The first night of the 2025-26 men’s college basketball season was dominated by lopsided scores, with teams from the sport’s best conferences beating up on overwhelmed opponents from much smaller schools.
It didn’t quite go according to script for everyone, though. Just ask Boise State.
The Broncos, who were picked third in the Mountain West preseason poll and who were No. 53 nationally in the KenPom preseason rankings, were stunned in their season opener, falling at home to Division II Hawaii Pacific 79-78 on Monday, Nov. 3.
The Sharks didn’t just win, but controlled the game, leading for 27:16 of a possible 40 minutes. Guard Joshua West led his team to an improbable victory with a game-high 23 points on nine-of-16 shooting, including a three-of-six mark from 3-point range. Though Boise State wasn’t particularly sloppy, finishing the game with 12 turnovers, the Sharks capitalized on those Broncos miscues, getting 23 points off turnovers.
Unlike its opponent, Hawaii Pacific entered the season with modest expectations. The Sharks, who went 15-14 last season, were picked to finish seventh in the 13-team Pacific West Conference in the league’s preseason poll.
“We’ve just got to be more hungry. That’s really just it,” Boise State guard Dylan Andrews said after the game, according to the Idaho Statesman. “We’ve just got to want it. I feel like we just (under)estimated the team, and they wanted it more than us.”
Though it’s often overshadowed by the school’s powerhouse football program, Boise State has been one of the more consistently successful programs from outside of the five major conferences in men’s college basketball over the past 15 years.
Under coach Leon Rice, the Broncos have won at least 20 games in 12 of the past 14 full seasons. Since the start of the 2021-22 season, they’ve gone a combined 99-40 with three NCAA Tournament appearances. Last season, they went 26-11 and fell one game short of the Big Dance, losing to Colorado State in the championship game of the Mountain West tournament.
While the loss to the Sharks doesn’t factor into the NCAA’s NET rating system since Hawaii Pacific isn’t a Division I school, the loss will appear on Boise State’s team sheet that will be evaluated by the NCAA Tournament selection committee come March.
