Bronco Basketball Assaults The Nation

Fans should have known when the Boise State basketball team nearly pulled off a giant upset of then-top five Washington State. They should have known when the Broncos downed #21 BYU. This Bronco team is special, as evidenced by the numbers below.

In their climb to the top of the Western Athletic Conference standings, the Boise State men’s basketball team has begun an assault on ranking as one of the top teams in the nation.

Their record (19-6) is one of the top 40 in the country.  Boise State continues to lead the nation as the best-shooting team in Division I, hitting an eye-popping 51.6 percent of their shots.  The shooting by the Broncos this season ranks as the second-best performance in school history, topped only by the legendary 1987-88 team.  Boise State is ranked 13^th in the country with 745 field goals this season (North Carolina is #1 with 841).  The thrilling Broncos are averaging 82.4 points per game, eighth in the country.  When you take the game beyond the three-point arc, where true shooting skill is measured, Boise State ranks 22^nd  in the nation with a 39.9 percentage, just 3/10^th’s of a percent away from 15^th.  Coach Greg Graham’s team is also seventh in the country in the assists, with its unselfish players averaging 18.3 assists per game.

Highly-regarded Kansas is second in field goal percentage but well behind Boise State at 50.8%.  Utah State is third at 50.7% as four WAC schools are positioned in the nation’s 33 top shooting teams.  The Pac-10 is the only conference in the nation that contains better shooters with six schools in that group.

VMI leads all teams in scoring with a blistering 93.3 points per game average.  North Carolina is second at 90.4, followed by Duke (85.1), Duquesne (84.1), Texas State-San Marcos (84.0), Tennessee (83.7), Cal State-Fullerton (Boise State’s opponent this Wednesday in Taco Bell Arena, scoring 83.2), Kansas at 82.4 points a game and Massachusetts averaging 82.4 to round out the top ten.

The top five three-point shooting teams all average over 41 percent from beyond the arc.  IUPUI leads the country  with its 42.9 percent shooting.  New Mexico is second at 42.8%, followed by Santa Barbara (41.5%) and Illinois-Chicago and Cornell, each hitting 41.4% from three-point land.

Senior forward Matt  Nelson has led the way for the Broncos in capturing the nation’s attention as its #1-shooting team.  Nelson is ranked fourth with a sizzling 65.7 field goal percentage, hitting 155 of 236 shots.  Only three players—North Carolina-Asheville’s Kenny George (70.6%0, Texas-Arlington’s Jermaine Griffin (67.0%) and Dwayne Curtis of Mississippi (66.7%) shoot better than Nelson.

Fellow front-court man Reggie Larry is 25^th in the nation with 177 field goals, just 12 shy of ranking in the top 15.  Lester Hudson of Tennessee-Martin leads with 261 field goals this season. 

With all of the attention focused on one of only two duos in the country to rank in the top 35 in both scoring and rebounding, Tyler Tiedeman is enjoying a spectacular senior season from outside.  The Bronco senior is averaging 50.4% from three-point land (64-127), making opponents defend Boise State all over the court.  Brandis Raley-Ross of South Carolina is #1 with an amazing 55.9 percentage.  Raley-Ross is followed by Parfait Bitee of Rhode Island (52.7%), Texas Tech’s Alan Voskull (52.6%), Josh May of Illinois-Chicago (51.9%), Utah State’s Jaycee Carroll (51.8%) and K.J. Matsui of Columbia (51.7%).  

Numerous school records and rankings are in jeopardy as detailed in another article, as the 2007-08 Broncos are making their mark not only as one of the best in school history but, as the above statistics show, one of the best in the nation.