What Boise State’s Leon Rice said about 25-point home loss to Utah State

The Boise State men’s basketball team suffered the most lopsided home loss in head coach Leon Rice’s 16 years at the helm on Saturday against Utah State.

The Aggies stormed out to a 46-23 halftime lead and cruised to a 93-68 Mountain West victory over the Broncos at ExtraMile Arena. The 25-point margin of defeat was the worst of Rice’s tenure for a home game.

The Broncos (9-7, 1-4), who have now dropped three straight MWC games, were coming off a 75-58 loss to Grand Canyon — Rice’s third-worst home defeat. Utah State’s 93 points also set a record for an opposing team at ExtraMile Arena during the Rice era.

“Tough times require some tough people,” said Rice, who waited nearly an hour after the game to conduct his typical press conference. “We’re going to get our toughness back.”

MJ Collins Jr. paced the Aggies (14-1, 5-0) with 25 points. Mason Falslev filled up the box score with 16 points, nine rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Dylan Andrews had a nice bounce-back game for the Broncos with 16 points. Pearson Carmichael and Dominic Parolin added 12 points apiece off the bench.

Here are the highlights from Rice’s postgame press conference.

On bouncing back

“Anyone who’s watched this program for 16 years, we’ve always responded, we’ve always answered the bell, we’ve always been tough. We may not have won every game, but we competed and we took so much pride in wearing that jersey and we had a bunch of guys that would do anything for the team.

“I’ve got great guys. They’re good kids. They’re nice, they’re fun to be around. And they were a good basketball team three weeks ago. We can’t lose sight of that. But it’s not right right now, and that’s on me. I’ve got to fix it, and I’m going to fix it.”

On consecutive blowout losses

“The last two games, that’s two of the worst losses I’ve ever had in here. … When we get out-teamed, out-toughed, out-cared, and I shouldn’t say cared. These guys care. It didn’t show up in the way we played, it didn’t look like we cared, but they do care.

“The bottom line is and what we have to do going forward is, we’ve got to get back to basics and get back to the toughness stuff and the caring stuff. I mean, that’s who we were three weeks ago. It’s crazy, it’s a crazy deal.”

On Javan Buchanan’s status

“It doesn’t help to have JB out. I mean, he tried, God bless him. … He was really hurting. I probably should’ve not let him play. We’ve got to get him healthy because he’s our leader and one of our best team guys.”