Boise State March Madness Hopes Begin To Slip

What was looking to be a slam dunk (pun intended) is now looking to be more and more of a challenge for Boise State men's basketball. A basketball fanatic myself, I have been rooting for this team like CRAZY. My reasoning has been two-fold-- I love college basketball (plus, Leon Rice came to Boise from Gonzaga, my Alma Mater), AND because the football team over at Boise State gets ALL of the love.

Well, after a very strong start to the season, things aren't looking so easy for Boise State.

Playing in the Mountain West Conference, the only GUARANTEED way to make it to March Madness is to win the conference championship. That's the "curse" or "disadvantage" of being in a smaller conference. However, that doesn't mean more than one team couldn't make it from the Mountain West Conference.  With a record like Boise State was building up, it seemed like even if they slipped up in the conference tournament, they would be in--projected at a higher seed ranking than the program has ever seen before. That isn't the case anymore.

Boise State has lost 3 of their last 4 games-- they've lost to some of the "better" programs in the conference and now skeptics are saying that maybe their schedule was just too easy up front. Two consecutive losses to the University of Nevada (Reno) this past weekend isn't helping things.

Just this afternoon, ESPN "bracket-experts" released their updated, weekly predictions and Boise State went from being a guaranteed in to a team "on the bubble", in other words--their attendance at the big dance is a coin-toss.

The Broncos are going to need to get some more wins under their belt (with only 6 games remaining this season) if they want to be in a better at-large position, taking some pressure off of the conference tournament. A total of FOUR of those remaining games are the toughest of their season.