Nick Boyd is back in San Diego with his new team, and he’s feeling the love

As the moderator dismissed the San Diego State players from the postgame news conference following their 95-68 loss in the NCAA Tournament last March, Nick Boyd leaned into the microphone and said: “Thank you, guys. We’ll be back.”

That was late Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio. The team flew home Wednesday. On Friday morning, Boyd walked into coach Brian Dutcher’s office and informed him he was entering the transfer portal.

Boyd ultimately opted to use his final season of eligibility in the Big Ten Conference, where he is averaging 19.2 points for 4-1 Wisconsin that, as fate would have it, will be in San Diego this week for the Rady Children’s Invitational at USD’s Jenny Craig Pavilion. The Badgers play Providence on Thanksgiving afternoon, then either Florida or TCU on Friday.

Their practice site this week: SDSU’s JAM Center.

“It’s going to be funny, it’s going to be awesome,” Boyd said. “San Diego really has a special place in my heart. I spent one of the best years of my life there.”

So why leave?

Why leave after indicating it was a two-year commitment when arriving at SDSU the previous summer and privately reiterating that sentiment a few days before Selection Sunday?

Why lean into a microphone and say, unsolicited, that “we’ll be back”?

“I meant those words,” Boyd said in a recent phone interview. “We got into the tournament, I was excited for the tournament, and we got punched in the mouth. I was thinking about talking with the coaches about what the team could be the following year.

“But then I got home from that game and I got a call from my uncle. He’s been around the game for years. He said, ‘Yo, my man, there are life-changing opportunities in the transfer portal. I think you should take a look at it.’”

The numbers are not public, but Boyd is believed to have received about $250,000 in NIL payouts while at SDSU. Most estimates put him at four or five times that at Wisconsin — more than most players make in an entire pro career overseas if they’re not NBA material.

He’s also playing for a perennial power in the Big Ten, currently rated a close second behind the SEC as the nation’s top basketball conference.

“It was a tough decision, a gut-wrenching decision,” Boyd said. “I never thought I was leaving. I came to San Diego State with two years in mind and to win a championship, but it’s just the way college basketball has shifted. I’m sure if fans were in my shoes, they’d weigh out their options, too.

“I couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to play at the highest level each and every night. That’s not to say San Diego State isn’t a high level … but I felt like, alongside the NIL opportunity, the next step for me was to play in one of the power conferences to prove I’m one of the best guards in the country. It’s hard to pass up some of those opportunities.”

It was a largely amicable divorce, at least among the players and coaching staff.

Boyd’s affable personality made him a leader on last year’s young team, and he retained those relationships. He watches all their games, no matter the time change. He still regularly speaks with the assistant coaches. Walk-on Desai Lopez is one of his best friends. He called BJ Davis last week. He and Miles Byrd texted into the night after SDSU’s upset loss against Troy.

This won’t be Boyd’s first time inside the JAM Center since he entered the portal. He had a free week in August and spent it in San Diego, working out there.

“Dutch walked in and he still showed me love,” Boyd said. “Even when I told Dutch I was leaving, he said, ‘I understand, I get it.’ It was a tough convo, but he always kept it 100 with me. Dutch is one of the best. … Time heals, man. Time heals.”

Byrd put it like this: “A guy like that makes a lasting impact on a program. I played a year with Nick, and I’ve got a bunch of memories with Nick that I’m happy to still have. I wouldn’t even say it didn’t work out here. It was a great year we had together, something we’re always going to remember. He had another opportunity to go play in the Big Ten and be an impact player for them at Wisconsin.

“I don’t hold any grudges with him, and I support him every single day.”

Boyd came to SDSU after four years at Florida Atlantic, one of which was during the pandemic and another a medical redshirt. A week into summer workouts, he broke a bone in his foot and was sidelined until shortly before the season opener.

The 6-foot-3 lefty would average 13.4 points per game at SDSU after being in single digits at FAU. He really hit his stride over the final 10 games, jumping to 16.8 points with Magoon Gwath injured and Byrd slumping.

Wisconsin was one of the nation’s most plodding teams under former coach Bo Ryan and continued that way under former assistant Greg Gard, as recently as two seasons ago ranking in the 300s in Division I in tempo. But Gard has made a concerted effort to crank up the pace, and Boyd became an attractive option to partner with John Blackwell in the backcourt.

“It’s been about getting faster,” associate head coach Joe Krabbenhoft told local media recently, “and really targeting in the portal or recruiting guys who can really get it and go. And nobody stood out more this year to us than Nick Boyd. His speed stood out right away.”

The Badgers had been eyeing him for a while, too.

“One thing that stood out to me was that they did their research,” said Boyd, who had 20 of his career-high 25 points against Northern Illinois on Nov. 7 in the first half. “I found out they did their research on me months in advance. With the portal, schools are not recruiting but just watching film and building a pool of who they want to go after.

“When my uncle told me after that game with North Carolina that Wisconsin has been watching me for months and months and months, I felt comfortable enough that they understood what I wanted in my next year. … They know what they want and they created a system they really love.”

Five games into the new season, he’s back in San Diego. He’ll hang with some friends. He’ll hit Barbusa in Little Italy for dinner. He’ll bask in the sun while temperatures dip into the low 20s back in Madison. He’ll walk into the JAM Center, with walls adorned with ceiling-high photos of “The Show” student section, and let the memories wash over him.

“There’s nothing like that Viejas crowd,” Boyd said. “Hyping them up and getting them going was probably some of my greatest memories, honestly. I hope they remember me as someone who played hard all the time and brought some juice.

“I love San Diego State basketball. I feel like San Diego State set me up to where I am now. They took a chance on me, coming from FAU. I wasn’t a well-known point guard. They saw something in me that maybe sometimes I didn’t see in myself.”

Rady Children’s Invitational

Where: Jenny Craig Pavilion

Thursday’s schedule: No. 10 Florida vs. TCU, noon; Wisconsin vs. Providence, 2:30 p.m.

Friday’s schedule: Third-place game at 12:30 p.m., championship game at 3 p.m.

TV: Thursday’s games on Fox Sports 1, Friday’s games on Fox