5 favorite stats from the Mountain West, Pac-12 openers

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – JANUARY 13: Head coach Leon Rice of the Boise State Broncos reacts in the second half of a game against the UNLV Rebels at the Thomas & Mack Center on January 13, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Rebels defeated the Broncos 89-85 in overtime. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) | Getty Images

We are nearly one full week into the 2026-27 college basketball season!

There haven’t been many riveting finishes or earth-shattering upsets, yet (although we are looking at YOU, Oklahoma), but it’s nice to have college basketball back. Here are some of my favorite stats from each team’s opener in the Mountain West and Pac-12!

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79 – Boise State’s margin-of-victory

Skinny: Remember Boise’s embarrassing loss to Hawai’i Pacific last year? That was probably burned in Leon Rice’s head leading into the game. Boise did not let its foot off the gas pedal in Wednesday’s 132-53 win over West Coast Baptist, a NCCAA Division-II program.

There’s a number of laugh-out-loud statistics from this game. The 132 points and 79-point differential both are new program records topping the 126-point and 77-point marks, respectively, set against Life Pacific in nearly seven years ago to date. They out-rebounded West Coast Baptist 67-18; they tied a single game record in made field goals (51) and scored 63-plus points in each half. Eight players reached double figures, led by Dovydas Butka’s 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting.

3 – Teams To Post 50.0 ORB% or better

Skinny: Rebounding wins championships, and three combined Mountain West/Pac-12 programs tallied a 50.0 0ffensive rebound rate or better!

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Boise State: 62.2 ORB% (Kind of obvious after what we just briefed … right?)

Nevada’s rebounding was an issue during their two exhibitions, but they out-rebounded Robert Morris by 15. UNLV finished a plus-eight on the glass against Northern Arizona after a scary first half. And we know what Boise State did to West Coast Baptist — stealing their lunch money several times.

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Publish date : 2026-11-06 21:00:00

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