Boise State is looking to punch their ticket into the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament for the 10th time in their program’s history. With the entire Mountain West Conference (MWC) having one of its best seasons in its history, achieving this goal will be difficult.
Following an impressive road win against University of New Mexico on Jan. 31, the Broncos find themselves with a 15-6 record and 6-2 in the MWC, putting the Broncos at second in the conference and just one game shy of the top-seeded Utah State University.
“I got winners,” head coach Leon Rice said. “That’s just league, when you’re playing a great league with great teams. It’s just a fine line…we got to build a bounce back and I mean out of the frying pan in the fire or next ones at New Mexico. They may be playing better than anybody in the league right now.”
They did win. The Broncos went into The Pit and absolutely put on a show.
O’Mar Stanley notched his fourth double-double of the season making him just the seventh Bronco under Leon Rice to have four or more double-doubles in a single season. Max Rice also turned up the heat, tying his career-high 3-pointers with seven, to lead the Broncos in a massive 86-78 win.
Despite how ferocious The Pit gets for games, the Broncos were able to silence the crowd and take home a crucial win.
“Every game…our approach is the same no matter what,” Leon Rice said. “This is a league where you just have to go try to find a way to steal one somewhere…that’s our mindset…you keep fighting, show up the next day, have a great practice and away we go, but it doesn’t add to the pressure.”
Though the win is as impressive as it may be, there is still more work to be done.
In the updated NET rankings, the primary tool used by the NCAA tournament selection committee, the Broncos find themselves in the middle of the crowd, ranked 56 in the nation. There is room for improvement, but moving up in these rankings is important to the NCAA basketball tournament selection committee.
The four other Mountain West teams ranked higher in these NET rankings are New Mexico (16), San Diego State (23), Utah State (20), and Colorado State (32). Despite these teams leading the charge in the conference, the Broncos have gone 3-1 against them.
The Broncos have still not done enough to guarantee them a spot in the tournament and still need to accomplish more to secure entry.
In the past, there have been teams holding higher rankings than 56th that missed the tournament. Contrary, there are also teams that have been ranked lower than 56th that have gotten the opportunity to dance.
There are multiple factors that come into play when deciding the tournament teams, and the NET rankings is just one of many.
Another factor that the selection committee takes into consideration is strength of schedule. Although the Broncos record isn’t as flashy as their counterparts, they have played many good teams. They have played against eight different Quad one teams and won four, which is the most in the Mountain West.
The Broncos have played the 10th-toughest schedule in the entire country, based on their strength of schedule , and still find themselves with one of the top records in the Mountain West.
Notable teams in the MWC with worse strengths of schedule are New Mexico (52) and Utah State (41). The difference between each team’s schedule gives the Broncos a huge advantage prior to the tournament selection.
Utah State (19-2), New Mexico (18-4), San Diego State (16-5), Colorado State (16-5), Nevada (16-5) and Boise State (15-6) all headline the MWC for the selection committees choosing.
Given the strength of the Mountain West this year, there may be up to five bids in the Tournament this year. The last time the Mountain West had five or more bids was in 2013. The MWC has the seventh best win/loss record out of all 32 conferences this year, which will result in more bids in the tournament.
With the Broncos still having 10 regular season games and the Mountain West Tournament, there is plenty of time for the team to solidify their path to the Big Dance. Anything can happen in those final games, and Boise State is looking to find its way into the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season.