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PROVO -- It was a game that Elvis could have belted out a serious rendition of the song he made famous for the heartbreak BYU would feel after an 86-83 loss at home to the No. 6 Baylor Bears (9-0) on Saturday at the Marriott Center. The King said it was down at the end of lonely street this place called Heartbreak Hotel and although BYU visited there temporarily, there is no doubt they won't be staying at this place for any sort of extended stay anytime soon.
Give the Bears full credit! There were plenty of opportunities for them to have caved and given into the Marriott noise and mayhem and yet they didn't. Perry Jones III was a monster for Baylor scoring a career high 28 points, including a critical put back bucket with 21 seconds left in the game that helped Baylor get the 86-83 victory. Baylor coach Scott Drew was very complimentary of BYU after the game and knew the "atmosphere" at the Marriott Center would be a serious challenge; ESPN's Andy Katz goes in depth on the game with more from Scott Drew:
"There are positives in the loss for BYU. Three that stand out are; Matt Carlino, 44 rebounds and 41 points in the paint. Carlino was shaky in the first half, but once he got in his comfort zone he showed signs of being a force for BYU for this season and likely 3 more years to come.
"He clearly established himself as "the guy" at the point for BYU. What Anson Winder and Craig Cusick have done has been admirable work for the Cougars so far this season, but after Saturday it is Carlino's job to lose. The rebounding and points in the paint were two positives BYU should put in their pockets for future reference. Baylor is a big team so for BYU to put up those numbers against them shows they can be aggressive and will need to play that way to have success against the Gonzaga's and St. Mary's in WCC play."
Nothing changes this week in the best of State poll Best Division 1 teams in the State of Utah:
1. BYU
2. Weber State
3. Utah State
4. UVU
5. Southern Utah
6. Utah
Around the West Coast Conference
• Gonzaga bounced back very nicely after losing two straight to Michigan State and Illinois. The Zags beat Arizona Saturday with relative ease. Gonzaga led by 18 at the half and cruised to the 71-60 win. Elias Harris had 25 points and eight rebounds in the win which earned him WCC Player of the Week. Gonzaga is 9th in CBS Sportslines, "(15) Non-BCS Power Pyramid list", up one spot from last week.
• Santa Clara, (7-3), beat Pacific 78-76 in OT on the weekend; Kevin Foster with 26 points in the win. As I said earlier this year remember that name when Santa Clara plays BYU. A decent bounce back after getting hammered by Washington State 93-55 December 11th.
• USF (9-3), winners of four straight. The Dons still haven't beaten anybody significant; with their best win against San Jose State (3-7), in OT... mark January 7th and 9th on the calendar to see what the Dons really have when they visit Provo to play BYU and Moraga to play St Mary's.
Name and Games to watch in the WCC
• Rob Jones the St. Mary's rebounding machine had his first sub-10 rebound game this weekend. He had six against Bethune-Cookman.
• Johnny Dee, a freshman guard for the San Diego Toreros is not shy. In 11 games for San Diego he has no less than four 3-pointers. Big whoop, right? Well he has also shot seven three times, nine once and recently had 13 attempts from three land against Maine.
• Games to watch this week: Tuesday, Butler @ Gonzaga. Yes, the Butler Bulldogs are down this year, but should still be a solid test for the other Bulldogs from Gonzaga. Thursday, UCSB @ BYU. A game the Cougars should win, but the Gauchos gave both UNLV (11-2) and SDSU (9-2) fits after taking the Rebels to double OT and the Aztecs to OT. The marquee game of the week comes the same night when St. Mary's sees what they can do against No. 6 Baylor when the teams meet in Las Vegas at the Continental Tire Classic to be played in the Orleans Arena.
National Noise
• The suspensions to Xavier starting guards Tu Holloway (17.6 ppg) and Mark Lyons (17.4 ppg) played a big role in the No. 8 Musketeers getting waxed by Oral Roberts over the weekend. It wasn't even close. The Golden Eagles came to town and easily won 64-42. Wingman Dez Wells (9.5 ppg) also missed the game for Xavier.
• No. 6 Baylor plays St. Mary's as mentioned above on Thursday and comes right back to Vegas to play West Virginia on Friday at the tournament. W.V. forward Kevin Jones is a horse and will likely match up with Perry Jones III. I like PJ3 to win this battle of the Jones' and Baylor to beat West Virginia.
• Other games to watch; Texas (9-2) at No. 5 UNC (9-2) on Wednesday and No. 9 Missouri (11-0) vs. No. 25 Illinois (10-1) on Thursday.
• Great read here from Yahoo's David Fox with a more complete breakdown of Jones vs. Jones, the W.V. and Baylor game, along with a bit about St. Mary's and their four games in five days.
Email: rfairbairn@ksl.com
