Northwest ties to the NCAAs: Mt. Spokane product Tyson Degenhart leads local contingent to the Big Dance

If there’s a common denominator, the Spokane presence in the NCAA Tournament comes down to two words: character and toughness.

That’s the analysis of one longtime college basketball coach, who gets to experience March Madness for the second time in his long, 30-year coaching career. Former Eastern Washington head coach and assistant Mike Burns is headed to the tournament as an assistant at Boise State.

And he’s riding the coat tails of a Mt. Spokane product, Tyson Degenhart, who had a phenomenal freshman year for the Broncos. Their head coach is former Gonzaga assistant Leon Rice, who led BSU to its first NCAA Tournament since 2015, his third as head coach and the school’s eighth overall. The Broncos are 0-7 all-time in the tourney.

Besides Degenhart, who was the Freshman of the Year in the Mountain West Conference and led the Broncos to the league’s regular season and tournament titles, Naje Smith out of Lewis & Clark High School is on BSU’s roster.

Max Rice, Leon’s son, is also a key contributor. Leon’s youngest son, Kade, played AAU basketball with Degenhart.

Boise State will enter the NCAA Tournament 27-7 and were a No. 8 seed, and play No. 9 Memphis (21-10) on Thursday in Portland. If they can win that game, the Broncos would likely have a second-round match-up versus the No. 1 overall seed, Gonzaga, which takes on Georgia State in its opener.

Other local products headed to the NCAA Tournament will be Gonzaga’s Anton Watson and Joe Few, who both played at Gonzaga Prep. A second former GU assistant coach, Tommy Lloyd, is head coach at Arizona, which joins the Bulldogs as a No. 1 seed in the tournament after winning Pac-12 Conference regular season and tourney titles.

On the women’s side, Gonzaga’s Melody Kempton (Post Falls) and sisters Lexie and Lacie Hull (Central Valley) will be playing in the NCAA Tournament. The Cardinal also won conference and tourney titles in the Pac-12 and are 28-3 on the season after going a perfect 16-0 in league play.

And although their respective teams fell short of garnering a NCAA bid, the Groves brothers out of Shadle Park – Tanner and Jacob – made impressive showings this season for Oklahoma and are headed for the National Invitation Tournament. A year ago, they were with Eastern Washington as the Eagles nearly knocked off Kansas in the opening round in the NCAA Tournament “bubble” in Indianapolis.

Portland’s Maisie Burnham (Liberty HS and previously EWU) will play in the Women’s NIT. Late Sunday, Grand Canyon and Liam Lloyd (Gonzaga Prep) were awaiting word on their postseason possibilities.

Burns is in his sixth season at BSU, and first made it to the NCAA Tournament in 2004 with EWU under head coach Ray Giacoletti.

A former GU coach under Mark Few, Giacoletti is now an assistant at Saint Louis, which also just missed out on a NCAA berth this season after winning 23 games.

Burns was head coach at EWU for three seasons from 2004-07, and has also coached at Pacific where he was interim head coach in 2015-16. The coaching pedigree for the Central Washington University graduate also includes stops at San Diego, Washington State, CWU and a pair of community colleges in Washington – including CC of Spokane.

“You can look at everything that is there – the Zags, Hoopfest, AAU, the high school teams and coaches,” he says of the Spokane basketball scene. “It’s a basketball city and you see the impact of that – just look at our roster.

“Tyson and Naje are not only great players but great people and had great coaches behind them.”

David Wagenblast coached Degenhart at Mt. Spokane and Smith was coached at Lewis & Clark by Jim Redmond. After Degenhart averaged 24.5 points as a junior to earn MVP honors in the Greater Spokane League, the three-time All-State selection repeated the next year. He also earned Washington State Player of the Year accolades as a senior during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign.

Smith graduated from LC in 2018 before beginning his collegiate career at Cochise College in Arizona.

“Their high school coaches were so important in their development,” Burns said. They had everything to do with the success they are having, and it’s really cool they get to share in it.”

Degenhart averaged 9.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in 28 games as a starter, and chipped in 27 steals, 29 assists and 20 blocks while having just 23 turnovers.

The Broncos were 23-3 with him in the starting lineup after a 3-4 start, and he won nine – yes, nine – Mountain West Freshman of the Week accolades. The Broncos beat powerhouse San Diego State 53-52 for the tourney title, with Degenhart hitting a key basket with 2:20 left as he finished with a team-leading 13 points.

Smith played 10 minutes in the title game and did not score, but during the season played in 33 games and averaged 4.8 points and 2.8 boards with a team-high 22 blocked shots, 23 steals, 20 assists and just 23 turnovers.

“The one common denominator with all these Spokane kids and the ones on the Zags roster, the ones on the Eags roster and the ones on our roster – it goes back to the two words that describe Tyson – character and toughness,” Burns says. “The basketball players in that city usually possess both of those qualities in boatloads. It’s fun to see them all have that success.”