SAN DIEGO – Point guard Nick Boyd has signed a Grant-In-Aid officially making him the newest member of the San Diego State men's basketball program, head men's basketball coach Brian Dutcher announced on Tuesday. Boyd attended and competed for Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca Raton, Fla., for the past three years and will arrive on The Mesa with two years of eligibility remaining. He was a member of the FAU team that faced the Aztecs in the 2023 Final Four and last season returned to the NCAA Tournament, in a first-round matchup against Northwestern.
"Nick is everything you want in a player," Dutcher said. "He prioritizes winning first and foremost. He is an elite point guard as both a scorer and playmaker. His ability to score at all three levels, 3-point shot, midrange and at the rim make him very hard to defend."
A native of Garnerville, N.Y., the 6-3 guard has averaged 8.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 21.3 minutes per game in his college career and has a 2.04 assist-to-turnover ratio, which ranks No. 2 on the FAU career list. In 88 games, including 51 starts in the last two seasons, he has reached double-figure scoring 31 times, twice recording a career-high 21 points, and has shot at least 40.0 percent from the field and beyond the arc in 49 and 37 games, respectively.
In six NCAA Tournament games in the last two years, he has averaged 7.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 16.7 minutes per game. If you eliminate the Northwestern game from this year, where he scored three points and had one assist in limited minutes, and his tournament averages expanded to 8.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 24.4 minutes.
This past season he was limited to 27 appearances and 14 starts due to an injury early in the season, but posted his highest scoring average, 9.3 points. For the third consecutive season he shot at least 40.0 percent (80-of-200) from the field, made 42-of-123 three-pointers (34.1 percent) and hit a career-best 84.2 percent (48-of-57) from the line. He added 72 rebounds, 48 assists and 23 steals in 644 minutes of action for a team that went 25-9 overall and 14-4 in American Athletic Conference, good for second place in the league.
As a sophomore, in 2022-23, Boyd was a key component of a team which set program records for victories (35) and points (3,035) while in just its second appearance in the NCAA Tournament reached the Final Four where it was eliminated by the Aztecs.
Boyd set career-high in games (38), starts (37), minutes (898), field goals (122), field goal attempts (272), shooting percentage (.449), 3-pointers (68), 3-point attempts (170), 3-point shooting percentage (.400), offensive (30), defensive (133) and total rebounds (163), steals (29), points (340) and assists (92), which led the Owls. His 40.0 three-point percentage is tied for sixth on the program's single season list and when he scored 10 or more points and/or dished out a minimum of three assists, the team was 14-2. Both Boyd's scoring and rebounding (4.3) averages ranked No. 4 on the team and his 40.0 career-field goal percentage ranked fourth on the program's all-time list.
He recorded the first double double of his career, 11 points and 10 rebounds, against South Alabama on Nov. 30, 2022, and his layup with two seconds on the clock was the difference in the team's 66-65 win over 8-seed Memphis in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, FAU's first victory in the event.
Boyd was one of two guards in the nation in 2022-23, who stood no taller than 6-3, shot at least 44.9 percent from the floor, 40.0 percent from the bonus distance, dished out at least 92 assists, and scored at least 340 points.
In 2021-22, he took a redshirt season.
In his first year at FAU, in 2020-21, he averaged 5.1 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 14.6 minutes. In his 23 appearances, all off the bench, he shot 42.3 percent (41-of-97) from the field, 40.0 percent (16-of-40) from the bonus distance and knocked down 20-of-26 free throws (76.9 percent, which led the team). With 42 assists, second on the squad, against 19 turnovers, he posted a 2.21 assist-to-turnover ratio, which led the team. In addition, he was honored with inclusion on the FAU Athletics Male All-Freshman Team and was a member of the Conference USA Commissioner's Honor Roll.
Boyd started his high school career at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J., in 2015-16. After two years, and a 57-6 overall record, he transferred to St. Mary High School in Rutherford, N.J., where he scored 1,000 points in his first 41 games and finished his two-year Gaels' career with 1,110 points. His 747 points as a senior set a single season scoring record for the school and ranked No. 2 in the state that year. For his efforts, he was named the North Jersey Interscholastic Conference (NJIC) Player of the Year to go along with a pair of first-team ALL-NJIC honors in his two seasons. Following his graduation from St. Mary High School, he spent a post graduate year at Bosco Institute in Merrillville, Ind., before signing at FAU.