‘Both teams are going to bring it;’ What Leon Rice said before Boise State’s showdown with Colorado State

The Boise State men’s basketball team closes the Mountain West Conference regular season at 8 p.m. Mountain time Friday night against visiting Colorado State.

The Rams (21-9, 15-4) are on a six-game winning streak while the Broncos (22-8, 14-5) have won five straight and nine of their last 10.

“It’s almost as simple as … when you have two good teams playing and the momentum for both teams feels real, whoever plays good that day (wins),” Boise State head coach Leon Rice said. “Because both teams are going to bring it.”

The winner of Friday’s game clinches the No. 2 seed for the MWC Tournament. Both teams are on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

Alvaro Cardenas, Tyson Degenhart and O’Mar Stanley will all be honored before the game during Boise State’s Senior Night festivities.

Here are the highlights from Rice’s Thursday press conference:

On being in NCAA Tournament contention

“You look around the nation … the amount of teams that get to play in these kind of games, it’s finite. It’s a small group of 365 teams that are playing. So we want to focus on that, that’s the most important thing.”

On Cardenas’ leadership as a first-year Bronco

“He came into this program, and I’ve never had a guy assimilate themselves and become a leader so quickly. Remember, he was playing with the Spanish National Team so he missed the first three or four weeks of summer. And the minute he got here, everyone was like ‘Oh, this is our leader,’ in his own way. And Tyson and O’Mar were still leaders, too, but in their own way. (Cardenas) filled a void that this program needed, this team needed.

“Some of that crazy competitiveness that we lost with Max (Rice) and some of the other guys that have had that, he’s brought that, along with RJ (Keene II) and some of the other guys. You need those guys on the edge like that. … He’s a vocal competitor and a guy people get behind. Those guys are so valuable to have.”

On Senior Night

“When I talk about these guys, I’m not letting it sink in the reality that there’s a finite amount of time left. I’m just appreciating it, and we’ve done a good job of that as a group. Appreciating every second. I mean, we appreciated that opportunity to go play at Air Force. You saw us in shoot-around, we were focused but we were having fun. … Maybe there’s years where we’ve gone to Air Force and were like ‘Ugh,’ almost dreading it. Like, no. Why? Why would you dread an opportunity to play college basketball, our last road game? So we had a great approach to us because of these guys.”