How to watch Boise State vs. San Jose State at Mountain West Tournament with preview, breakdown, TV channel

The Boise State men’s basketball team closed the regular season with five straight victories to earn the No. 6 seed for the Mountain West Tournament.

The Broncos (20-11, 12-8), who will likely need to win the conference’s automatic bid to secure an NCAA Tournament berth, will close Day 1 of the MWC Tournament against No. 11 San Jose State (8-23, 3-17). Tipoff is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. Mountain time on Wednesday night at Thomas & Mack Center.

The winner advances to face No. 3 New Mexico (22-9, 13-7) in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

Boise State head coach Leon Rice said the team is not thinking about the tall task of winning four games in four days to clinch an NCAA Tournament bid.

“We don’t have to; we just have to win one,” Rice said. “That’ll be flawed thinking because that’s what the media wants to talk to us about, that’s what everyone (wants to talk about). We don’t care. Our mission is the same, and we’ve got a job to do to go 1-0, then we’ll sort everything out. It screws you up if you think ‘Well, we’ve got to play (160) minutes.’ No. We’ve got to play the first four minutes of that first game that we get, and that’s what these guys have done a great job of.

“Through this last month and a half, we didn’t care who we played, we didn’t care where we were seeded. We were just like ‘What’s our next job?’ And our next job is to get healthy, get our mojo and go down to that tournament with our best mojo to play our best four minutes of the season right now.”

The Broncos swept the regular-season series with San Jose State, winning both matchups by double figures.

The Spartans are led by junior guard Colby Garland, a third-team all-MWC selection. Garland averages 20.3 points, 4.6 assists, 3.1 rebounds and one steal.

Junior center Drew Fielder leads Boise State in scoring (14.8 points per game) and rebounding (5.7) Fielder was voted second-team all-MWC in his first season with the Broncos.

HOW TO WATCH BOISE STATE VS. SAN JOSE STATE

Who: Boise State opens the Mountain West Tournament with a matchup against San Jose State

Records: Boise State 20–11, 12-8; San Jose State 8-23, 3-17

When: 9:30 p.m. Mountain time | Wednesday, March 11

Where: Thomas & Mack Center | Las Vegas, Nevada

TV channel: Mountain West Network