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The BYU Cougar hoopsters open pre-season tournament play by hosting Division I independent Longwood Friday night at the Marriott Center--the first of BYU's four games in the Chicago Invitational Challenge.
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Thursday afternoon, following his team's 85-minute practice, BYU head coach Dave Rose met the media and previewed Friday's game, saying "we saw a lot of improvement from our first game to our second game, and hopefully we can make the same improvement here from second game to third game."
You can hear Rose's post-practice interview session in "Cougar Cuts," left.
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Longwood is a team that starts five seniors, and was among the nation's top 25 scoring teams in 2010-11; conversely, they were among the country's very worst defensive teams last season, ranking third-to-last (of 336 NCAA DI teams) in points allowed.
"This team is going to come in and really kind of force the issue, as far as trying to score," says Rose. "It is one of the better scoring teams that we've played."
The 2011-12 Lancers are averaging 81.3 points per game through three games, while allowing 79.3 per contest. Longwood is 1-2 after three home games, falling to Navy by eight points and Canisius by four, while defeating an NAIA foe.
One of four college hoops independents (Nebraska-Omaha, CSU-Bakersfield and Seattle are the others), Longwood last season visited 12 states and traveled almost 18-thousand miles. This season, the Farmville, Va. school is scheduled for another 12-state slate, covering almost 20- thousand miles, of which nearly 8,000 will be on chartered buses.
Since moving to DI seven seasons ago, the Lancers have compiled a record 16-110 in away/neutral games, including an 11-97 mark in true road games.
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It has been a long and arduous comeback journey for BYU forward Chris Collinsworth, whose recovery from microfracture knee surgery may have encountered an early- season setback. Collinsworth missed practice with what Rose is calling a sore knee, and it is the same knee Collinsworth had surgically repaired last December.
Rose said Collinsworth would have the knee evaluated Thursday afternoon and that "we'll see if it's just part of the recovery that he's in, or maybe he has done something else to it...so we'll take a look at it today."
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Rose's team is 1-1 through two games and not yet scoring at the pace to which he has been historically accustomed; the Cougars have scored 62 and 73 points in a loss to Utah State and a home win over BYU-Hawaii.
"One of the most important things is to continue to play fast, and be better with the ball--not turn the ball over so much," said Rose. "We had a lot of careless turnovers in transition (in games one and two)...a lot of that comes from guys trying to do maybe a little bit too much. We need to get back to doing the things that we do, that other players can rely on."
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Saying "I think you'll see more guys play that position," Rose also addressed his point guard play. Brock Zylstra has manned the starting spot there through the season's first two games, accounting for four assists and ten turnovers, while shooting 31% from the field and 14% from three-point range, in 31.5 minutes per game. Non-scholarship player Craig Cusick has been Zylstra's primary backup, with a single assist and no turnovers in 16 minutes per contest.
"I think Brock has done a really good job for what we have asked him to do, but there are some other guys that we have looked at in practice, so we'll give them a shot at it, too."
I wouldn't be surprised to see Cusick get a start at point on Friday night, with Zylstra moving over to shooting guard and Stephen Rogers coming off the bench; it's certainly an idea Rose is considering.
Rogers has gotten off to a sluggish start to the season, scoring in only two of the team's four halves of play-- going scoreless after halftime in Logan, and being blanked for the first half of the BYU-H game in Provo. Perhaps the team's most respected marksman, Rogers has hit four of his six shot attempts inside the three-point arc, but only one of six shots outside the perimeter.
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BYU will follow Friday night's game by hosting Prairie View A&M next Tuesday; both games were assigned to BYU by organizers of the Chicago Invitational Challenge, a tournament that will move to Hoffman Estates, Ill. for games next Friday (versus Nevada) and Saturday (versus either Wisconsin or Bradley).
"We're still a work in progress; we have a lot of things to get better at," says Rose of the upcoming stretch of games. "Right now I believe the next three, four or five games, it's all about trying to be comfortable, become really comfortable playing in our system, and not having to think through our system. The comfort level of each of these players is what we're looking for, every night we play."
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Notes:
Jimmer Fredette was on the floor with his former teammates Thursday, playing on the scout team and simulating the play of Longwood's point guard. Fredette told me he was a little put out because of Lancer PG Jeremiah Bowman's 33 fg attempts, only three have been outside the arc. No "bombs away" for Jimmer today, just lots of driving.
Longwood is shooting only 55% from the free throw line through three games.
BYU and Longwood are meeting for the first time. BYU also has first-time encounters scheduled with Prairie View A&M and Cal State San Marcos (Division II).
BYU averaged 10.9 turnovers/game in 2010-11; the Cougars are averaging 21.0 miscues per game through two games this season.
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