Change brings air of excitement to BSU hoops - Idaho Press-Tribune
BOISE — Last season, his first as Boise State men's basketball coach, Leon Rice obviously felt like everything was new. In his second year, it's the same feeling.
Rice's Broncos begin practice today as first-year members of the Mountain West Conference with a roster that is pretty much new — 10 of the 15 players have not played a single minute for Boise State. There also is a sign of the program's growth in the 10,000 square foot, $3 million Arguinchona Basketball Complex.
"That's a great present for all of us, that makes us want to go out there and prove we deserve that," senior guard Wes Perryman said. "With that coming along, with new guys, new conference, it all kind of goes together … we're building and it looks pretty good right now."
Perryman is likely to start at point guard after spending time backing up La'Shard Anderson. His 6.1 points per game from last season are the most returning for the Broncos, who lose their top four scorers, but brought in a large, talented crop of newcomers.
"It's kept me up at night already, and it shouldn't do that this time of year," Rice said. "… The thing about the kids we have, as a staff, we're really convinced they're going to be very good."
With a new team, it's likely fans will see a new style of basketball. Rice praised his team's ability to steal the ball last season (they finished 15th out of 335 Division I teams), but also that it created "some bad habits defensively." The Broncos will not be a big team, with no players taller than 6-foot-9, but they do have strong shooters.
"We're starting from scratch in the fact that last year you spent all that time and you're kinda making progress, putting in stuff, and I said to my assistants 'what if we ran that drill we ran last year?' Now you've got to teach it all over again," Rice said.
The Broncos will lean on the likes of Perryman, along with 6-8 forward Ryan Watkins, 6-5 forward Thomas Bropleh and 6-2 guard Jeff Elorriaga — all of whom played as true freshmen last season. Freshman guards Igor Hadziomerovic and Anthony Drmic, both Australian imports, have received strong early reviews, as have junior college transfer forwards Kenny Buckner and Jarrell Crayton.
"There's a lot of energy coming in right now," said Watkins, who has dropped about 20 pounds since last season began, from 255 to 235.
If working with a roster that has a majority of new faces wasn't a challenge enough, the Broncos step into a Mountain West Conference that had two Sweet 16 teams last season and was ranked as the fourth-best conference in Division I hoops according to RealTimeRPI.com, ahead of the ACC.
"It's a big mountain to climb," Rice said. "I think it's the top one (in the West), not only the coaches, the great players, but those home-court advantages. That's what we need to get here in Boise."
With so much turnover and the first year in a new conference, the Broncos were picked to finish last in the eight-team MWC, which serves as motivation.
"Of course it's motivation, no one wants to be picked last," Watkins said. "We're going to work hard to prove people wrong."
14 Oct, 2011--
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