‘It’s nuts’: Former Mt. Spokane star Tyson Degenhart leads Boise State into a MWC tourney that promises to be wild

If the regular-season logjam is any indication, the Mountain West Conference Tournament will be a doozy.

At stake are coveted berths in the NCAA Tournament, and the Boise State men’s basketball team – still seeking its first win in the Big Dance – finds itself in the middle of that jumbled league race. With multiple Spokane and Inland Northwest connections on the roster and coaching staff, the Broncos are on the cusp of a third straight NCAA berth in a conference that has six teams projected to make the tourney.

“It’s nuts,” said Spokane’s Tyson Degenhart of a league race separated by just four games among the top seven teams.

“With all the tournament implications and those respects, there is a lot to play for,” said Degenhart, a 6-foot-8 forward who plays more like a guard. He’s blossomed into a MWC Player of the Year candidate after graduating in 2021 from Mt. Spokane High School.

In addition to Degenhart, the Rice family trio – well-known to fans of basketball in the Spokane area – is also a huge reason the Broncos are 22-9 overall and 13-5 in league play. Former Gonzaga assistant Leon Rice is the head coach, Max Rice is a sixth-year senior standout and Kade Rice is a redshirt freshman seeing action off the bench.

Max Rice is one of four Broncos averaging in double figures at 12.4 points per game. Kade has played in eight games and is a former AAU teammate of Degenhart’s. The brothers spent their younger years in Spokane, but for the last 14 years have made Boise their home.

The BSU coaching staff features defensive specialist Mike Burns, who served as head coach at Eastern Washington nearly two decades ago. It also includes former Eastern assistant and BSU standout Roberto Bergersen, as well as Larry Eustachy, who serves as senior advisor to Rice. Eustachy is a former Idaho coach, and held the same roles at Iowa State, Utah State and Colorado State.

Having that veteran staff has been vital for the Broncos in keeping pace in the highly competitive MWC.

On Friday, the Broncos leaned on that leadership to beat defending conference champion and 2023 national runnerup San Diego State 79-77. The Aztecs entered that game a perfect 14-0 at home.

“They are as talented as any team,” says Degenhart of SDSU, which beat Gonzaga earlier this season but only managed to finish fifth in the MWC. “They are a great challenge.”

Utah State won the MWC title in their first season under Danny Sprinkle, a former Montana State coach and player. Despite having no returning players from the 2022-23 season, the 22nd-ranked Aggies finished 14-4. They were followed by Boise State and Nevada at 13-5, UNLV at 12-6, SDSU at 11-7 and both New Mexico and Colorado State at 10-8.

“There is a lot of talent in this league, probably more than there has been in the past couple of years,” said Degenhart, whose Broncos open tourney play on Thursday in the quarterfinals against the winner of Wednesday’s first-round game between No. 6 New Mexico and No. 11 Air Force. “There are a lot of great teams and we all are kind of beating up on each other. It’s a lot of fun to play in this league.”

Trying not to look ahead to the NCAAs, Degenhart said he can’t help but hope that Boise State could somehow return to the Spokane Arena, site of first- and second-round games on March 22 and 24. Degenhart has played in his hometown arena five times – three in high school and two with BSU, including last December’s 66-61 loss to Washington State.

“Oh man, it would be great to go there and avenge that loss we had there earlier in the season,” he said. “To have all my friends and family there would mean the world to me. I would love to play in an arena I grew up watching games in.”

Friday’s victory may have locked up a NCAA bid, but Degenhart thinks at least one victory in the conference tournament would be great insurance for the Broncos, who were just outside the most recent AP Top 25 poll.

“There is still work to be done,” Degenhart said prior to his team’s regular-season finale. “We need a couple of more wins to feel a little bit better about getting into the tournament.”

Aiding their cause is their strength of schedule, and the Broncos are 24th in the all-important NET rankings used by the selection committee. In strength of schedule metrics, they are 6-4 versus Quad 1 teams, 3-4 versus Quad 2, 3-1 against Quad 3 and a perfect 8-0 versus Quad 4 foes.

“There are a lot of teams that didn’t really challenge themselves in the non-con,” said Degenhart. “It turned out well for us – we are one of the teams that challenged ourselves. We scheduled a lot of good teams and that really set ourselves up when it came to conference play.”

A 66-61 loss to Washington State at the Spokane Arena last December has become a good loss with the resurgence of the Cougars, who are ranked 18th and are currently 23-8 overall. They finished second in the Pac-12 Conference with a 14-6 record, but won twice over No. 5 Arizona, the league’s regular -season champ.

“We knew they were a good team, but I think they kind of took the Pac-12 by surprise,” Degenhart said. “We knew they had it in them with the way they could shoot from outside. They have a different guy who can make four or five threes every night, and that poses a great threat to the teams playing them.

“A lot of people thought it was a bad loss, and maybe one that could kind of keep a team out of the tournament,” he said. “But it turned out to be a quad 1 loss so there was no harm to our resume. Everything worked out the way it should be.”

And if Degenhart has his way, Boise State would finally get past the NCAA first round this season (the Broncos lost to Northwestern last year and Memphis in 2022).

“There is definitely some unfinished business – and that’s the kind of the thing that always gets talked about regarding Boise State during March Madness,” he said. “We just want to get that first win and the first one is always the hardest. One of the things we learned from the last two years is that you can’t dig yourself a hole. We have to get off to a fast start. As long as you can get out to an early lead you put some pressure on the other team.”

Degenhart is on his way to another honor-filled season after earning MWC Freshman of the Year honors in 2021-22 and first-team all-conference a year ago.

He’s averaging a team-leading 16.8 points per game, as well as six rebounds and over one steal per game. He’s made 51.9% of his field goals and nearly 80% of his free throws.

But he’ll pick team success over individual success anytime, and getting another shot at the NCAA Tournament would be a treasured accomplishment.

“You have to cherish every year you go, because not every year you make it,” he says. “We’ve only made it nine times in the history of our school. You have to take every moment as it is – you have to enjoy the experience and try to get a win every time you step on the court.”