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PROVO -- Still somewhat playing musical chairs on the sideline, BYU may face an increased pressure to find their spots before the beat of five seasoned seniors hit the Marriott Center’s court.
On Friday at 7 p.m., the Cougars will tip-off against their first competitor in the Chicago Invitational Challenge, Longwood University.
BYU coach Dave Rose noted the threat of going up against five starters that are comfortable and seasoned shooters — including guard Jeremiah Bowman and center Antwan Carter, both averaging double digits in their game points.
“It’s a great group of seniors,” Rose said. “They average 81 points a game, and that’s a team that knows how to play with each other and how to score. It’s one of the better scoring teams that we’ve played … so that will be our challenge.”
One of the ways BYU may combat that challenge is through assigning more permanent seating to the chair of point guard.
BYU’s change in point-guard strategy was seen at Tuesday’s game with a reshaping of subbing patterns. Before the BYU-H game, Rose would have always have Craig Cusick sub in for Brock Zylstra (directly switching out point guards). However, on Tuesday Cusick always subbed in for Rogers and Zylstra stayed on as a wing guard.
Rose addressed the possiblity of a more permanent guard- line shift and Cusick's significant game time against BYU- H.
“What we’re trying to do is find a real comfort level with our guard line,” Rose said. “We all know that when Brock plays that point guard position he’s playing out of position. There’s a lot of things that Brock can do for this team on the wing that he’s not able to do at the point. We’re still feeling our way through that and I was really pleased with how Craig played.”
At Thursday’s practice, Rose spoke a little more about the team’s undesignated point guard.
“I think you’ll see more guys play in that (point guard) position,” Rose said. “Brock’s done a really good job for what we’ve asked him to do, but there’s some other guys we’ve looked at, at practice, so we’ll give them a shot at it too.”
At the end of the day, no matter who carries the ball up top, it must be pushed down low in order to ensure the Cougar's desire of quick-pace ball movement and point progression. If the BYU bigs are able to put up high in the first half, they will stand a much better chance at setting a tempo that can reckon with an 80-points-a-game competitor.
Much will be learned from these two offensively strong teams. According to Longwood University’s athletic site, this will provide a unique experience for both teams.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to play in tournament events like the Chicago Invitational Challenge,” Longwood head coach Mike Gillan said. “The high-profile teams in these events allow us to compete against some of the best programs in college basketball.”
Though it is still somewhat unclear who will be sitting when the whistle blows at 7 p.m., those left standing are in for a heated battled against the Lancer seniors waiting in place.
