Former Mt. Spokane standout Tyson Degenhart voted Mountain West preseason player of year

Boise State, led by former Gonzaga assistant coach Leon Rice and former Mt. Spokane High standout Tyson Degenhart, is favored to win the Mountain West for the first time since joining the conference in 2011-12.

BSU was picked first in the MWC preseason poll, followed by New Mexico, Nevada, San Diego State, UNLV and Utah State.

Degenhart, a 6-foot-8, 235-pound senior, was selected preseason player of the year. He was the MWC freshman of the year in 2022 and first-team All-WCC the last two seasons.

Degenhart was BSU’s leading scorer last season at 16.7 points and second in rebounding at 6.2. He made 50.3% from the field, becoming the first BSU player since 1992-93 with at least three straight seasons shooting at least 50% with at least 250 attempts.

He ranks 13th on the school’s career scoring list with 1,361 points, 583 behind No. 1 Tanoka Beard. Degenhart, a two-time Greater Spokane League player of the year, scored 534 points last season.

Rice, who was an assistant for 11 years under Gonzaga coach Mark Few, is the winningest coach in program history with a 290-166 record entering his 15th season at BSU. He has guided the Broncos to a pair of MWC regular-season championships, one conference tournament title and five NCAA Tournaments, including the last three. BSU is 0-10 in 10 NCAA Tournament appearances.

The Broncos and four other Mountain West schools will join Gonzaga, Washington State and Oregon State in the Pac-12 for the 2026-27 season.