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A day ahead of his team's Marriott Center meeting with the Utah State Aggies, BYU head hoops coach Dave Rose said his players "are really focused on getting better as a team."
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Following the second of two practices in preparation for Wednesday night's game, Rose said the last couple of days have been spent "trying to evaluate your team and correct things," while at the same time, "having enough confidence in your ability to believe that you're a good team and can respond to a tough situation."
"We need to be more consistent," said Rose. "We play well at times, and then there are other times where things get away from us. So, consistency is a real issue for us."
As noted by the shooting numbers presented in a "Cougar Tracks" posted earlier today, BYU's field goal and three-point accuracy has vacillated from game to game and venue to venue; more consistent shooting is certainly a target of Rose's emphasis.
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Regarding the mid-week meeting with Stew Morrill's 4-1 Aggies, Rose said "I think I could tell in practice today that guys are excited to play this game, (for) probably a lot of reasons, and one of them is probably because it's an in-state team."
Asked about the BYU game, Morrill said "in-state games to me are always special, especially any time you get a win, home or away. They're just harder to come by, away. You always want to play your best and play your hardest in the in-state games."
"They should mean a lot, I've tried to stress that to our teams through the years. We would have to play very well to have a chance to win down there and neutralize some of the things they're doing so well. That's going to be the challenge."
Noting the game at the Marriott Center in particular, Morrill said "obviously this game always draws a lot of attention from our fanbase. It's one of those in-state rivalry games that as a coach you've played a lot of them, but every one of them has a special meaning. It's just the nature of the games."
"In the 15 years I've been at Utah State we've had an interesting series, with us winning in Provo one time and them winning in Logan one time. When you go to the other team's home court, you're a decided underdog."
Since he has been the head coach, Rose has split his six games against Utah State, going 2-0 at the Marriott Center, 1-0 at Energy Solutions Arena and 0-3 at the Spectrum. Rose says "there's a pretty good chance" that the two teams will meet again in Salt Lake City at some point in the future.
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"They're really impressive," said Rose about the 2012-13 Aggies, who have been off for a week since winning at Santa Clara and handing the Broncos their first setback of the season.
"It looks like a really strong Utah State team," said Rose, "where the scoring is coming from both of their post players, which is kind of a trademark of Stew's, and he's got good guard play. I expect a really good game tomorrow."
The Aggies are dealing with a disconcerting incident from Tuesday's practice, during which wing Danny Berger reportedly lost consciousness, collapsed and stopped breathing for a time, before being revived and transported to a Salt Lake Valley hospital.
The school has confirmed the hospitalization, but has not released further details about the situation or Berger's status.
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The Utah State contest is first of three consecutive in-state games, with Saturday's home meeting with Utah to be followed by a game at Weber State a week from Saturday.
"It's a real interesting week," said Rose, "when you consider that...you can get that in-state rivalry feeling in your gym and it's going to stay there for quite a while."
"Hopefully, we respond to it."
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