NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST FOUR

March 19, 2024

Leon Rice

UD Arena

Boise State Broncos

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Boise State head coach Leon Rice.

Q. This is your third straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament, which is something to be extremely proud of. Before we open up the floor to questions, just what has your group been able to accomplish this year and the season that they've had?

LEON RICE: They've been a terrific group. We scheduled really, really hard and went through a great November with a game at Clemson. We played Virginia Tech, Butler, Virginia Commonwealth. Came off the road after an 11-day trip, went and beat Saint Mary's on a neutral. Played North Texas, beat them. Played Washington State.

We played a lot of good teams in that stretch. I think that got us ready for a terrific Mountain West. We went out and got some amazing road wins in the Mountain West, winning at The Pit, which is really hard to do, and at Nevada. And the final senior night at San Diego State, where they were 15-0, and got a win there. We accomplished some really special things with this group and excited to be here now.

Q. Leon, all year we've been talking about first win in NCAA Tournament history has been a goal for this program. Now that you're potentially on the eve of it, just what's the excitement level? Obviously you still have a lot of work to do. But what's the thought process as you get ready for this game tomorrow?

LEON RICE: This team has never lost a game in the NCAA Tournament. You look at those stats and those can go way back and some of them I wasn't even at Boise State. So that's not something we pay attention to. That's not something that the team talks about or looks at.

It's, we're getting ready to play a really good Colorado team. Tad is a good, good friend of mine. I've watched this team probably more than anyone I have in the country.

So, when our names flashed up together, I was like, well, at least I've seen these guys a lot. And they're terrific. They've got three guys that are on the NBA draft board. They've got a terrific coach, terrific coaching staff.

And they're a team that looks like they're playing their best basketball right now. I think they've won eight out of the last nine and have done it looking really, really good.

So we know our work's cut out for us. And I think it's two really good teams playing Wednesday night.

Q. Tad was telling us the story how Mark Turgeon connected you two. 30 years later, what's been about that bond that you guys have been able to keep it so strong?

LEON RICE: Tad, he's just such a great guy. We actually worked the last two years together with USA Basketball. And our families are tight. We've just been really close over the years because he's a guy that I've always respected his feel and his take on things.

So I bounce ideas off him all the time. And hopefully I help him with some stuff, too. And we just have grown our relationship. Like I said, our families are tight. Our wives are really close. Love his dog Betty. That's the best thing about him.

We just go back a long ways, and there's a lot of history there, a lot of respect. And then you see out of 67 other teams we get Tad.

But that's just the way it is. And we know that. That's our business. And we've just gotta do our jobs.

Q. What type of dog is Betty?

LEON RICE: Like a mini, what, golden doodle or mini golden doodle, yeah.

Q. Again, when you guys met, people hit it off sometimes, right?

LEON RICE: Yeah.

Q. What about each other -- him, you -- kind of helped you feel like why you hit it off, why you clicked as friends and stayed close?

LEON RICE: Turj told me as soon as I got the job at Northern Colorado, because Turj and I spent a little together at Oregon -- I was leaving and Turj was coming in with Jerry Green. And Turj said, you've got to go see my best friend. He lives in Colorado. He's a high school coach. He's a financial planner. He worked in that industry.

And so I drove down to Boulder, went out and got together for an evening, and we just hit it off. I was like this guy's great.

Then I was recruiting one of his players. And I loved the kid. I was like we need to take this kid. My coach didn't. And he went on to be a great player. Tad still blames me for that. I was, like, no, I wasn't the head coach; I didn't get the final say. I wanted him. We joke about that. Matt Dilley (phonetic) was his name. And Tad was at Longmont.

And I remember when Tad was going to get into college coaching, and I was making $20,000 at Northern Colorado, and I'm sure that was attractive to him. And he was going to go to be either restricted earnings or ops guy back then. It was different.

And I'm thinking this guy's crazy. He's leaving this financial industry that he's doing really well in to get into coaching. I'm like, really? You're going to do this? And he jumped in and away his career went.

That's where I was, like, okay, I respect this guy. He's going to do what he loves. And you flash forward to now it worked out pretty good for him.

Q. Did you encourage him to get into college coaching? Obviously you didn't.

LEON RICE: (Laughter). Now that we're here in Dayton together, I wish I wouldn't have. I wish I would have talked him out of it.

Q. So you played last year. What was it like the first time playing each other? And does it feel any different the second time?

LEON RICE: Yeah, I mean, you just put blinders on, really, and you don't -- it's not Tad and me. It's Boise State versus Colorado. And you just put the blinders on that way. And we got jobs to do. We're doing our jobs.

Both teams -- we have a process that we're all doing to get ready for the game. It's never about me and Tad. We'll regroup later, but for now it's Boise State versus Colorado.

Q. Why don't you tell me a little bit, you watch Colorado all the time. When you saw that name, what concerns you most about what you're going to see on the floor?

LEON RICE: I think the two things that jump out at me is just how good they've been playing, because like I said, Tad and I would talk after every game. And they were working through things, just like every team does.

And down the stretch, they were playing so good. And I remember saying to him, like -- because about two or three weeks ago they were out, considered out of the tournament. Now, those forecasts don't seem to have known anything anyways. But the world was telling them they were out.

And I'm like, I remember saying to him, like, man, you guys are playing so good. It would be a shame if you didn't get in because you could make a big run in this thing the way you guys are playing. And then they flashed up. I'm like, wow, that's the team we get to play.

He's just got them playing so great now. They made it to the championship of their tournament. It was a one-possession game, basically, at the end of that.

And I remember when I was talking to him about that. You guys are playing as good as anybody in that league. You can win that tournament. Sure enough, they were right there to do that.

That's probably the thing that jumped at me the most is how well he's got them playing right now.

Q. You did play last year. Some will be the same, some different. Do you think that will have any bearing on the game?

LEON RICE: No. When you look back at that film, it's completely different teams really. And it was at the start of the year last year and so, yeah, completely different deal.

Q. Going back deep into my phone archive, pictures, there's photos of your sons coming here. And your oldest was half his age. And Kade, who is now on your roster, just looked like a little boy. What do you remember about them bringing them to Dayton and surrounding them with this environment? And what did that do for their dreams?

LEON RICE: It's funny because I was just talking to Coach Boeheim. I said, you've been to so many NCAA Tournaments. You've won a national championship. You haven't came to Dayton as many times as I have. So I got you beat there. Because this is my third to Dayton.

I remember back then, when we got off the bus, off the plane and onto the bus and then got off at the hotel, just the greeting -- and Dayton does such a good job hosting this thing. I told our guys, hey, it's great. It's a cool environment, great place to play -- other than the fact we had to play the home team. That made it a little rough.

We were the last team to play a true road game in the NCAA Tournament. So some day, I might, if that's a "Jeopardy!" question, I could get a "Jeopardy!" question right. I think that would be the one.

But they came here and they saw it and they saw the excitement of the NCAA Tournament. But back before that, this is my 16th NCAA Tournament, so they've been to a lot of them at my previous job, too.

But that, at Boise State, that was two of the first ones. And it was back-to-back Dayton.

And they also saw what a team can do coming out of Dayton because we played LaSalle and they went on to the Sweet 16. And, like I said, it's the advantage that nobody wants to have. It's an advantage to have played a game. Nobody wants to have that advantage that you've already played one.

But you look at some of these conference tournaments, even in ours, New Mexico played one, made a run. Look at NC State, just made a five-game, amazing, run by playing that first day.

So the team that comes out of here usually is playing a little bit better or already has a game under their belt.

Q. 12, he's been a guy that super basketball savvy. Wears his heart on his sleeve, chip on his shoulder, whatever you want. Feels like those are attributes that play well this time of year. What has he meant to this program and how much do you want him to see him extend his career one day at a time?

LEON RICE: That's it. And it wakes you up in the middle of the night, and you're, like, you don't want this to end because it's been a great run.

You look at the last three years. It was arguably the best three years in the history of Boise State basketball. And he's been a huge part of all of these wins, huge.

You can go back to specific shots. You can go back to the game at The Pit where we're breaking down the film, like, huh, what did we do well? Well, Max made every shot he took from half court -- and scored 35 points and a heck of a road win.

The shot at San Diego State. Last year San Diego State at home, with the 12-0 run to end the game, by himself. Those points were by himself; the win wasn't by himself. I'm not saying that.

But he's just contributed to so many great moments at Boise State basketball that will be forever remembered because, like I said, it's the three best years in the history of the program, arguably.

And in the Mountain West. I mean, you've got to remember, those other teams weren't in the Mountain West, which is a fantastic basketball league.

Hopefully we can keep this thing going because we know that when the final buzzer goes off, we don't get to be together. He doesn't get to be a Bronco anymore. And you hate to even think about that.

We don't want to deal with that. And Max is certainly that way. He wants to extend this thing as long as he can.

Q. You mentioned three straight trips to the NCAA Tournament, but to add to that, what's the Mountain West is a conference has been able to do, and obviously now six teams in the tournament. Talk about your conference and how it just continues to sort of impress year after year.

LEON RICE: And it just keeps getting better. It's been a basketball league for a long time. You've got national champions in this league. I mean, last year, San Diego State is in the championship game.

So it's just we've always known that, how good the teams were. But the people from outside don't understand how -- through my years of coaching I've played at all different kinds of arenas and venues, and we've got the toughest arenas that you'll ever play at, where you're hoping to get out alive, let alone win a basketball game. It's phenomenal.

And you've got terrific coaches that, when I first got in the league, you're, like, every coach on the other side line was, like, that guy is going to be in the hall of fame; that guy's in the hall of fame. Just amazing coaches.

And now we've always had a lot of guys that went on to play in the NBA and number one pick in the drafts. Couple of those, and MVP of the NBA and things like that, we've had great players.

But now what you've seen is now these teams all got really old. And I think that's what made it special this year. You look at all the guards in our league, especially, these teams are led by veteran quarterbacks. Only us and UNLV had younger point guards. And New Mexico had three of them. So Donovan Dent is young, but the other two were old.

And when you get veteran quarterbacks that are good players -- and not good players, great players -- you're going to have good teams, and that's where it starts.

I think that was what made our league a little bit different this year, is how many good guards there were that were old. And that's where it started and then great players all around them. That's why we got six teams in.

Q. There's been a lot of things floating around about potentially making some changes to the tournament -- expansion, maybe messing with the auto bids -- who knows what they might do. But I wonder if you have any viewpoint on any of those kinds of things?

LEON RICE: It's for another day. I'll let the experts figure all that out. I'm not smart enough to figure all that out.

I'm just grateful -- there's a lot of really, really good teams that would trade places with us, and a lot of really good ones. I watched a lot of that Big East action. Holy cow. Some of their resumés were so impressive.

Because now, like I told our team, it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter where you play. Doesn't matter who you play, because, number one, I've never been to an NCAA -- like I said, I've been to 16 of them -- and I've never seen a bad team.

If you get to this tournament, you've done something special to get here. And so you just need to let -- seed doesn't matter, location doesn't matter, brackets don't matter. You've got to find a way to play really good because you're going to play a really good team. If you don't, you're out of the tournament. And simple as that.

So we're excited to play, excited to be here. Our guys just can't wait to get on the court and let the fur fly.

Q. Tyson Degenhart, he has made his development almost seem effortless, which I know probably couldn't be further from the case. But he says this is no different than his first NCAA Tournament. How has he is just been able to handle this so effortlessly, seemingly, and continue to grow and embrace people coming after him with scouting report after scouting report?

LEON RICE: He's such an everyday guy. There's such a consistency about a guy like Tyson. He just does his stuff. Shouldn't surprise you, he's one of those straight-A students. Just shows up, does his work and doesn't it with a great attitude.

And wants to develop and wants to get better, wants to be coached. All the things that you never want to take for granted, but it's so consistent with Tyson that you almost do. And I'm never surprised by his growth because of the person he is.

So don't be surprised that it keeps going. I mean, he went from freshman of the year to all-conference, to first-team all-conference. And there's going to be some great things for him down the road, too. So we're going to see that.

Q. Two years ago you guys went to Portland, kind of a team that had never played in this tournament. Now you guys have Max, Tyson, even Buzo has played in three. What does that experience mean for you guys?

LEON RICE: It absolutely helps you. The more experience you get in these tournaments the better. And the more times you knock on the door pretty soon the door's going to open.

Because, like I said, it's a hard tournament to get to. There's a lot of great teams. And this year there's so much parity. Everybody -- it's apples and oranges and grapefruits. And so to compare all this stuff and to figure out who the 68 are is pretty tough because there's so many good teams and worthy teams that aren't playing in this tournament.

So we understand that it's quite an accomplishment just to get here. But the tournament is everything now, and so you've got to get beyond just getting here. But getting here is an amazing accomplishment.