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This Day In Sports…March 14, 2018:
Chandler Hutchison finishes his brilliant Boise State career with 39 points and 14 rebounds in a 76-73 loss at Washington in the first round of the NIT. Almost single-handedly, Hutchison helped rally the Broncos from a 15-point first-half deficit before they fell just short. The Huskies generally smothered every Bronco not named Hutchison for most of the game. It doesn’t get much worse than the way Boise State shot the ball in the first half—how about 5-for-28 from the field? Let that sink in. That’s 18 percent. The Broncos went more than 11 minutes without a field goal and trailed by 15 at the break.
That Boise State got back into the game was nothing short of amazing considering that level of futility. Hutchison took over, keying a 10-0 run midway through the second half to pull the Broncos to within three points. And another flurry in the final 45 seconds made three the final margin. The 39 points tied for the fifth-most in Boise State history. It was also the 14th 20-point, 10-rebound game of Hutchison’s career, a school record. Hutchison ended with a four-season total of 1,478 points, ninth in Bronco history, and 634 rebounds, sixth all-time.
After the game, coach Leon Rice saluted Hutchison for being there for his teammates. “You’ve got people who are sitting out NIT games because they’re pro prospects,” said Rice on the KBOI post game show. “And you’ve got our guy, who competed in his final game for Boise State. Played all 40 minutes.” Hutchison wouldn’t have missed it. “I’m just blessed with everything and the guys I’ve had with me,” he said. “It’s been a heckuva ride.” Speaking of pro prospects, Hutchison would become the Broncos’ first NBA first-round draft pick less than three months later (going 22nd overall to the Chicago Bulls).
Just Wednesday, Hutchison was named to the Mountain West 25th Season Men’s Basketball team (as was Derrick Marks, a Boise State teammate of Hutchison’s when he was a freshman). Here are more “body of work” notes for Hutchison. The media voted him the Mountain West Player of the Year as a senior after he became just the fourth Bronco ever to average 20 or more points per game in a season. Boise State prides itself on being a developmental program. Hutchison averaged 3.1 points as a true freshman and 6.8 as a sophomore. Then he broke out with 17.4 points per game as a junior—and finished as one of the most popular players in school history.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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