Leon Rice’s BSU-Gonzaga connections come through loud and clear during press conference

PORTLAND – Leon Rice has been the head coach at Boise State for 11 seasons. Before that, he was an assistant coach under Mark Few at Gonzaga for 11 seasons.

During Rice’s news conference Wednesday, his connections to both programs overlapped several times. Rice mentioned GU walk-on Joe Few, Mark’s son, a couple of times, once in recapping the recruitment of Mt. Spokane High’s Tyson Degenhart. Rice also dropped former Zags standout Jeremy Pargo’s name while discussing what makes BSU standout Abu Kigab so special.

The opening question was on families playing college basketball – Rice’s son Max is a junior guard for the Broncos, GU walk-on Will Graves’ dad, Kelly, is Oregon’s women’s coach – when Rice interjected, “Don’t forget Joe Few!”

Rice didn’t forget Joe Few when providing background on Degenhart joining BSU’s program, noting that Few, Max Rice and Degenhart had played together.

“This is turning into the Joe Few press conference, he’ll be so happy to hear that,” cracked Rice, whose eighth-seeded Broncos face No. 9 Memphis on Thursday with the winner meeting the Gonzaga-Georgia State winner.

Degenhart, a 6-foot-7 freshman forward, moved into BSU’s starting lineup after six games. He’s averaging 9.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and ranks third on the team with 43 3-pointers.

“He’s such a winner, we saw that from the time he was in eighth or ninth grade,” Rice said. “He’s a special kid and he makes others better. Guys like him that have the body and have the work ethic, that character, that team-guy stuff, that all translates and those guys become great. That was the thing I mostly wanted in this program.

“He’s got great empathy for his teammates and that’s why we were able to put him in the starting lineup with a bunch of seniors.”

Pargo’s name came up as Rice expounded on the qualities that make the versatile 6-7 Kigab important to BSU’s program beyond the box score.

“I always tell the stories about Jeremy,” Rice said of Pargo, a Zag from 2006-09. “You could be having the roughest, toughest days. You could have lost a game, been down in the dumps. No matter who you are, whether you’re a player or a coach, and you’d show up to the gym and be like, ‘Good, I get to hang out with Jeremy today.’

“Abu is the same way. He’s just got a great, positive attitude and it’s just infectious to the rest of the team. I love being around guys like that. He’ll be a special one that I’ll talk about – I’m talking about Jeremy, that was 15 years ago – and I’ll be talking about Abu that way for the next 15, 20 years.”

Kigab is impressive on the stat sheet, too. The transfer from Oregon averages a team-leading 14.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists. He paces the Broncos with 43 steals.