La Salle and Boise State appear to have much in common, not their best team in their conference but both with signature road wins over top 20 teams. At first glance there is one thing that stands out La Salle plays 7 guys deep with freshmen Rohan Brown playing minor minutes as an 8th man off the bench.
With 4 guys averaging double digits this season we will see just how well the physical play of the MWC will come into play for the Bronco’s as they will certainly be stretched by this Explorers team.
Senior guard Ramon Galloway 6’3” 180 lbs is the leading scorer on this team but not by much as Junior Tyreeen Duren 6’ 0 185 lbs. is averaging 15 points a game. When you look at the match up of the head to head bac court it appears even but then you see that Marks 6’3” 206 lbs and Drmic 6’6” 200lbs are just way more physical in size. The Mountain West Conference was and is a very physical conference while you may not find a bunch of seven footers but you certainly will find large and physical play.
I believe people are in for a real shock and the RPI is in for a credibility boost. Living in the Midwest I catch a lot of B1G games and certainly Ohio and MSU are physical teams but Indiana is not so much and has found itself at times even pushed around by Michigan which lack size and power. When you watch MWC games you can do nothing but cringe at what at times seems like a football game played on a court with a round ball. Boise State certainly is not one of the bigger schools In the Mountain West however playing against some of the best teams in America certainly hardened this team who looked not as fresh in the second half of the last regular season game against a SDSU team that had been on an extended road trip and had not fair so well on the road. The great thing about playing young players is the growth curve they only get better. While Marks may have tiered here and there during the season he has had a nice rest bit, Drmic’s motor I don’t believe ever stops and in this first match up against La Salle Boise State’s bench is just too deep and too thick in the front court,
If Marks finds his grove and gets hot Boise State could easily find it’s self-going much deeper than their 13th seed projects. Lest we forget the hard fought game in East Lansing a game that could have gone either way down to the wire a game Boise State held a small lead for most of the game. I was there and frankly at time one could barely could hear themselves think over the crowd, certainly we seen between the MSU game and the Creighton game these young man representing Boise State have the skill to play on the big stage, the only question that remains is are we going to see a fresh confident team that believes or one just glad to be there. If they believe and if they get their feet under them we are going to have some real fun!
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