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PROVO — There’s a buzz in the air in Provo this week, and it’s not just the blissful optimism that accompanies National Signing Day across the nation.
BYU men’s basketball will host the top-ranked team in the nation for the first time in Marriott Center history, and a palpable energy hovers over Utah Valley as students have camped out for the advanced sellout, hoping to get a peek at something that doesn’t come often to the Wasatch Front.
“People want to be able to see something that is not normal,” BYU coach Dave Rose said. “We’ve played basketball in the Marriott Center for almost 50 years, and we haven’t had the No. 1 team in the country come here yet. It’s a unique opportunity, and hopefully our guys take advantage of it.”
The buzz has extended to the Cougars’ roster.
“Everyone has been going at each other. Everyone’s definitely excited,” wing Elijah Bryant said. “We have to cherish this moment, because it’s a moment we will remember for the rest of our lives.”
And while No. 1 Gonzaga is rightfully favored to add to its 22-game win streak with a win over the Cougars at 9 p.m. MT Thursday on ESPN2, Rose has seen a noticeable surge of energy this week — even with starter Nick Emery suffering from an undiagnosed illness.
“You can visually see from the guys the last couple of games that there is an excitement of opportunity,” Rose said after practice Wednesday. “Any time you play a team in the top 25, and especially in the top 10, it brings a national relevance to the game. I think our guys are excited about that.”
Doing so won’t be easy. Gonzaga (22-0, 10-0) averages more than 85 points per game and boasts two of the top players in the country in post Przemek Karnowski and point guard Nigel Williams-Goss.
And while the most consistent thing about BYU (16-7, 7-3 WCC) has been its flashes of inconsistency by the young team, the Cougars have beaten a ranked Gonzaga team at least once each of the past two seasons.
The Cougars last beat Gonzaga on the road in the Kennel, but there’s little doubt the Marriott Center represents one of the more difficult venues in the West Coast Conference.
Playing at home in a setting where most of the country thinks they will lose is a chance the Cougars will have to take — possibly the last chance at a statement win until the WCC Tournament next month.
“Coach has made a point for us to recognize what a great opportunity this is for us as a team to really prove to everyone how good we are, and show everyone what we believe we are as a team,” center Eric Mika said. “I’m excited to do that and try to come out and do what we’ve been doing in practice: go hard on every play.”
The Cougars have never hosted the No. 1 team in the nation in the history of the Marriott Center. But they have played the country's top-ranked squad four times. 1951: Kentucky 1971: UCLA 1992: Duke 2007: North Carolina
Emery missed Wednesday’s practice with an undiagnosed illness, and his status for Thursday’s game remains in doubt. That makes Mika undoubtedly the Cougars’ leader as their top scoring-rebounding combo player, while the Zags are likewise led by center Karnowski. The last time the duo matched up one on one in a regular-season game, Mika had 15 points and eight rebounds off the bench and Karnowski had just eight points in 19 minutes in the Cougars’ 73-65 upset Feb. 20, 2014.
Even then, Karnowski left an impression on the then-freshman Mika.
“He’s really big,” Mika said. “He looks big, and everyone says he’s big. But you don’t know how big he is until you try to keep him out of the lane. He’s big, he’s strong, he’s physical and that’s his game: to have action on the weak side, and to seal you in. When he does it, he does a heck of a job.”
An upset would be unlikely, but plenty of top-ranked teams have fallen this basketball season.
Will the Cougars pull off another one? We’ll find out late Thursday.
But it never hurts to try.
“We just have to compete,” Bryant said. “I think that’s the biggest thing coaches want us to do: compete in every aspect of the game."
Top-ranked Zags
