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PROVO — Coming off a confidence-boosting weekend win at Saint Mary's, the BYU basketball team returns to the Marriott Center to face a nationally ranked Gonzaga squad that owns a current five-game win streak against the Cougars.
Thursday night's game features the first- and second-place teams in the West Coast Conference. The Zags have clinched no worse than a tie for the regular-season championship. At 13-1 in league play, Gonzaga (No. 22 Coaches/No. 25 AP) has a 3 1/2-game lead on 10-5 BYU, which remains in mathematical contention for a conference title, but barely. The Cougars would need to win their three remaining regular season games, while Gonzaga would need to lose its final four games — all of which are on the road.
"I like the pressure better when you're trying to defend (a championship)," said BYU head coach Dave Rose after his team's Wednesday practice in Provo. "But chasing it is still a good pressure. Hopefully our guys are ready."
BYU guard Kyle Collinsworth is one of a handful of Cougars who have played in a win over Gonzaga. Collinsworth was part of the Cougar squad that defeated the Zags in the 2011 NCAA Tournament, while Matt Carlino, Nate Austin and Anson Winder contributed to a regular-season victory on Feb. 2, 2012, in Provo — BYU's last win over Gonzaga before the current five-game streak.
"I just try to carry that mindset with our team that we can win (Thursday), we will play well and we will win," said Collinsworth Wednesday. "In the second half (at Saint Mary's) we got that mindset that 'we're going to win this game. We don't know how but we're going to win.' And we found a way to do it. To just get that mindset is huge."
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'Huge' is a word that aptly describes Gonzaga's starting frontcourt of Przemek Karnowski (7-foot-1, 296 pounds) and Sam Dower (6-9, 243) — a tandem combining to average 25 points and 14 rebounds per game, drawing attention away from the perimeter where guards Kevin Pangos, Gary Bell and David Stockton are free to fire away.
In last month's 84-69 win over BYU in Spokane, Wash., Gonzaga made 10 of 22 3-pointers, with six coming off of Pangos' hot hand. Rose says the challenge of defending the Zags' perimeter players is magnified by the team's inside presence.
"It's one of the most difficult challenges because of how good they are inside with Dower and Karnowski," said Rose. "Then when they bring (wing Drew) Barham in to shoot from the perimeter and spread you, you've got four three-point shooters on the floor — actually five when they play Dower with that group. Their personnel are pretty skilled and really deep."
"When we don't let teams shoot threes, we win — it's that simple," says Collinsworth. "Gonzaga has a lot of shooters and we have to limit their attempts, because they'll make them."
In WCC road road games, BYU's opponents have made 45 percent of three-point attempts (73 for 161), while at home in conference play, BYU's opponents have made only 31 percent of their 3-pointers (41 for 131).
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Asked about the right knee he injured at Saint Mary's last Saturday, Collinsworth said "it feels good--good enough to play," but acknowledged that he was afraid he had suffered a season-ending injury when he landed awkwardly on the knee late in the first half of the game against the Gaels.
"I heard a pop, so I thought I tore it, something extremely bad happened," said Collinsworth. "I just hit the floor so hard and I went back, and I heard it snap, so I thought that's it maybe — for the season."
Collinsworth said he felt he was "probably 90 percent" Wednesday, after having not practiced on Monday or Tuesday of this week: "I was a little slow at the start (of practice), but I feel good," he told reporters at the Marriott Center.
"I've been working on flexibility since I got back (from a two-year LDS Church mission)," said Collinsworth. "The doctor said that had a huge part, in that it didn't tear. I just got lucky, a big blessing."
Rose said Collinsworth "looked pretty good" in Wednesday's practice.
"He looked a little bit slow, but he wasn't favoring it at all, which was a good sign," Rose said. "Hopefully he has a good response to it (Wednesday night), and in the morning he's ready to go."
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Thursday night's game is expected to draw the largest Marriott Center crowd of the season, with a near-sellout audience anticipated for the 9 p.m. tipoff. A win for Gonzaga would secure an outright conference championship, while a victory for BYU would enhance the Cougars' hopes for at-large NCAA Tournament selection and maintain momentum with the league tournament in Las Vegas just two weeks away.
"I think the guys mentally and emotionally really want the the win," Rose said. "But we'll have to see how they respond physically. Sometimes your guys are too high emotionally, and they have a hard time settling into the game.
"I like the resiliency of our team, and I like the resolve of our group. There are times when I would like us to execute a whole lot better, and hopefully (Thursday) what we get is a team that has real urgency and real energy and our execution is really good."
Rose conceded that a lineup change to start Thursday night's game is "a possibility," with the intent to avoid foul trouble that has saddled BYU's starting big men early in recent games.
"We've worked with quite a few different line-ups," Rose said, "and I think that the key for us is, I want our guys playing as loose and as aggressive and on attack as possible.
"Sometimes, when we get into early foul trouble their aggression level, the attitude that they play with, the attack that you see in them is not as aggressive as you would like it to be. I would like our guys to get maybe into the middle of the first half or late into the first half before they get their second foul. Hopefully we can manage that somehow."
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BYU freshman center Eric Mika garnered some unwanted attention over the weekend when, after the win at Saint Mary's had been secured, he flashed the "choke" sign in the direction of the Gaels' student section. Rose said he discussed the incident with his rookie post player.
"We had quite a long conversation," the coach explained. "It's disappointing. I think that he understands that his reaction to some harassing fans was not appropriate.
"The best way to learn from these situations is experience. The more times you're in those types of environments, and the more times you feel it, and hear it, and experience it, the more it becomes common and you (don't) react to it. Hopefully that's what happens here with Eric."
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You can hear post-practice interviews with Rose, Collinsworth, guard Tyler Haws and forward Nate Austin in "Cougar Cuts."
Pregame coverage of Thursday's contest begins at 8 p.m., with the tip at 9 p.m. on KSL Newsradio (102.7 FM/1160 AM) and BYU Radio (SiriusXM 143).
