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PROVO — The BYU Cougars wrap up the regular season on Saturday afternoon as they travel to San Diego to face the USD Toreros. After Thursday night’s practice at the Marriott Center, BYU head coach Dave Rose talked about matching up against the Toreros.
“I think it’s been an interesting series between the two of us, Rose said. “Our games at the Jenny Craig (Pavilion) have been really competitive and really close, and the games in the conference tournament have been close. The challenge is obviously that this is a really good defensive team, a great 3-point shooting team by percentage; they’ve got two of the best 3-point shooters on their team … hopefully we’ll be ready for it.”
The Cougars enter Saturday’s game with a 20-10 record overall, 12-5 in the WCC. A win over the Toreros would secure no worse than second place in the WCC and the second seed in the West Coast Conference Tournament next week in Las Vegas.
The Cougars and Toreros are both riding three-game winning streaks, and both have not played a game since last Saturday. While BYU was disposing of Portland at the Marriott Center, USD upset Gonzaga at Jenny Craig Pavilion.
Junior guard Tyler Haws believes the rest was important and hopefully will help the Cougars on Saturday and moving forward.
“I think it’s really important, especially at this time of the season,” Haws said. “Bodies are starting to break down and I think it’s good to get your mind right too and just get prepared for the challenge ahead. We’ve got to go get this one and go get our tournament too.”
In the season’s previous meeting in Provo, BYU held USD guard Johnny Dee to just eight points on 2-for-10 shooting as the Cougars destroyed the Toreros 87-53. Dee averages 17 points a game, so the Cougars are hoping to replicate their success against him again on Saturday. Besides Dee, San Diego features another pesky guard in Chris Anderson. Haws knows that slowing down the guards is one of BYU’s top defensive priorities.
“They got Chris Anderson who’s just really quick and kind of the facilitator for everything they do, and then obviously Johnny Dee is a great shooter; you can’t leave him no matter where he is on the floor. They’ve got some guys that come off the bench that can shoot the ball too. I think it’s a similar challenge to what we’ve faced the last couple games; it seems like every team is this league has a shooter; we’ve got to know where they are.”
While BYU was able to handle the Toreros in Provo this season, they know that USD took two of the three matchups last season, including a win at Jenny Craig Pavilion and a quarterfinal victory over the Cougars in the WCC Tournament.
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Tempo will play a huge role in the outcome of Saturday’s game. BYU has always been a team that likes to push the ball up the floor as quickly as possible. On the opposite end of that spectrum is San Diego. USD is one of the slowest teams in the country and would like nothing more than to slow things down and keep the game low scoring.
The Cougars average 85 points per game while the Toreros are only scoring 67. The team that controls the tempo will most likely win the game.
“Pace will be a big part of this thing,” said Rose. “Defensive execution, rebounding the ball, shot selection, our ability to make shots; all of those things are important, but if we can play at the pace we want to play, it will be way different for them.”
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On Tuesday, BYU Athletic Director Tom Holmoe met with members of the media for a roundtable discussion about BYU athletics. Among the topics discussed was a practice facility for the basketball team.
Holmoe said building a practice facility is important, but that it’s a work in progress. On Thursday, Rose was asked how important a practice facility is to him and the program.
“I’d be for one,” Rose said. “Guys want to have a place to be able to improve their game. Most places have a way to provide that for them. We do a great job here of providing that opportunity for guys; they have places to work out … but I think the convenience of working around their schedule, the demands of travel, demands of preparation time, it’s a huge convenience factor for the guys to make it easier for them. What we try to do is support them with everything we do; with our academic center, with our equipment manager, with our training staff — this is another way to support the guys.”
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You can listen to post-practice audio from Dave Rose, Tyler Haws, Eric Mika and Anson Winder by clicking on the links in “Cougar Cuts,” above left.
