It has been a wild offseason for the Boise State Men’s Basketball program. For the upcoming season we will be seeing Leon Rice on the bench. However Rice’s benchmates won’t include assistant coach Danny Henderson who is off to Oklahoma State. His replacement was made official last week with Phil Beckner coming from Nebraska. That’s just the changes at the coaching level, the team will still need to find a replacement for James Webb III who will look to have his name called in June's NBA Draft.
With all the changes, Boise State’s Leon Rice says he is committed to the blue and orange and developing a strong product out on the court.
"I love being the coach here, and like i said i love the players that we have coming back. So we need a commitment from the community and from our players and our staff and the administration,” Said, head coach Leon Rice.
This past season we saw glimpses of what could be a future NBA player in James Webb III. With the chance to make money and play at the next level it was a no brainer to leave early and Coach Rice says it's Webb’s body of work that made that decision possible.
“He's got the ability, we've seen how much he's grown every year that he has been here. When you get a guy that's good enough to come out early that's a milestone for your program." Said, Rice.
Moving forward the Broncos will need to replace three of their top scorers with Webb's departure and Anthony Drmic and Mikey Thompson graduating. Coach Rice still has three scholarships and it's time for the younger players to step up and carve their own name.
"I have big plans for the guys that were bringing in and big plans for the guys that didn't play this past year. If we have the right piece in the spring then i would feel really good about what we have," Said, Rice.
The NBA draft will be June 25th and some early projections have James Webb III going in the 2nd round.
