Boise State Growing Pains

Boise State basketball coach Leon Rice has seen it many times over his coaching career, it's called a "cycle."

Best defined a cycle is a period of time in which everything that went right is now being equaled by a period of time were things aren't going exactly as planned.

Boise State and Rice have posted six straight 20 win seasons and during that time you can find cycles where Boise State won all the close games. This year the cycle has reversed and the Broncos are losing the close games.

BSU is 2-5 and three of their five losses have been by one possession, or better yet.a total of 7 points. Throw in the fact that only two of the Broncos seven games have been played at home and one might say the 2-5 record may have well been expected.

On the other hand, Boise State is shooting 48% from the field as a team and in three games this year shot 50% or better.

Leading the way is a new face, R.J. Williams shooting 61% and averaging 16.8 ppg which ranks him in the top 15 of shooters in all the NCAA.

Rice told me earlier this week that during their 20 game win seasons they won all the close ones and now they're just going through the cycle of just coming up short. Some of it he says is just how basketball works but sme of it is the lack of experience.

Boise State has had a chance to win all the close games and they'e been in a position to do so but a relatively new roster full of fresh faces wasn't quite sure how to close the deal.

That will come says Rice who claims being home for two games in a row gives them critical learning time on the court in practice. That and the experience of the first 7 games should help shape the remainder of the year.

The team is hungry according to Rice and ready to attack the learning process to be ready for the always tough Mountain West schedule.

Boise State is home Saturday to face 4-4 Central Washington at 2 p.m. in Taco Bell arena.