BOISE – Everything you need to know about Mya Hansen can be found on her vehicle.
Her license plate, specifically.
It reads “Compete.”
Boise State will need just that out of its sophomore point guard this weekend and hopefully beyond. The sixth-seeded Broncos (19-12) open up the Mountain West Conference Tournament against No. 11 Utah State (5-24) at 8 p.m. Sunday inside the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
“She’s so competitive that getting Mya to acknowledge a mistake is not hard. Getting her to let go of a mistake, is,” Boise State assistant coach Michael Petrino said. “If I knew how to do it, I would change the ringtone on her phone to ‘Let it Go’ from ‘Frozen.’”
The Billings, Montana native got that from her family.
She was born into basketball – literally.
Mom Tricia Hansen was having contractions while watching her husband Pat Hansen coach during a high school state tournament game in Montana. But she never left her seat – even through two overtimes. Pat didn’t even know until receiving word while celebrating in the locker room. He sprinted out and the two immediately headed for the hospital.
Mya was born that night.
While Tricia was holding their first-born child, Pat was caught on camera on the phone with his assistant coaches already scouting the next game.
“It wasn’t just him. My mom was upset that she had to stay in the hospital with me and couldn’t be there for the next game,” Mya said with a laugh. “At that point, we knew that basketball was very important in our family.”
Pat is one of the most successful coaches in Montana history. He compiled 331 career wins and three state championships during his 24 years as a head coach. Most of that time was spent coaching boys basketball at Laurel High.
“I would always walk over to the high school after school and see my dad’s practices,” Mya said. “I’d just be sitting in the stands, watching him coach, watching them all play and trying to sneak on the court at the side baskets when I had the chance to shoot.
“I think that’s when I truly found the game that I loved. And those are the moments where I could analyze the game. That’s where I got my basketball IQ from, observing everything around me.”
It’s why Mya, who started playing in preschool, was already playing against the boys on travel teams in the third grade.
“Of course our workouts got a little intense,” said Pat who was her first coach with a laugh. “I was teaching her about leverage and getting to the basket. Well she doesn’t go to the rim as strong as I think she should. So I brought out one of those football blocking pads and I popped her with it. She’s just this little tiny girl at the time.
“So I immediately thought, ‘Oh my God, I killed her.’ But she actually got up and she wanted more. And the next time she dang near blew me through the wall. It was like, ‘Well I’m gonna show you then type of thing.’”
Mya never lost that mentality.
Even with her arm very nearly out of its socket.
Mya, who stands at 5-foot-9 inches now, was guarding the post as just a freshman at Laurel during the state tournament when her right arm got tangled up with an opposing player. It ripped out her AC joint.
So Pat, who was the head coach there at the time, thought her night was over after being walked off of the court by the trainer.
“The next thing you know she’s back on the bench,” Pat said. “And I look at the trainer and I go, ‘Can she go?’ And before the trainer could answer, Mya stands up and goes, ‘Three-fourths of girls can’t use their left hand in girls basketball. I can play with one hand, I’m fine.’ So she went back on the floor.”
Petrino, who was an assistant coach with the University of Montana at the time, witnessed it all firsthand.
“You could just tell right away she’s a kid who grew up in the gym. She grew up around sports. A coach’s kid. Dad coached her hard,” Petrino said. “No matter how hard he coached her, she wasn’t going to let it phase her in a good way.”
Mya ended up being a four-time all-state player at both Laurel and Billings Central Catholic High Schools with more than 1,500 career points. She was also a three-time state finalist, a state champion and the Gatorade Montana Player of the Year her senior season with 17.6 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.1 steals per game.
She originally committed to Montana.
But when Petrino and the rest of the coaching staff were let go, she reopened her recruitment. Mya then committed to Butler. Former coach Kurt Godlevske even flew more than 1,500 miles to personally watch Mya play in the state championship game her senior year. However, a week later, he was out, too.
So Mya once again found herself without a team.
“We’re thinking to ourselves, ‘My goodness, is Mya the bad luck? Why are these coaches leaving? What’s going on here?,’” Pat said.
Yet, four days later, Hansen was on a plane to Boise after longtime head coach Gordy Presnell personally reached out. Petrino was now a member of his own staff.
She committed right on the spot.
“Mya always loved Boise. And that’s one thing I think she regretted was not taking the trip to Boise first before she committed to Butler,” Pat said. “So when Boise called, she did not want to talk to anybody else. She just wanted to take her trip to Boise. And when we got to see the campus, boy she fell in love with it. We fell in love with it.”
Boise State Athletics
And it didn’t take long for the Broncos to fall in love with her as well.
Mya needed just eight games to become the first Boise State player in nearly two years to score more than 30 points in a game. She dropped a career-high 31 points with 57% shooting from 3-point range and a perfect 11-of-11 from the free throw line in a 76-67 loss to BYU on Dec. 1, 2022.
Mya was named the Mountain West Freshman of the Week as a result. It came after she had been benched with a four-game stretch that saw just 19 combined points on 30% shooting from the field.
“You always aim for perfection. You always want to do great things. It can be very difficult and tough when that doesn’t happen,” Mya said. “But ultimately, you just have to move on and keep rolling with the tide and see where it takes you.
“It just kind of sparked my fire a little bit.”
Mya appeared on her way to making the All-Mountain West Freshman Team after scoring in double figures in six of the next eight games.
But an injury against Wyoming at home on Jan. 28, 2023 derailed that.
She was trying to split two defenders on a driving layin when her left knee hit the brace of a defender. An MRI revealed a PCL tear.
Mya missed the next seven games.
“I felt like if we would have had her all season, we would have had a little better year,” Presnell said. “She plays with confidence. She’s been in a lot of environments where she has to be the one that carries the team.”
Even at less than a 100%.
Mya racked up a game-high 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 75% from 3, during a 66-58 win over Utah State in the opening round of the Mountain West Tournament.
“First of all, not many kids would have come back from that and be ready,” Petrino said. “She can tell us all along she was ready. She wasn’t healthy. I’m not a doctor, but even I can figure that one out.”
Mya, who ended up not needing surgery, admitted to probably being around 50% back then.
“It was just all for my team really. When I come out on that court I’m just going to do whatever I can to help the team out. I had no reservations. I was ready to be out there,” Mya said. “Just being able to work through that and then know the ropes of how it can be through an injury. It has made me both mentally and physically stronger.”
That’s been evident this season.
Mya still has the third-most minutes on the team despite missing one game. She’s the second-leading scorer at 9.3 points per game, third in made 3s (37), second in 3-point % (39.4%) and leads the team in free throw % at 84.5%.
Mya has scored in double figures 16 times, including six in the last seven games. She just netted a season-high 26 points a week ago in the home finale against Air Force. Twenty-four of those points came in the second half alone.
She is already more than halfway to 1,000 career points as a Bronco.
“She took over the game, especially down in crunch time,” Presnell said. “We had a team vote on who would you want to take the last shot? And she was first. We feel like and the team obviously felt like she has competitive greatness.”
And Mya has never been afraid to show it.
Whether it’s to the drivers behind her or to her own brother.
Cy Hansen hit a promotional half-court shot during a home game against Weber State this season. So it prompted Presnell to ask the question on who was the better player?
He wasn’t surprised at all with her answer.
“My brother will never beat me in basketball ever.”
And that’s what makes her great.
