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PROVO — BYU began Saturday night as the worst team in the West Coast Conference in scoring defense.
While it was certainly an alarming trend, and likely to blame for back-to-back losses to begin league play, a team whose key focus is getting out in transition won’t usually win games with suffocating pressure and speedy rotations.
But the Cougars don’t want that to be their identity. A week of practice leading up to their first home game in nearly a month concentrated on bolstering their ability to get stops.
“Tonight we focused on defense and let our offense just come,” sophomore point guard Kyle Collinsworth said after BYU’s 87-53 victory Saturday night.
BYU opened the game in a man-to-man set and stuck with it throughout the majority of the game.
“I think that’s a good sign if we play a lot of man, because that means it’s working,” Collinsworth added. “That means we don’t have to change into zone.”
After being burned from deep by the likes of Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine, the Cougars made the necessary adjustments to stifle the visiting Toreros, who made just 2-of-17 3-pointers.
“This team has kind of identified themselves with their offense, and tonight it was totally different,” BYU head coach Dave Rose said. “We were a defensive team playing with urgency on every defensive possession, and we need to bottle that and make that become a huge part of the identity of this group.”
This team has kind of identified themselves with their offense, and tonight it was totally different. We were a defensive team playing with urgency on every defensive possession, and we need to bottle that and make that become a huge part of the identity of this group.
–Dave Rose
Junior Skyler Halford played a huge role in initiating the shift in the Cougars’ brand of basketball.
Drawing the assignment for most of the night on San Diego’s Johnny Dee, the second best scorer in the WCC at 18.9 points per game coming into the game, Halford chased the preseason all-WCC performer all over the floor, using his quickness to get through screens and limit Dee’s opportunities to find space.
“We had a great game plan put together by the coaches, and the big guys were doing a great job helping with him on shows and hedging — me trying to chase him down,” Halford said. “It was a big team effort in containing him.”
What was even more impressive about Halford’s stingy defense was the amount of energy he was expending on the opposite end of the floor to score a career-best — including his gaudy performances at Salt Lake Community College — 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting (4-for-8 from 3) to go with three assists and two rebounds.
It was believed that BYU simply lacked the perimeter defender to shut down talented scoring guards, but Halford might be the player the Cougars can rely on to successfully continue their transformation.
“I thought our perimeter defense as a group was really good,” Rose said. “The difference might be the emphasis that we made during the week; the fact that last week I think they were 21-for-41 from 3 against us in the two games. A lot of it could be urgency, but the guys were really dialed in to our game plan and how we wanted to guard each perimeter shooter.”
Rose said his team practiced how to guard each San Diego wing coming off of hand-offs, ball screens, stagger screens and other movements the Toreros implement to create gaps.
However, he added that he doesn’t think his team is quite ready to win games by playing man-to-man for 40 minutes.
“We’ve got some newer players that still are trying to execute the game plan at the speed the game’s being played and recognize what’s happening,” he said. “I think they can all recognize it when we watch the film. They can all recognize it when we’re working on a specific thing in practice, but recognition in the speed of the game, we have a lot of improvement to do.”
Freshman Eric Mika committed only one foul in 17 minutes, before leaving with a reported hip contusion, and emphatically sent some of the visitors’ shot attempts near the cylinder into the stands. He was only credited for one block, due to fouls being charged to his teammates on a few of his denials, but his presence in the paint clearly affected the Toreros’ attack.
Rose conceded that some of the open looks the Toreros created were simply fortunate misses, but the improvement — Pepperdine shot 54.2 percent from 3 compared to San Diego’s 11.8 percent — clearly points to a shift in team priorities.
Offensively, Collinsworth said he feels “pretty comfortable” now at point guard, and he helped facilitate a number of uncontested jumpers and lay-ups.
“It just took a few games, and tonight my focus was getting guys shots,” Collinsworth said. “I’m not worried about scoring; I just want to get guys shots. Get Ty and Skyler involved from the start and Eric too.”
BYU will try to use its evolving defensive approach to avenge its loss to Pepperdine when the Waves visit Provo Jan. 9. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. MST. Kyle Spencer is a writer and content manager for ksl.com. You can follow him on twitter @kyledspencer.
