BYU Basketball with Dave Rose 2-25-14


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PROVO — Considered by many to be on the proverbial bubble of the NCAA tournament, the BYU Cougars came up with a huge win over likely conference champion Gonzaga on Thursday.

Strategy for Saturday night’s game against Portland started before the opening tip. In an effort to keep freshman center Eric Mika out of early foul trouble, coach Dave Rose chose to start fellow freshman Luke Worthington in his place. Rose also started junior guard Anson Winder in place of slumping Skyler Halford. Both moves paid off in a big way. Mika was effective all night and Winder scored 19 points on 7-8 shooting, giving BYU its 20th win of the season. The win also marked the ninth straight year Rose has won at least 20 games.

“The win against Gonzaga was really big for a lot of reasons,” Rose said at his weekly coach’s show at Malawi’s Pizza in Provo. “To get a big win over the first-place team and have our guys get that confidence going into the conference tournament was important. Now we’ve beaten every team in our league this year.”

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BYU will face the Toreros of San Diego on Saturday (2 p.m. MST) in the regular season finale.

“We’ve played really well against San Diego in Prove the three years we’ve played them,” said Rose. “Outside our building is another story. They’re a well-coached team and they play really well together.”

The Cougars lost a hard-fought game in last season’s matchup in San Diego and also fell to the Toreros in the first round of the WCC tournament in Las Vegas by three points.

“Playing San Diego is going to be real physical,” said Rose. “We’re going to have to stay out of foul trouble. That’s been a theme for us on the road this year.”

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Anson Winder, coming off a two-game stretch that saw him score 36 points, was the player guest at this week’s coach’s show.

“Coming into every game you want to contribute in anyway possible and help your team win,” said Winder. “So being able to come in and help win two games like our last two has been a lot of fun.”

BYU Basketball with Dave Rose 2-25-14

Winder was certainly ready this past week when his number was called. In the upset win over Gonzaga, Winder made all 10 of his free throws. The 6-foot-3 Las Vegas product also boasts the best assist-to-turnover ratio in the conference (3.1).

Rose described Winder in high school as a great team player. “We always felt like Anson was one of those guys that could come in here and fit into our team and make our team a lot better in a lot of different ways,” said Rose. “We decided we wanted him when we were watching a lot of his AAU games in Vegas. He was a guy that always made the right play.”

“It’s been unreal,” said Winder. “I couldn’t have asked for a better college experience. Since day one I’ve felt like I made a great choice coming to BYU and being a part of this community.”

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In the last home game of the season on Saturday night, no seniors were honored at the game typically designated for “Senior Night.” In the Q&A portion of the show, Rose opened about the lack of seniors on this year’s team.

“The biggest challenge is in the locker room without a senior,” said Rose. “Seniors can bring things to the locker room that only they know. “One thing I love about seniors at BYU is that they’re usually close to graduating. So in their second semester they have an easier load academically and they’re around a lot because their schedule is a little bit lighter. We don’t have that feeling this year.” Mitch Tate is a KSL Sports Radio Intern and KSL.com contributor. Follow him on Twitter @mtate_7

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