-64 win over San Jose State. The win moved the Bulldogs into a tie with BSU for fifth and sixth place in the WAC standings. The tie gives Thursday’s game in Boise huge ramifications on seeding at the end of the season.
While BSU has faced an array of styles and tempos this year the game style they will see against Fresno should be unlike anything else in the WAC. BSU Head Coach Greg Graham said Monday that Fresno plays five players that could all be guards. He also said Bronco fans can expect the Bulldogs to shoot more three’s than any other team BSU has faced this season.
“They’re a very athletic team,” Graham said. “They shoot a lot of threes, very up-tempo. We’ve had good games with them in the last couple years, some high scoring affairs. We expect the
same. Every time we say that it turns the other way but they’ve got three or four guys that are all-league candidates.”
So far this season the Bulldogs have six players that have all shot over 40 three point attempts. Eddie Miller, the team’s sixth man, is tied for a team-high 114 attempts. Five Bulldog players alone are combining for 21 three-point attempts per game. However, the double threat comes from Fresno in the fact that they don’t put an extremely small roster on the floor.
The Bulldogs start Quinton Hosley (6’6”, 210), Hector Hernandez (6’9”, 225), Dominic McGuire (6’8”, 210) and Ja’Vance Coleman (6’3”, 215). Point guard Kevin Bell is the only player in the starting line up under six-feet tall (5’10”, 165).
The 6’9” Hernandez is third on the team in three-point attempts this season with 90. One of the main reasons the big man has shot so many three’s is because he’s shooting 52 percent from long range on the season.
One of the weapons Coach Graham will use to try and counteract the Bulldog attack is BSU’s depth. The Bulldogs only have six players averaging over 20 minutes per game, while the Broncos have been dealt the luxury of playing a different combination of players nearly every night.
“That’s one thing we hoped would be one of our strengths: our depth this year,” Graham said. “When we’re all playing we’ve been very good, especially at home. Hopefully we’ll keep getting production off the bench. That way if one guy’s not on someone can step in and take his place. We can play who’s hot.”
Coach Grahams’s best example of team depth came against Hawai’i in the play of one of the Bronco senior leaders. Coby Karl entered the game as one of the key scoring focuses of the BSU offensive attack. Against the Warriors, however, Karl only shot the basketball four times. While some people would see the performance as passive, Coach Graham said he feels it showed the true knowledge Karl has for the game.
Although no one made mention of Karl’s unselfishness following the contest, Graham mentioned how impressed he was with Karl’s patience on repeated occasions. According to Graham, Karl didn’t force any shots because he was content with letting players like Matt Nelson and Anthony Thomas lead the team to victory.
Aside from a complete team effort, Coach Graham said the Broncos are also hoping for another strong crowd to cheer them on against the Bulldogs. Following the 10,190-fan crowd against Hawai’i Coach Graham said he doesn’t expect to duplicate that support every night, but he hopes the fans liked the win against Hawai’i enough to keep going back for more.
“Hopefully the people that came enjoyed themselves and want to come back and see us again and see that we have a good team,” Graham said. “[I hope they] like our guys and like how we played. I don’t think we’ll get that many (10,190), but if we can get five or six thousand that would be great.”
The Broncos’ game against Fresno will be the final one of the home schedule BSU has enjoyed over the past two weeks. The Broncos will play three of the next four games on the road. BSU will play two more home games before finishing the season at Fresno State and Hawaii.
BSU also has to travel to New Mexico State, Idaho, Louisiana Tech and San Jose State by the end of regular season play. Coach Graham said his team understands the importance of continuing the winning ways at home. A strong home record will be necessary if BSU is to remain in the hunt for a conference championship.
Jake Garcin
