Boise State men’s basketball, star senior forward earn preseason Mountain West honors

The Mountain West preseason men’s basketball poll was released Thursday morning, and there’s a clear favorite for the conference title.

For the first time in program history, Boise State has been picked to win the Mountain West. The Broncos received 276 points, including 19 first-place votes. The next-closest school was New Mexico, which received 233 points and one first-place vote.

Boise State has been picked to finish second in the conference on five occasions, including last season. In the 13 years it has competed in the Mountain West, it has equaled or surpassed its preseason ranking on eight occasions.

Last season, the Broncos finished third in the Mountain West with a conference record of 13-5 and lost to Colorado 60-53 in the First Four of the NCAA Tournament. It was their third straight appearance in the tourney; the Broncos are winless in school history in the dance.

Boise State will begin its 2024-25 season Nov. 6 in a home game against Oakland.

Boise State’s strong showing in the preseason poll can be attributed to having multiple players receiving preseason accolades. Senior forward Tyson Degenhart was selected as the Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year. He’s the third Bronco to earn that honor, after Derrick Alston Jr. in 2020-21 and Chandler Hutchinson in 2017-18. Neither of those players went on to win the award at the end of the season.

Degenhart enters the season 13th in all-time scoring for Boise State with 1,361 points. He led the Broncos in scoring last year at 16.7 per game and was second with 6.2 rebounds per game. He also became the first Bronco since 1992-93 to have three straight seasons shooting at least 50% from the field when having at least 250 field-goal attempts.

Unsurprisingly, Degenhart was also selected to the Preseason All-Mountain West team. Senior forward O’Mar Stanley and senior guard Alvaro Cardenas joined him on the 10-player squad.

Stanley averaged 12.7 points and a team-high 6.6 rebounds per game last season, which earned All-Mountain West second-team honors. Cardenas is a first-year transfer from San Jose State. Last season, he captained the Spartans as they struggled to a 9-23 record, but Cardenas managed to average 13.1 points per game on 45.7% shooting and hit 38.5% from beyond the arc.

New Mexico was the only other team with more than one player getting All-Mountain West accolades: junior guard Donovan Dent and redshirt senior center Nelly Junior Joseph.

Here’s the full Mountain West preseason poll. The number of points each team received is listed, and first-place votes are denoted in parentheses.

1. Boise State: 276 (19)

2. New Mexico: 233 (1)

3. Nevada: 219 (1)

4. San Diego State: 213 (2)

5. UNLV: 178 (2)

6. Utah State : 169 (1)

7. Colorado State: 160

8. San Jose State: 88

9. Wyoming: 67

10. Fresno State: 62

11. Air Force: 51