Game 12: @ Boise St

Tip-off: 6PM

TV: CBS Sports Net

Line: SCU +5 and 31% win probability on Torvik; +7 and 28% on ESPN

Boise St.:
6-4 on the season, #80 NET ranking. They’re on a 3 game win streak but the last two are vs. really bad teams, Prairie View A&M and Cal St-Northridge. Best win is over Ole Miss; but have a bad loss to Cal St-Bakersfield. To date, defense has been their strength with a Top 30 ranking on Torvik but have been very mediocre on offense with mostly middle of the pack advance metrics (~150ish).
They have good size and athleticism in their main rotation. Starting guard Marcus Shaver (started at Portland several years ago) is 6-2 but the rest of their rotation is 6-5+ with several 6-7 to 6-8 athletic guys. 6-7 forward Abu Kigab has been their top player so far (15 pts, 7+ rebounds) followed by Shaver (12pts) and 6-8 Emmanuel Akot (11.4 pts, 3+ assists). 6-10, 240 center Mladen Armus is physical and tough inside, leads them in rebound (8/game) but not much of scorer (6pts/game). 6-5 guard Devonaire Doutrive rounds out the starting lineup. Both Doutrive and Akot are UofA transfers. And random SCU connection…Akot played with Vrankic at Wasatch Academy and is also from Canada.

For the Broncos, this is our 1st true road game that requires an actual flight, hotel stay, etc. A big wildcard for the game is whether or not Vrankic returns even if for limited minutes. Broncos are going to have to deal with Boise State’s athletic wings (Akot, Kigab, Doutrive plus a couple off the bench). Justice and Jalen will often be guarded by fairly athletic players with good length. We’re going to need a good collective team effort on offense because I don’t see Jalen or Justice carrying us with a 25+ pt game in this one. Braun is going to have to battle Armus, block out well and keep him off the offensive glass. I’m hoping to see Tongue play a good 10mins+ in this game; he had a good game vs. Cal w/ 6pts and his athleticism would be beneficial to match up vs. Boise’s athletic forwards.

Prediction: Boise St. prevails 75-70.

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Good news. Hope we can get twenty minutes out of Vrankic. He really opens things up for Pipes’ shooting and Braun’s cutting. Ideally, Bediako is back for conference play as we are still quite thin on the inside…but until then, sometimes the best defense is a good offense.

Thanks Julia. That’s good news on Vrankic. Not expecting a big contribution given the expected limited minutes but I imagine it will give the team an emotional boost. More importantly it gives Vrankic plenty of time to work off the rust and regain conditioning by the time WCC play starts.

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Was looking at the Boise State stats and they are absolutely dreadful from the foul line this year at 57%. Kigab (57%) and Armus (36%) lead them in attempts. While we can’t let our starters get into foul trouble, the bench guys should play super aggressive on defense tonight and have zero concern about fouling the Boise State bigs. I would not even mind seeing Holt and Tongue foul out. Boise State is that bad from the foul line.

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Agree on Vrankic…It will be nice to see him on the floor even if in a limited capacity. His leadership has been missed as much as his production. His return bodes well for conference play. I did like the minutes that Tongue provided versus Cal, and maybe we see a little more from Holt, especially with Josip on the mend and Bediako out.

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Really want the Broncos to win this one to feel like they still have a better than even shot at the NIT. Happy that Josip is back and maybe will create a confidence boost. The TCU game came after Josip was injured, and the guys seemed to be riding high on confidence then. Hopefully they can get that back.

76-71 Broncos. Josip gets 12 and 7. Pipes finally gets his stroke back and goes for 23 with 7 points from the stripe.

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Boise State coach on tonight’s game. They don’t let opponents shoot many 3s. 3rd in the country in terms of 3pt rate defense. Interestingly, we don’t get much of our offense from the 3pt line despite being a very high 3pt% shooting team. Only 34% of our FG attempts come from 3 which is 258th in the nation.

Would love to see more of what was there in those 3 games earlier this year (Stanford, Nevada, TCU). Ever since Fresno overplayed the perimeter and forced SCU to go 1 on 1 it’s been a rough go. No real adjustments from Sendek… it’s got that same old trying to force a square peg though a round hole feel to it.
Hopefully having some of Josip back tonight can help to exploit the overplaying D as I am sure Boise has seen the recent struggles for the SCU offense and will look to do the same.

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Maybe it is the March Madness intro music, but I really enjoy the production quality of the CBS Sports Network college basketball broadcasts. It just feels more substantial than ESPNU broadcasts.

Any chance you can help out a Luddite and tell me how to get the broadcast. I have tried every which way (app, website, my cable account, paramount+) and have come up empty.

I am watching on YouTubeTv. We look completely unprepared on offense in the first 8 minutes.

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Broncos struggling to get good looks.

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Geezuz. One more streaming service to pay for or steal the credentials from my college kid. I guess I will watch the Memphis/Alabama game. The floor is almost the same color and Boise State’s football field. Wow.

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Nice shooting by Giordan Williams! Hopefully we can close the half strong

Finally picked up the pace. Pipes has the best matchup this game. He needs to get in the lane as much as possible. When he got in the lane and hit the floater, that really got us going.

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Despite way too many turnovers, still in it and now closed within 1. Frosh Stewart and Tongue are making some mistakes but also displaying their athleticism and potential…have to accept some of their mistakes to give them minutes and let them develop.

Giordan Williams certainly does not lack confidence, which is helpful on the road. Stewart is our best dunker since Doron Perkins. Wish Stewart could spend the summer working out with him.

Love that we at least tried to go 2 for 1 out of the timeout …but did not get the rebound. Fortunately Akot has the slowest release in D-1 and that basket did not count.

Gotta speed it up. Open look, don’t thing, just fire, and in the half court sets got to go to the basket as Boise is overplaying the perimeter.

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