So, Boise State basketball finally ended a throughly underwhelming season with a blowout loss to eventual WAC Champ New Mexico State in the WAC tournament.
All I have to say is good riddance.
I have never watched a team that was more maddening in my life. Be it Coby Karl throwing the ball away on those asinine full court passes he so loves, to the entire team missing layups and gimme 3 footers. Don’t get me started on the missed free throws. Sometimes I just wanted to pull my hair out. That patented “Stop scoring for 7 minutes” move that they perfected over the season damn near killed me.
The thing is, we still finished 17-14. Remarkable. The way this team played for long stretches, I would have called us a 10 win team at best. What really killed us was the end of games. We seemed to fold like a lawn chair when the shit hit the fan. I think we lost 6 games by like 5 points or less. The only one of those we won was the extra exciting Bracket Buster game against Albany (who is in the tournament, by the way). And the game against Fresno when we were up by 7 with 5 minutes left in the game AND DIDN’T SCORE AGAIN to lose was just the capper.
While I was watching the WAC tournament on TV, I was flipping to other games around the country. The difference in the play was UNBELIEVABLE. I didn’t realize what it was like to see a fast break where you weren’t seriously wondering if they would blow the layup. Nothing with BSU was a gimme this season. Not even a breakaway dunk (which I think we saw 3 or 4 of those botched this year too).
Now, when I watch the Boise State Football team, it is a different animal. They execute. They aren’t the best athletes on the field. But, you can see how they can compete with anyone in the country. Basketball, if we were to face a legitimate power, we would lose by 47. I don’t doubt that in the least.
Something needs to be done. I don’t know if it is a coaching problem, or the fact that the senior leaders we had on the team just simply weren’t that good. I wish I did. All I do know is that we were a below average team (despite what the final record was) and NOBODY came to the games. It was quite pathetic to average 4,300 fans a game, in a building that seats 12,500. That average includes a crowd of over 10,000 for the football ceremony and another over 10 grand for senior night.
On the good side, we did beat Idaho twice. Plus freshman guard Anthony Thomas looks like the real deal. But then again, Eric Lane looked like the real deal as a freshman, but just never got much better.
But, none of that matters now. It’s spring football time! I’m predicting a crowd of over 20,000 for the spring game in 3 weeks. You watch.
Now, we can forget about another close loss for the basketball team and begin arguing over who should take over at QB for Zabransky. (I’m pulling for Bush Hamdan… I love to watch that guy throw the ball). Thank god for year round football!