Mountain West Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2020-21 season

Projected Starters:

Guards – Rayj Dennis-SO Marcus Shaver-JR*, Derrick Alston-SR

Forwards – Emmanuel Akot-JR* and Abu Kigab-SR

Bench – Devonaire Doutrive-JR*, Mladen Armus-JR*, Max Rice-SO, Riley Abercrombie-SO, Burke Smith-FR,  Kasean Pryor-SO

When 6’9 guard and second-team All-MWC stud Derrick Alston (17.3 Pts, 5.2 Reb, 3.1 Ast) announced his return to Boise in July, the expectations immediately became conference title or bust for Leon Rice in his 11th season.

It certainly gives the Broncos a shot, but there is a lot of work to do, as Rice will have to replace 5 guys who started over 10 games in 2019-20 including Justinian Jessup, who logged 36 minutes a game, was the team’s second-leading scorer and far and away best defender.

In what seems to be a major theme heading into the 2020-21 Mountain West- how is Leon Rice going to replace similar production to Jessup? The transfer portal.

Let’s list em’:

Emmanuel Akot – former 5-star recruit and Arizona transfer

Devonaire Doutrive – former 4-star recruit and ALSO an Arizona transfer

Marcus Shaver – Portland transfer and honorable mention all WCC as a sophomore

Mladen Armus – 6’10 transfer out of East Tennessee St. with a career scoring average of 7 points and 6 rebounds per game

That’s a lot of high caliber talent to mesh, but it’s certainly better than not welcoming talent in. When doing it next to a potential All-American in Alston, it’s very possible.

To aid in the indoctrination of all these newcomers is a competent returning core. Ray Dennis (4.1 Pts, 1.8 Reb, 1.8 Ast) started 15 games at the point guard position in 2019-20 returns to run the offense and that is always a great start. Another returning starter in Abu Kigab (11.1 Pts, 3.6 Reb, 1.0 Ast) is back as well.

The former Oregon transfer will make it easier for Akot to ease into his role as an eventual go-to scorer for the Broncos. Kigab is one of only 17 Boise State players to put up a 30 point – 10 rebound line in a single game, as he did last season against Wyoming. Max Rice (2.7 Pts, 1.2 Reb, 0.9 Ast) who saw action in all 32 games in 2019-20 is also back and will get more than the 11 minutes per game he played last season.

It will be interesting to see how Rice fits all this together, but there is no doubt that there is an influx of talent as well as athletes who understand his system that preaches defense first. If the transfers can quickly pick that up and Alston can become a 20 point per game scorer / NBA first-round pick that he thinks he is, this is a team to watch out for in the Mountain West. This looks like an NCAA Tournament team too, and you don’t want to draw these guys on Selection Sunday either.