Over 50,000 shots and an appeal later, Boise State’s newest player lives ‘amazing’ dream

Brennan Ramirez has been one of Boise State men’s basketball’s best assist men for the past two years.

He made sure all the players’ shoes were properly laced, prepared play cards for assistant coach Tim Duryea and even mounted televisions some of the players’ homes.

But those days are behind him. Now he’ll be hoping to assist the Broncos differently.

Last week, Boise State coach Leon Rice announced in front of the entire team that Ramirez, a student-manager, would join them on the roster as a walk-on.

“It’s unreal,” Ramirez said on Monday. “It’s still surreal to me.”

But it wasn’t an easy path for Ramirez, a junior guard, to see his name on the back of a jersey with the large No. 20 beneath it.

Ramirez is originally from Redding, California. He attended Enterprise High School, averaging 16.2 points, 1.9 steals and one assist in 30 games during his senior year.

He had offers to play at a few NAIA schools but ultimately decided to pursue sports management. But that didn’t mean he wanted to be done with basketball.

His best friend wanted to attend Boise State, partly because the duo’s older brothers were also friends and attended Boise State. Coming to the Treasure Valley also meant Ramirez could pursue sports management while still being involved with the basketball program.

“I took that leap of faith, and I came here and got the position as a manager and just kept working,” Ramirez said. “It’s all coming full circle.”

The idea of joining the team as a walk-on was always in the back of Ramirez’s mind, so when Rice brought up the possibility over the summer, he leaped at the chance. But it came with a few caveats.

“I gave him some things to do,” Rice said. “If you can shoot more shots than Andrew Meadow in the summer, that shows me something. And he did, which is phenomenal.”

That was a tall order, considering Meadow, a sophomore forward, told reporters last week he took about 50,000 shots over the summer. But so did Ramirez — plus some.

“I only beat him by about 1,500, but it was close,” Ramirez said. “Meadow works his butt off each and every day. My goal was to stick with him throughout the summer.”

Ramirez said he shot around 50%, while his three-pointing shooting was “a little lower.”

But there was another hurdle: the NCAA’s student manager-to-athlete rule. Since July 2023, any student who becomes a manager immediately forfeits any eligibility to play for that school. The rule has been in place for NCAA baseball since 2014 but expanded to all sports last year.

Rice said the school had to appeal for Ramirez to join the squad. That appeal was approved last week, but Ramirez didn’t know immediately.

Along with being a student-manager, Ramirez was also on the Broncos’ scout team. Rice told Ramirez last Thursday that his defense “hadn’t been the greatest,” so he wanted him to attend Friday’s film session with the rest of the team.

That was when Rice made a speech in front of the squad about players “living” the Boise State culture, before revealing a jersey with Ramirez’s name on the back. The rest of the team quickly swamped him in celebration.

“It was an experience I’ll never forget, giving coach a hug after and all the teammates gathered around me,” Ramirez said. “It was just amazing.”