Welcome to my team preview series for 2024-25. Each day between now and the start of the college basketball season, I will preview one team or conference, both on Instagram (@collegehoopsoutlet) and through an article here. The preview will go in-depth on the roster build of the team, my expectations for their upcoming season, and the state of the program under their current head coach.
Boise State (Projected: 1st in MWC)
The Boise State Broncos enter year 15 of the Leon Rice era still searching for their first NCAA Tournament win. That’s not to say Rice hasn’t done a fantastic job, continually being a contender in the Mountain West and reaching the Big Dance each of the last three seasons. With a couple of key returners back for the Broncos, they should be right in the mix to make it four straight trips to the NCAA Tournament.
Six players return for Boise State, four of whom played in the rotation for the Broncos last season. Tyson Degenhart (17 ppg, 6 rpg) is the most important of the group, a scoring forward who has averaged 13.5 ppg in his collegiate career. Degenhart’s partner in the frontcourt is O’Mar Stanley (13 ppg, 7 rpg), who came over from St. John’s last offseason. Stanley is efficient himself, providing a great boost on the glass and the defensive end of the court along with his scoring. With both Degenhart and Stanley back, the Broncos have one of the more formidable frontcourts in the entire country.
Andrew Meadow (3 ppg) continues the list of returners for the Broncos. Meadow was a deep rotational piece last season as a freshman, but showed his potential in a handful of games, including going for double digits in wins over VCU and Colorado State. RJ Keene (2 ppg) also played limited minutes last season for the Broncos, likely set for the same role as a junior. Chris Lockett Jr. (Redshirt) redshirted his freshman year but is projected to be a guy to come in and have a huge role. Lockett has a frame that is ready for whatever the Mountain West throws at him and can do a bit of everything at 6-5. Emmanuel Ugbo (Redshirt) is also coming off of his redshirt season, a 6-8 Dutch forward with plenty of experience overseas that should be an impact player in the frontcourt on both sides of the floor.
The Broncos did lose six players this offseason, five of which played good minutes in the rotation last season. Seniors Max Rice (12 ppg, 4 rpg) and Cam Martin (5 ppg, 4 rpg) both ran out of eligibility. (Chibuzo Agbo (14 ppg, 5 rpg), the leading scorer among the departures, left via the transfer portal for USC. Roddie Anderson III (7 ppg) transferred to Xavier, Jace Whiting (3 ppg) transferred to UNLV, and Kobe Young (1 ppg) transferred to Cal State-Fullerton to round out the departures.
One of the most important pickups of the entire transfer portal this spring was Boise State landing a commitment from San Jose State transfer point guard Alvaro Cardenas (13 ppg, 6 apg at San Jose State). The addition of Cardenas, a Spanish guard with three years of Mountain West experience at San Jose State, gives the Broncos exactly what they needed, a veteran point guard who can score the ball himself and create great opportunities for others. Cardenas’ numbers jumped across the board last year as a junior and with a much better roster now surrounding him, it’s hard for me to imagine a world where he doesn’t have a fantastic senior season.
Cardenas may be the biggest pickup of the portal for the Broncos, but he wasn’t the only one. Dylan Anderson (1 ppg at Arizona in 22-23) joins the Boise State frontcourt after seeing limited minutes as a freshman at Arizona and redshirting this past season. Anderson, a 7-footer, gives some much-needed height to this frontcourt, and depending how his development came along this past season, he could have a decent-sized role right away. Javan Buchanan (21 ppg, 7 rpg at NAIA Indiana-Wesleyan) is another transfer that could have a sizeable role. Buchanan joins Boise State after lighting up the NAIA level with Indiana-Wesleyan and should play good minutes on the wing, either starting or coming in off the bench. Lehigh transfer Dominic Parolin (12 ppg, 6 rpg at Lehigh) is the final transfer portal addition for Leon Rice, but will not feature in 2024-25, as he will redshirt while recovering from a knee injury he suffered at the end of last season.
Four freshmen round out the Boise State roster for 2024-25, two entering the backcourt and two entering the frontcourt. Guards Julian Bowie (Unranked) and Moses Hipps (Unranked) should both play at least a small role in the backcourt for Rice, as the backcourt depth for the Broncos is pretty thin. Forwards Pearson Carmichael (Unranked) and Ethan Lathan (Unranked) enter the frontcourt, and I think it’s possible one or both may redshirt with the amount of depth the Broncos have inside this season.
Leon Rice has started to make reaching the NCAA Tournament a requirement rather than a goal for the Boise State basketball program, but still has yet to get over the hump and win an NCAA Tournament game. This year’s team will have about as good of a chance at winning a game as the previous three teams did, but I’m bought in on Alvaro Cardenas lifting Rice and the Broncos over the hump. If Rice can’t get the job done this year, it may be a while before the Broncos get back to the dance, with Cardenas, Degenhart, and Stanley all set to run out of eligibility.
The three previously mentioned, Cardenas, Degenhart, and Stanley, should form a powerful big three in the Mountain West Conference and in the world of college basketball. Cardenas will have the expectation to be a game changer for the Broncos, and Degenhart and Stanley should be forces in the paint. The X-factor for me has to come in the two and three positions, and I think there’s no better guy to look at than Chris Lockett Jr. Lockett redshirted last year as a freshman, so a slow start may be in his future as he gets used to competitive games, but I fully believe he will be a factor for this team as the calendar turns to 2025. If Lockett can give the Broncos a scoring punch on the wing, this team’s ceiling rises to a second-weekend contender.
The Mountain West was ransacked all across the board this offseason, with players like Chibuzo Agbo, JT Toppin, Lamont Butler, Great Osobor, and Jamal Mashburn Jr. all transferring out. This sets the scene for Tyson Degenhart to be one of the most dominant players in the league, and as a result, Boise State should be the favorites heading into the season. I’ve got the Broncos winning the Mountain West this season, and on paper, the only team that truly stacks up to them is New Mexico.