What's with all this football talk? There's a sport that's actually playing tonight.

The Boise State Men's basketball team takes on the Portland Pilots tonight at Taco Bell Arena. I'm awful at coming up with preview material, but i'll at least try, and maybe someone will read it.

I'm just going to try and keep it short and simple. Stat comparisons and top players.

Currently the spread in the betting world has the Broncos by 15. It started out at 12 yesterday.

DATE: Wednesday; Dec. 7, 2011
TIME: 7 p.m. (MT)
LOCATION: Boise, Idaho / Taco Bell Arena (12,480)
TV: None

RADIO: Bronco Sports Network / BroncoSports.com

Portland Pilots (3-5)

Boise State Broncos (7-1)

Links

Boise State's Aussies have a feel for Portland

Broncos to Host Pilots Wednesday

Below are some offensive stat comparisons. Light Green, obviously means good, Red, not so much.

Teamrankings.com

As you can see, the Broncos have a statistical advantage in every category. With Total Rebounds, being the closest. These stats don't really mean that Portland will be an easy win, by any means. Although 3-5, they have 2 losses to top 25 teams (Kentucky and Saint Louis) and losses to Washington and Washington State. Their other loss came @UC Santa Barbara. On the other hand, Portland hasn't really blown anyone out. they haven't won a game by more than 12. Portland is 0-4 on the road so far this season. Losing by an average of 24.5pts. Boise on the other hand is 6-0 at home, winning by an average of 25.7pts (vs. D1 teams)..

Anthony Drmic is leading the way for the Broncos with 15.4 ppg, leading the team in made 3pt baskets with 26. Portland's Nemanja Mitrovic and Ryan Nicholas both average. 10.6 ppg. Some other players to watch for the Broncos are Kenny Buckner and Drew Wiley. Can Buckner keep his presence down low? He has been a key component in opening up the floor for the Broncos so it will be interesting to see if he can continue scoring down low to open up shots for Drew Wiley. Wiley has been on roll the last 3 games shooting 68% from 3 (13-19), including a 5-5 performance against Drake en route to a season high 17pts. For the Pilots, watch out for Tim Douglas. He is only 5'10, but he managed 12pts vs. #1 Kentucky.

RECAP

Another 20point win for Boise State at home. The Broncos started off hot, but quickly cooled off. Ended up shooting 3-11 from 3 in the first half. Both teams were pretty much back and forth all first half, with the Broncos managing a 4 point 35-31 lead over the Pilots. It was awesome to see Ryan Watkins come up huge down low for the Broncos with a game high 19 points. It had been Buckner the last few games down low coming up big, but this time Watkins stepped up in a big way. Drmic also had 17 points for the Broncos. What did I tell you about Tim Douglas? He lead the Pilots with 17 points and was killing us driving to the basket.

Box Score

click it to make it bigger (right click open link in new tab/window)

One thing to take away from this? We score 92 points while only making 6 3pt baskets. The Broncos, coming into this game, were averaging a little over 10 3's per game and shooting 44%. So, to shoot 6-19 (31.6%) and still score 92 points, is a good sign, in my opinion.

Gameflow

Recap Articles

Boise State Gets Huge Win Over Portland, 92-70. -Dailybronco.com

Great stuff in here. All kinds of stats and easily comparable charts/graphs, plus player ratings.

Boise State men defeat Portland -Idaho Statesman

It's the Statesman..... You know, couple paragraphs... doesn't even mention the score.. the usual.

Pilots Drop Road Game to Upstart Boise State -Portlandpilots.com

“Boise State is one of the top teams in the nation in three-point shooting and creating turnovers,” Portland head coach Eric Reveno said. “We did a good job of not letting them hurt us in those areas, but their Plan B was more effective than our Plan B.”