Hail to the victors

Even though I believe we’ll owe Pat Riley a royalties check, we’re going to go ahead and call it a three-peat for the Bronco ladies...who not only won the outright MWC regular season title, but double-stamped their tickets to the NCAA tourney last night with a victory in the MWC tournament title game. It was a wire-to-wire championship run for Gordy Presnell’s squad, who were the runaway pick as league champs and rewarded all of their proponents with a dominant 17-point victory in the title game. The Broncos have now won 4 of the last 5 Mountain West Championship tournaments and obviously, 3 straight. Presnell has really built a powerhouse program here in Boise and it’s not surprising with players like Braydey Hodgins (tournament MVP), Riley Lupfer (3 point scorer-extraordinaire), and amazing all-around players like Marta Hermida and Jayde Christopher (not to mention their “bigs”).

Now we wait for the Broncos first round opponent at the NCAAs and really hope that they don’t screw us in the seeding department once again—last year’s squad drew a 16 seed, so got to play top-ranked Louisville in the first round...in Louisville. That same Louisville squad delivered the Broncos (28-4) one of their only four losses this season. Have the ladies earned enough goodwill with their impressive record and tournament familiarity to be at least a 13 seed? We’ll see on Monday night.

For now...soak it in, Bronco fans—you’ve all been wanting a basketball dynasty in Boise and you’ve got one.