Boise State's Strengths and Weaknesses

(picture via Zimbio, stats via KenPom.com) 

If I told you that I’d watched a second of a live-action Boise State basketball game this season I’d be lying. Thus far they’ve played, and for the most part they’ve walloped, UT-Arlington, Seattle, New Orleans, Idaho, Portland State, and Utah en route to a 6-0 record vs. D-1 opposition.

But what I have done is read their KenPom profile and watched a few highlights of them and I’ve come to this conclusion. Boise State is a good team that is capable of coming away with a victory tomorrow night in Rupp if the Cats aren’t careful. Hardly groundbreaking stuff I know, but it’s your turn to learn a little bit about this Broncos ball club.

Strengths

The Broncos are a very strong offensive ball club, one that is currently ranked 27th in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency. More specifically, though, the Broncos do three things on the offensive end very well: they are a good shooting team, they don’t turn the ball over, and they are a particularly adept free-throw shooting team. Boise State comes in with a reputation for being able to knock down threes on a consistent basis, but their real strength shooting-wise comes from inside the arc where they are able to make about 56% of their two’s, good for 22nd in the nation. Boise State also ranks 3rd in the nation when it comes to turnover percentage, so when combining that with UK’s inability to turn people over, Boise State may have <5 turnovers tomorrow night depending on the pace. The Broncos best two players are junior guards Derrick Marks and Anthony Drmic. Marks comes in averaging 17.6 points per game in just 24 minutes of action, while Drmic is scoring 20.4 points per game in just over 30 minutes per game. Stopping these two guys is imperative for the Cats if they are going to walk out of Rupp with their best win of the season thus far. It isn’t all bad on the defensive side for the Broncos as they are a strong defensive rebounding team. I’m going to be particularly looking at that tomorrow because the Cats are the best offensive rebounding team in the nation but are coming off of a poor effort against Baylor. BSU ranks 13th in the nation in defensive rebounding percentage.

Weaknesses

Boise State doesn’t have any glaring offensive weaknesses, but they do have some major ones on the defensive end. Their defense is currently ranked 128th in adjusted defensive efficiency and that is mainly because of their inability to challenge shots and turn people over. Teams have posted an effective field goal percentage of over 50% against them, doing most of their damage inside the arc where team are shooting 53%. That could be their undoing against a team like Kentucky that is so post-oriented. Look for Julius Randle and WCS to have big bounce back games against this weak defense. The other thing that Boise struggles with, like Kentucky, is that they don’t force very many turnovers. Thus far they’ve only forced turnovers on 17.5% of their defensive possessions, good for 225th in the country (Kentucky ranks 271st, for comparison). The Harrison twins have been extremely effective in games where they don’t turn it over so I’d look for them to have big games against Boise State as well.

I know that’s a lot of numbers for you to deal with but I like numbers so I’m sorry if you don’t.

Remember fellow UK students to go out to the game tomorrow and be loud because the Cats are going to need it!

Peace.

@BWardKSR