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BYU is looking for continued execution as the final month of the regular season begins
The BYU men’s basketball team saw some improvements this past weekend in a two-game sweep to get back onto the winning track. After losing two straight games for the first time this season, a four-point win at home against San Francisco on Jan. 29 and a 78-57 win over Santa Clara on Jan. 31 bumped its record to 17-7 and 7-4 in the West Coast Conference.
In wins over San Francisco and Santa Clara, progress was seen in many areas, including defensively and in production from BYU's big men. Coach Dave Rose talked about some of these improvements in his weekly radio show Tuesday night.
“Our effort was terrific,” Rose said. “That effort, along with the execution level, is what we are trying to find consistently every night.
“We shot the ball well from the perimeter, we rebounded the ball well … defensively we kept the team under 60 points, we did a lot of really good things in that game. … Hopefully this can carry over.”
Kyle Collinsworth (lower back) was not able to play Saturday, which forced Rose to make some changes in the starting lineup and move away from the four-guard offense that had been used consistently. With continued production from BYU's big men, Rose talked about how he feels moving away from the four-guard offense.
“We ran the four-guard offense longer than we thought we’d have to,” Rose said. “The four-guard offense will be used in certain situations, but I’m excited about the consistency that we can build as a result of locking into a defensive game plan and then staying with that.”
One player who made an impact was freshman Ryan Andrus. He tied his career high in points (five) and set a new career high in rebounds (eight), including five offensive rebounds in the win Saturday over Santa Clara. Rose talked about what he has liked from Andrus this season.
“He played with a lot of confidence, and the things we are most impressed with is his ability to get to the free-throw line and make those free throws,” Rose said. “If Ry can be physical in there … and be able to rebound the basketball, that’ll give our whole group a lot of confidence.”
Chase Fischer was another player who made a big difference in Saturday’s win over Santa Clara. Due to the changes in the lineup, he came off the bench but gave a great boost to the team. After going 1-11 from beyond the arc in his previous two games, Fischer hit 5-9 from 3-point distance, scoring 18 points in the big win. He spoke with the media Tuesday about how the team is feeling at this point in the season.
“There’s a feeling of ‘we got a lot to do,’ the intensity has picked up and there’s no relaxing,” Fischer said. “We’ve had a couple of good practices, we need those …because then it translates into the game.”
Noah Hartsock was the guest on the radio show and also talked about his impression of the team as it enters the final month of the regular season. The Cougars have just seven games remaining on the conference schedule before the WCC tournament in Las Vegas.
“Our guys are getting in the mindsets of ‘this is really serious and we have to compete … people aren’t gonna give it to us, we have to go out and earn it,’ ” Hartsock said. “Practices have been good, very competitive, and I’m impressed with how these guys have responded to the challenge.”
BYU is on the road Thursday to play Pepperdine, which beat the Cougars at the Marriott Center on Jan. 8, 67-61. Fischer talked about how the team has changed since the last time it played Pepperdine, and how it will match up now.
“We are playing with a lot more urgency, there is a little edge and the pace is a lot better. We are executing a lot better too,” Fischer said. “Their defense is strong, and they dictated the tempo here, and now we are better at dictating the tempo.”
Pepperdine is coming off a win on Saturday at Saint Mary’s, and is tied with the Cougars in league play with a 7-4 record. Stacy Davis, its leading scorer averaging 15.7 points per game, scored 23 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the win over BYU four weeks ago. Rose talked about what they need to do to stop him as well as the importance of this game.
“Pepperdine is very deliberate in what they do. They like to isolate Stacy Davis in the midpost area, he’s a guy that can shoot threes but is good at driving you off the post, backing you down and scoring,” Rose said. “For us to really defend him, we need to find a guy who can handle him one on one and then be able to surprise him with the double team … we look forward to it. The energy in that gym is tremendous.”
Tipoff for Thursday’s game will be at 9 p.m. MST. Following the game, the Cougars will play at Loyola Marymount Saturday afternoon with tipoff at 2 p.m. MST. Both games can be heard on KSL Newsradio.
