For BYU, March Madness in Milwaukee

(Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo)


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BYU opens NCAA tournament play versus Oregon on Thursday at Milwaukee's Bradley Center as a West Region 10 seed that some national observers said doesn't even belong in the tourney's field of 68.

BYU head coach Dave Rose on Wednesday responded to those doubters, when asked what he might say to them.

"I'd just tell them that if you would spend five months with our team," said Rose, "you would have a whole different understanding, reasoning, interpretation or feeling about our team because these guys deserve to be here."

"We don't pay attention a lot to what people say about us," guard Tyler Haws said at the team's day-before-the-game press conference, "but we're pretty confident we should be in the tournament and we've got to go prove ourselves."

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Some of the national skepticism regarding BYU's tournament chances centers on the fact that starting point guard Kyle Collinsworth is lost for the remainder of the season after undergoing knee surgery on Tuesday. The Cougars' 35th game will be their first game without Collinsworth in the lineup.

Compensating for Collinsworth's per-game averages of 14.0 points, 8.1 rebounds and 4.6 assists will not be easy, but it will be a collaborative effort.

"You can't replace a guy like Kyle," noted Haws. "He does so much for our team, but I think our guys are ready to step up and excited for the challenge."

"I think in practice, coaches have been stressing for us to be more aggressive and just to make plays when we have the opportunity," guard Anson Winder said on Wednesday. "We're losing so much without having Kyle that we'll have to make up for rebounds, assists, and points."

"It just means that everyone has to be more aggressive and step up to the challenge...we'll have opportunities to step up."

Rose acknowledged that losing Collinsworth in BYU's WCC title-game loss to Gonzaga was a serious shock to his team's system; he said "the first day of practice when Kyle wasn't there, it was an emotional wreck with our guys."

"The feel in the gym was basically everybody feeling sorry for Kyle or maybe feeling sorry for themselves," Rose recalled. "But the fact that we've been able to have three or four practices and then the shot of adrenaline on (Selection) Sunday and having a Second Round game...the guys have been enthusiastic. I think we felt way more like ourselves.

"For the most part, I think hopefully physically and emotionally in our practice, we have moved on from the loss of Kyle and hopefully we'll play well."

Oregon head coach Dana Altman cautioned that while the Cougars may be short-handed, they aren't without talented reserves.

"It's kind of been our experience when someone goes down that first game, the team really gets together, somebody steps up and has a big game," said Altman. "You've got to be real fearful of (a team that) loses a player, especially Collinsworth, who does a lot of things.

"They've got a lot of guys sitting there waiting for an opportunity and will jump in there and try to help the team, try to show that they can do it, and they've got people there that are very talented. I'm sure there are a lot of guys sitting over there anxious to get an opportunity, and it's the NCAA Tournament. They'll be anxious to get in there and show everybody what they can do."

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Of Rose's seven NCAA tournament teams, the 2013-14 version is arguably the squad that had to deal with the most in-season adversity.

A non-conference schedule that ranked among the nation's toughest included some difficult setbacks, and a mid-season four-game losing streak was a first for the Rose era; in fact, Rose's teams had never before lost as many as three games in a row before the Cougars' December slide (consecutive losses at Utah, Oregon, LMU and Pepperdine).

Multiple starting-lineup changes and now the Collinsworth injury have all contributed to the most up-and-down campaign of Rose's tenure, but here the Cougars are, again back in the Big Dance.

"I think that as far as challenges during the year, we've had quite a few," said Rose. "The thing that this group is probably most proud of is the fact we've overcome quite a few challenges to get here to the NCAA Tournament, and now hopefully we can overcome another hurdle, which is the loss of Kyle Collinsworth.

"But what we've always said going through the season and the issues you have to deal with is that it's an opportunity for other players to step up. We have good players and we're fortunate that we'll start a guy in (the point guard) position who started over 70 games for us, in Matt Carlino. We're bringing experience into that position, and hopefully we can have some guys on the bench that will really step up their play here in the tournament."

Carlino, in particular, will be asked to shoulder more of the already considerable load he has carried as the secondary point guard and primary ball-handler when playing alongside Collinsworth.

The junior floor general is averaging 13.7 points in 27.1 minutes per game, while shooting 39 percent from the field, 34 percent from the three-point arc and 68 percent from the free-throw line. His 4.3 assist-per-game average is second to Collinsworth.

"Personally, I think Matt has had his best season since he's been here," Rose observed. "When you come off the bench as a sixth man, it seems from a public opinion or from a media opinion that maybe his season has been tarnished, but in reality I think his play has been so consistent and so steady for our team that he's been a huge factor in our success.

"We need Matt to play well for our team to be successful, and that will probably step up a little more because he'll get probably get a few more minutes."

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BYU and Oregon will play in the second game of Thursday's early session, with tipoff scheduled for approximately 1:10 p.m. MDT. You can hear the game on KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM/1160 AM starting, with pregame coverage starting at noon.

You can hear Wednesday's press conference interview sessions with BYU and Oregon players and coaches in "Cougar Cuts," above left.

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