BOISE – Wanting to keep his early-season opponents guessing, Boise State coach Leon Rice decided not to run any plays or sets Tuesday night in an exhibition game against Carroll College at ExtraMile Arena.
He nearly emptied his bench, playing 12 guys and spreading out the minutes more than he would in a typical game.
It was, as he described it, “a little bit of a free for all.”
But they still kept score, and the Broncos got 19 points from Tyson Degenhart and 14 points each from Marcus Shaver Jr. and Chibuzo Agbo in a 76-58 win.
Boise State now will turn its attention to the regular season opener a week from Wednesday on Nov. 9 against South Dakota State, an NCAA Tournament team from a year ago.
“Some of them started out with some nerves,” Rice said of the Broncos, who led 36-25 at the half. “It’s different when you get that first time in front of fans and the first time out there together and the first time in a Bronco uniform. That was the first time they’ve worn those Bronco uniforms for a lot of the guys.
“I think we worked ourselves through some of the nerves and some preseason stuff, which was good.”
Degenhart was 6 of 8 from the field and made all three of his 3-point attempts. Shaver Jr. was 5 of 8 form the field and looked like his usual self, while the newcomer Agbo showed off an impressive 3-point stroke and an aggressiveness on the offense end.
Agbo, a transfer from Texas Tech, appears to already be one of the best players on the roster.
“That was just really fun,” Agbo said. “I’ve been waiting for it for a long time. Earlier today I was just sitting there thinking about last year and how I was waiting and praying for this specific day right here. I was very thankful for it.”
Jace Whiting was an unexpected highlight off the bench. Initially thought to maybe be a redshirt candidate, the Idaho native had nine points in 11 minutes off the bench and will play this season according to Rice.
“He’s playing,” Rice said. “He’s a tough kid. He’s a grinder and he’s just getting his legs back and his shooting back (after going on an LDS mission) and he’s gritty and I trust him – and that’s pretty good for a freshman.”
The Broncos committed 17 turnovers, many careless ones that Rice called “November 1st, preseason mistakes.” He also attributed some of the offensive issues including poor shot selection to electing to not run any sets and instead just letting the players go play.
There was no television broadcast or online stream of the game, which was by design. Still, Rice didn’t want to take the chance any video would make its way to South Dakota State or Washington State ahead of their first two games of the season next week.
“You don’t want anything out there yet, and also you want them to just play through stuff where they have to solve it and play through some mistakes,” Rice said. “That’s the nice thing about an exhibition game, you can let them play through mistakes. And we get those on film and can counter those mistakes with what we do in the next week.
“That was part of the game plan, to not run any plays and just let our flow and our motion just play out of that. Sometimes what you see out of that is shot selection you won’t see, hopefully, in one or two weeks.”
Naje Smith had eight points off the bench and appears set to be the sixth man, at least to start the year. Max Rice started and had 2 points on 1 of 5 shooting but added six rebounds and four assists.
Lukas Milner had four points and six rebounds while Mo Sylla had no points and just one rebound in his unofficial debut.
Sada NgaNga, the highest ranked high school player to ever sign with Boise State, had two points in seven minutes in his first college game. He likely won’t play major minutes to start the season as he adjusts to the college game, similar to what Degenhart did early last season.
Boise State was 9 of 24 from 3-point range (37.5 percent) and made 17 of 23 free throws (73.9 percent) while out rebounding Carroll 33-24.
The Broncos now have a week to clean things up before the games start counting for good on Nov. 9 against South Dakota State, a team that won 30 games last season. Boise State then plays Washington State in another big early-season game on Nov. 12 at ICCU Arena in downtown Boise.
“Now we have a week to prepare for a great team in South Dakota State and we have to make a big jump this week,” Rice said. “You get (the first one) out of the way and done and hopefully that will help us.”
Said Degenhart, “It was good to play an actual game and get into the flow of things, and now we have a week to look at the film and get better from it.”
