BOISE – To say Dani Bayes was excited to join the Boise State women’s basketball team last summer is an understatement.
The now freshman asked assistant coach Mike Petrino to drive her and her mother to campus at 1 a.m. following a 24-hour travel day from Brisbane, Australia.
She’s hardly left since and has already become a permanent fixture there.
The 5-foot-11 guard ranks top-5 in six categories, including first in made 3-pointers at 27 (35.1%) and counting for the surging Broncos, who have won three in a row and four out of their last five games.
Boise State (7-8 overall, 2-0 Mountain West) will host Colorado State (10-5, 3-1) in a top-3 league matchup at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday inside Extra Mile Arena.
“One thing that’s really a great quality about her, is she’s really appreciative and really shares gratitude,” Boise State women’s basketball coach Gordy Presnell said. “That really isn’t all too common out there these days.”
Neither is her story.
Bayes didn’t even make her first 3 until 16.
She didn’t have to at first as a post player.
“I was a big lanky kid who was not very mobile and would fall down all the time,” Bayes said with a laugh.
But Bayes was forced to when she suddenly quit growing.
“I was just like, ‘If I want to go somewhere with this, I have to transition,” Bayes said. “I’m kind of known as a shooter, but I definitely had to work at my craft and gain the skills of more of a guard.”
The move paid off.
After being the Player of the Year in her high school at Sheldon, she saw both national and professional competition before ever playing a single minute for the Broncos. Bayes played up an age group for the bronze-medal winning U-20 team at the 2021 Australian Nationals before joining the Logan Thunder. The Thunder are a member of Australia’s NBL1 North, which is just a step below the WNBL – Australia’s top professional league.
Bayes, who was just 17 at the time, averaged 11.8 points on 35.1% shooting from 3-point range and 3.5 rebounds per game while playing alongside and against 20 and 30-year-old players such as Mikaela Ruef. The Stanford alum played in a national title game and made four Final Four appearances. Most of the players there have also seen time in the WNBL and EuroLeague – widely considered the best league in all of Europe.
“It was a big-eye opening (experience) and I think that’s probably where my most growth came from,” Bayes said. “The level of knowledge was just great. Especially to the younger ones like myself. It was cool to see that I could do what I wanted to do really..”
But what Bayes really wanted to do was play college basketball in the United States. She became enamored with it while watching Miela Goodchild, who set a Duke freshman record with 73 made 3-pointers in 2019. It’s why she elected to keep her NCAA eligibility by not being paid for her time with the Thunder.
“Playing college has been something I wanted to do since I was 10,” Bayes said. “The main thing was I wanted to get a degree. And to get school paid for, is an insane opportunity that not a lot of people can get.”
However, it proved easier said than done. Even with her impressive resume.
The after effects of the coronavirus pandemic still make it a little difficult for international players to get recruited and signed unless they deal directly with big agencies. It was only by a connection from a decade prior that allowed Boise State to swoop in and grab Bayes.
Petrino reached out to Alison Gorrell, a former player from his time as an assistant at Wyoming. He asked Gorrell, who plays professionally, if she knew of any potential prospects overseas. She referred him to former College of Idaho player Ty Shaw, whose wife runs an agency.
Within only a matter of weeks, he turned him on to Bayes.
“His (Presnell) first reply was, ‘Oh, she’s good enough. Can we get her?,’” Petrino said with a chuckle.
The answer ended up being a resounding yes.
Following emails and zoom calls, a random check-in call turned into a commitment. Presnell was actually visiting with another recruit when Petrino raced to get a hold of him. He eventually did and met him at the Student Union Building where Presnell received a pleasant surprise.
“It was really exciting because I don’t know that we would get her if she was in the whole system here,” Presnell said. “She averaged nine points a game playing with Stanford’s post player. Well if she was at a high school here, she’s not going to average nine points per game.”
Bayes and her mother made the near 7,600-mile flight to Boise in June sight unseen. She didn’t exactly know where she was at first. That’s because Bayes was sitting on the side of the plane opposite the Boise skyline.
“It was complete darkness,” Bayes said with a smile. “I leaned over to my mom and said, ‘What have we done?’”
But Bayes was wowed by Albertsons Stadium. And despite her mom tripping up the steps, she got a picture with her in front of the giant B steel sculpture in front of the Administration Building on University Drive during the early hours of the night. She was also up at 8 a.m. the next morning to attend the team’s camp, signing her first batch of autographs.
“My mom was like, ‘I feel like this is your home,” Bayes said. “I feel comfortable leaving you here.”
It still hasn’t always been easy for Bayes here, though.
She admits to really struggling with homesickness. It’s gotten to the point where Bayes has had to excuse herself from practices at times. The pressure of being a freshman starter and Bayes struggling in her first few games, including forgetting to line up at the free throw line, didn’t help matters either.
Bayes went just 5-of-14, including 1-of-6 from downtown, in her first-ever game with the Broncos during an 84-60 exhibition win over the College of Idaho on Nov. 4, 2022. She then shot 26.6% from the field and 20% from behind-the-arc in an 83-74 loss to Eastern Washington a few weeks later.
“When something’s been your dream and your goal for so long, you gotta grind it out,” Bayes said. “The main point for me is, I know that this is what I want and the hard times will pass. The great moments are the best feeling and they’re worth every minute of it.”
Bayes has a lot of great moments lately.
She had her best shooting game of the season on 6-of-9 (66.7%) for a team-high 14 points in a 75-66 win over Texas A&M-Commerce on Dec. 20 that began its current three-game winning streak. Bayes then became the third Bronco this season to earn Mountain West Freshman of the Week honors a week and a half ago. It came after a career-high 19 points – 16 in the first half, three rebounds and two assists in a 73-62 victory over San Jose State on New Year’s Eve. Natalie Pasco (Nov. 21, Dec. 26) and Mya Hansen (Dec. 5) are the other two players to win the award this season. Boise State is the only team in the league thus far to have multiple award winners..
For the season, Bayes is third in total field goals (51), fourth in scoring (9.3 points per game), third in minutes (25.9), fifth in assists (1.3 apg) and fifth in steals (10).
She credits the coaches and senior guard Kaitlin Burgess, who is from Auckland, New Zealand, which is actually Bayes’ hometown.
“She is basically my big sister on the team,” said Bayes, who went home with her for Christmas. “She just took me under her wing. She just helped me out so much. She just knows when something’s wrong. She’s been a really good support for me and I’m really grateful to have her cause with her experience, she knows what it’s like.”
The Broncos have also bounced back..
They sat at just 3-7 on Dec. 10. That came following a 68-65 overtime loss at home to St. Mary’s. It put them on a five-game slide – their first such streak in a decade.
But wins over Evergreen State, Texas A&M-Commerce, San Jose State and Utah State have Boise State creeping back up to .500 and second in the MW standings only behind UNLV. They’re the only two undefeated teams remaining in conference play.
But Boise State faces a tough three-game stretch against Colorado State, San Diego State and UNLV. They’re currently three of the top-4 teams in the conference with a combined record of 36-11, and only the Rams are at home.
Yet, the Broncos are not intimidated. They are already pretty battle-tested this season.
“I think we all know where we want to be. And at the moment, we’re not there,” Bayes said. “So we’re doing everything we can to really get into that groove of playing and practicing.
“Everyone’s on the same page, we all know what we’re working for.”
For Bayes, it’s about the next step in her journey. And right now, it’s about being a Bronco. A thrill that still hasn’t waned even seven months later.
“I think it’s been a lot of learning and a lot of growing from who I was. Even the amount of growth since I landed here has been enormous,” Bayes said. “I’m excited to see where it goes. I have a lot of goals set for myself. That’s just the start for me.”