LARAMIE – Leon Rice doesn’t try hiding or downplaying to his team the fact that Wyoming’s Arena-Auditorium is the highest elevation in Division-I at 7,220 feet.
Wyoming famously boasts the challenges and potential effects of playing at such high elevation in signage near the visiting locker room and during pregame warmups as an intimidation and scare tactic for visiting teams.
“I’d rather air on the side of talking about it and understanding what your mind has to be ready to do and how to do it and giving them process of how we do it,” Rice said.
And it’s worked plenty over the years. Boise State posted an 85-68 win in Laramie and the Broncos are 5-1 in their last six games at the Arena-Auditorium. Dating back to when the the Broncos joined the Mountain West in 2013 they are 9-4 at Wyoming.
So why have the Broncos been so successful playing at the highest-elevation of any Division I building in the country? Leon Rice for starters.
Boise State’s 14th-year coach has several tricks up his sleeve including using a “elevation machine” at practice and making the players drink beet juice before the game.
“I know what that elevation machine is,” Wyoming coach and former Boise State assistant Jeff Linder joked on Friday’s episode of BNN LIVE. “It’s the fan that dries the floor when the floor gets wet.”
In the past Rice would turn on a blower in the gym, write “elevation machine” on it and tell players it helped them simulate playing at higher elevations at practice. Most players knew it was a mental trick, but some younger players will occasionally fall for it.
“There were a few guys,” Linder joked.
Linder was a part of multiple teams at Boise State as an assistant that won at Wyoming, and now has seen the Broncos come beat him as an opponent. And he knows they are more prepared than most to deal with the altitude.
“Leon’s always done a really good job of not allowing that to impact his team,” Linder said. “Boise over the course of since he’s been there in 2010, Boise has always played well here and a lot of it has to do with not allowing the altitude to be an excuse.
“The big thing is just the mentality. I think a lot of teams come into Laramie that are already beat before they got here, whether they are complaining about the altitude, the weather, whatever, but I know that won’t be the case come Saturday.”
Rice has a system he’s perfected dating back to his days as an assistant at Gonzaga to prepare for the altitude. Some of it is mostly for fun – like the elevation machine and the beat juice – and some of it is for real.
The Broncos will likely go to their bench earlier and more often than usual to keep guys fresh.
“We have a secret formula that I can’t tell that obviously works, because everyone copies it,” Rice said with a laugh. “I see other teams saying ‘oh we drink beat juice.’ I wonder where that came from?”
Linder joked that the Broncos were “loading up on beet juice right now” ahead of Saturday’s and said Rice “should have got a copyright or trademark on it.”
“That’s the beauty of Leon and what makes him great,” Linder said. “He finds a way to make a situation where people are looking at it and trying to make excuses and he find a way not to. … Leon has done a really good job of not letting that be an excuse.”
Wyoming always seems to play better at home, and this year is no different. The Cowboys are 8-3 at home this season and 2-9 in true road games.
Tulsa transfer Sam Griffin is one of the best scorers in the conference at 17.4 points per game, and Akuel Kot isn’t far behind at 14.2 points per game. Wyoming has three players with at least 47 made 3-pointers this season in Griffin, Kot and Brendan Wenzel.
The Cowboys are averaging more than seven made 3-pointers per game.
“Playing at Wyoming is always a huge challenge,” Rice said. “Linder is a great coach, they have a great players, I think this team looks like they are clicking and just like any of us on the road, they’ve had ups and downs on the road but they’ve been terrific at home.
“And the altitude is always a factor and it’s real. There are some teams that can deal with it better than others, some teams Ive had dealt with it better than others, but playing at altitude presents certain challenges.”
Boise State (18-8, 9-4 MW) is looking to pull even with Utah State atop the Mountain West standings. The Broncos are currently a half-game behind the Aggies but would move into a tie at 10-4 in the conference with a win since Utah State doesn’t play this weekend.
Tip off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. and the game will stream on the Mountain West Network. It will air on KTVB Channel 7 in Boise.
Bronco Nation News will be live around 4:30 p.m. from the Arena-Auditorium with the Lithia Ford of Boise Pregame Show on the Bronco Nation News YouTube, Facebook and X accounts. Get a live look at warmups, the latest news and more ahead of an important game for the Broncos.
Bogus Basin is 7582 ft and we seem to do just fine skiing around up there all day. These are elite athletes. Most of this is just a head game. But….head games work.