Thousands entered Boise State’s arena on Monday night for the first day of the college basketball season. They arrived, I must assume, with high hopes. The Broncos are generally pretty good. They’ve won at least 19 games a year since the 2019-20 season, and went 26-11 last year. Three starters are gone from last season’s team, but transfer point guard Dylan Andrews is a good bounce-back candidate after a disappointing junior year at UCLA; even last year, he was a solid passer. The Broncos were picked third in the Mountain West and slotted in the 50s in preseason computer ratings. These things change, but there was no reason to suspect that Monday’s contest against Division II Hawaii Pacific was anything but a classic early-schedule gimme game.
Andrews had 15 points and nine assists in 33 minutes, all team highs. That is the full extent of the good news. Hawaii Pacific led for most of the game and held on at the end, 79-78; the 10,795 ticketed fans in attendance did not leave happy. It was an upset that the Idaho Statesman called “one of the worst losses in program history.” It “can only be described as the worst loss in program history,” 24/7 Sports intoned. “One of the largest upsets in College Basketball History,” a college hoops sicko tweeted, adding “this is not an understatement.” Yeah, obviously.
