COUGARS PLAYING BETTER No. 5 Kansas holds on against No. 14 Texas Tech.
BYU might have two losses, but it seems to be on the rebound
If coach Brian Dutcher wants to get the attention of his San Diego State basketball players ahead of this afternoon’s game against two-loss BYU, if he’s worried his 18th-ranked team might grow complacent, if he’s concerned final exams and eight days between games dulled
their athletic focus, he can show film of the Cougars shooting 55.4 percent and blowing out rival Utah by 18 points Saturday.
Or he can put on UTEPArizona State from Wednesday night. Six days after the
Aztecs posted what ap“I grew up watching peared to be a signature road SDSU and BYU,” senior Jorwin against the then-No. 23 dan Schakel said of their Sun Devils by 12, a UTEP days in the Mountain West. team with no previous Divi“Two storied basketball prosion I victories this season grams, two great fan bases. and a Kenpom ranking of 186 I’ve played them here and beat ASU by 13 there. also played them at BYU. I
Or Dutcher could turn off got to experience everything the video player and just say, that rivalry has to offer. … I’m “It’s BYU.” just excited to play them
The Cougars are as close again.” to a rival for SDSU in the abWhatever the source of sence of a natural one, if not geographically then philosophically (private, churchrun vs. state school) and historically (Jimmer vs. Kawhi).
motivation — respect, reality, rivalry — the Aztecs will need some. Again.
Dutcher wanted a nonconference schedule that would challenge his veteran roster imbibed with the scent of victory from a 30-2 season, and he got it. But that also means there is no margin for error, no breathers, no room for Bplus efforts.
They already have wins against two Pac-12 foes that were ranked at the time; the preseason favorite in the Big West; and a Pepperdine team that beat Cal and took UCLA to triple overtime. Now comes a BYU team that, after a shaky start, has wins against St. John’s, Utah State and Utah in the last 21⁄
2 weeks.
Then comes 7-1 Saint Mary’s on Tuesday.
Then come two games at
UNLV (one of the two teams to beat them in 2020), followed immediately by two against Nevada, followed by two at Utah State (the other team to beat them).
“We can’t have a letdown,” Dutcher said.
This game was originally scheduled for Dec. 1, but BYU rescheduled after committing to a nonconference event in Connecticut. Instead, they faced USC that day and lost 79-53 after shooting 27.5 percent and somehow managing no second-chance points despite 15 offensive rebounds.
“It’s disappointing,” second-year coach Mark Pope said afterward.
“It’s not just a loss, it’s a gut check, a reality check, and a test to see who we are. I’m really curious and determined to see if we can figure this out and respond in the right way.”
The scary part for SDSU: They have.
Five players had career highs in points, assists or rebounds vs. Utah. The Cougars had a 44-28 edge on the boards, 41-16 in bench scoring. They were more energetic, more aggressive, more physical.
It ended an exhaustive stretch of eight games in the season’s opening 18 days, including a cross-country trip. The six-day break before facing 5-0 SDSU is their longest of the season.
“If I was a better coach, I would recognize things earlier,” Pope said. “Over the last three weeks, we’ve learned so much about who to play together, where to play them together, when to play them together, what we can do, how can we function. … We just haven’t had a lot of practice time to implement changes.
“The most important thing we’re learning is how tough these kids are.”
The Cougars pose a tactical challenge because the Aztecs haven’t faced an opponent this season with their offensive style, moving the ball quickly from side to side, finding shooters, throwing it over the top to rolling posts, crashing the boards.
There’s also this: The
Cougars go three deep at center, including 7-foot-3 Purdue transfer Matt Haarms, and the Aztecs have fortuitously dodged opposing bigs.
UCLA’s Jalen Hill didn’t play in the opener, but the Bruins are undefeated since with his rim protection and 7.8 rebounds per game. Pepperdine’s 6-9 Jan Zidek (13.2 points) was a late scratch against the Aztecs. Arizona State was without leading rebounder Marcus
Bagley.
“BYU is way better than people think,” Dutcher said. “They only look and see that they have two losses. They don’t see how they played against Utah. They’re figuring stuff out. They have some talent and size. They didn’t look that good in some of those early games but they look a lot better now. I think they’re going to be very dangerous for us.”