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Reflecting on the start of last night's history-making 71-51 win at Utah, BYU head coach Dave Rose said to our postgame show audience: "When that ball tipped, our boys were ready, and we had that look in our eyes."
Tough to argue with the coach, after his Cougars put together a wire-to-wire dump-trucking of the Runnin' Utes at the Huntsman Center, the worst rivalry loss for the Utes in the arena's 40-year history. It was also Utah's worst rivalry home loss in some 57 years.
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Kudos to the Cougars for shaking off Saturday's crushing home loss to New Mexico, "Alfordgate," and Jimmer Fredette's health issues in coming together for what could only be described as the ultimate "team win."
With Fredette less than 100%, he found himself on the bench less than four minutes into the game with uncharacteristic foul trouble, which meant more quality time for Mike Loyd. As he was in the loss to the Lobos, Loyd was simply spectacular: 18 first-half points meant that between the second half with the Lobos and the first half with the Utes, Loyd scored 37 points in 33 minutes--not bad for a backup point guard.
If Loyd was the first-half star, Brandon Davies carried the torch after halftime, scoring 15 of his career-high 21 after the break. Rose started Davies to begin the second half, and the the true freshman responded, once again looking like the player he was turning into before appendectomy surgery a month ago.
In all, 44 of BYU's 71 points were scored by the reserves, which is an encouraging sign for a team that will need much more than Jimmer Fredette come tournament time.
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Fredette's ongoing health issues remain a concern for BYU, which will begin what it hopes is a four-games-in-eight-days stretch starting Saturday at TCU.
Fredette did play 13 second-half minutes on the hill last night, and appeared to have regained some energy that was lacking in a foul-plagued six minutes of the first half. He finished with eight points, but shot just one for seven from the field; he is 12 for his last 31 over the last three games.
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With the win last night, BYU has secured the 2 seed at the conference tournament. Four of the nine tourney seeds are locked in right now, and here's the rundown--
New Mexico: 1 seed
BYU: 2 seed
UNLV: 3 seed with a win v. Wyoming OR a loss by SDSU at Air Force. UNLV wins any tiebreak with SDSU.
SDSU: 4 seed with loss at Air Force OR UNLV win v. Wyoming; 3 seed with win at Air Force AND UNLV loss v. Wyoming
Utah: 5 seed with win at CSU; 6 seed with loss at CSU
CSU: 5 seed with win v. Utah; 6 seed with loss v. Utah AND TCU loss v. BYU; 7 seed with loss v. Utah AND TCU win v. BYU
TCU: 7 seed with loss v. BYU OR CSU win v. Utah; 6 seed with win v. BYU AND CSU loss v. Utah
Wyoming: 8 seed
Air Force: 9 seed
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If BYU wins at TCU Saturday, the Cougars will finish the MWC regular season with a 6-2 road record. It would be the first time in the history of the league that a team won six conference road games and did not win the conference regular season title outright.
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