What head coach Leon Rice said after Boise State’s blowout loss to New Mexico

After playing a near-perfect game Tuesday against Wyoming, the Boise State men’s basketball team turned in arguably its worst performance of the season Friday night against New Mexico. 

The Lobos raced out to a 48-21 halftime lead and cruised to an 84-65 Mountain West Conference victory.

New Mexico (15-4, 7-1) had 29 fast-break points to Boise State’s (13-6, 5-3) 10 and won the points-off-turnovers battle 20-7. 

“They were going to get after us, and then there was blood in the water,” Broncos head coach Leon Rice said. “If no fouls were called, then they become more aggressive. The most aggressive team gets the calls, and they were the most aggressive, most physical team.”

Here are the highlights from Rice’s postgame radio interview. 

On New Mexico bouncing back from a loss to San Jose State

“They were coming off a loss, and we saw what they did to San Diego State in here. We knew we had our work cut out for us. They were even more physical than what we saw on film. Our guys have done a great job with that all year, so you never want to take it for granted. That was a lesson in … if you’re tough, you’ve got to show up and be tough every day.

“Credit to them. This is the most physical (New Mexico team) going way back to the Steve Alford days here when they had some of those teams that could just physically beat you up in here. That’s kind of what they did to us tonight.” 

On New Mexico’s aggressive defense 

“When we’d drive, they’d come with hands and rake and grab. It makes it hard, and they did a good job of that, and we turned it over off that. We’ve got to be able to move the ball crisply, and then be able to attack.”

On a difficult part of Boise State’s schedule 

“This was a tough stretch, and we knew it. Three games in seven days, two at the most hostile places not only in our league, but in the country. … The other team feeds off this energy. We did a great job at Utah State — didn’t accomplish the mission, didn’t get the job done — but our guys battled. We had a perfect response, played a great game at home (against Wyoming) and had a (quick turnaround) to travel again and do it. That’s why nobody is undefeated in this league. Night in and night out, you’ve got to play great basketball to get it done.”