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Two days after his team's last-second stomach punch setback to St. Mary's, BYU head basketball coach Dave Rose met with media at the Marriott Center, reflecting on the loss and previewing Saturday's showdown with WCC-leading San Diego.
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"Guys are disappointed," said Rose on Friday, "but they should be. They played hard, they played well, and we actually played well enough to win. Then you don't win, and you've got a lot invested in this, so you want them to have it sting. But by the end of (Thursday's) practice, they were excited, looking forward to the next game and moving on."
Rose said "you look for silver linings in this, and one of them is the fact that it wasn't on a bye week; we get to play on Saturday. That's how you kind of move forward, is you get a chance to get back out there and play."
At the same time, Rose is grateful that playing on a Wednesday gave his team an extra day to digest the mid-week loss before having to get ready for a weekend game.
"When we go Thursday-Saturday, we don't have time to go back and review the film…and we had a chance to go back and look at (the St. Mary's game); we had a chance to talk about it, we had a chance to address the things in the guts of the game that we can do better. But we also had a chance to talk about the things we did really well, and the thing we did really well in that game is we competed. We found ways to keep ourselves in the game when we weren't playing our very best and we found ways to get other guys in the game when some of our main line guys weren't playing their very best. We had Brandon (Davies) foul out, and we still got a chance late in the game to execute a play, score the ball and have a chance to win it."
Rose said "as disappointing as the last game was...you try to get that behind you as quick as possible and realize that the only way that you can kind of fix that is to win the next one. When we left the gym yesterday it looked like the guys were in pretty good spirits and hopefully we're good today and we'll play good tomorrow night."
Talking about the game-ending sequence that saw Tyler Haws' would-be game-winner answered by Matthew Dellavedova's running 30-footer, Rose said that "in a game like that, where there are so many plays that could make a difference, you naturally go to the last play."
"In reality," said Rose, "there are some times in sport… and it's what makes sports great--is that it's no one's fault; it's just 'someone made a play,' and that's how hopefully we can get all of our coaches to look at it and (hopefully) guys don't beat themselves up and understand that we executed and we made enough plays and good enough plays to win the game, and then they made one more. It wasn't an easy shot; it's not like we gave them a lay-up at the rim."
Asked if Wednesday's loss was the hardest he has ever had to take, Rose said "oh, no, no, no, no…they're all hard, but the losses when you don't get to play again--those are the worst. And we get to play again on Saturday, so let's go."
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Saturday's game pits Rose's 14-5, 4-1 Cougars against the 11-8, 4-0 Toreros of USD, who are currently tied with Gonzaga for the conference lead. Rose says San Diego head coach Bill Grier has "got them playing the very best they've played all year long, and it's a unique challenge when you face a team that's on a nice little roll."
"They've won five games in a row," Rose said, "and haven't been beaten in league--they've won their last two league road games--so it's a team with a lot of confidence. Very good, detailed defensive team, and offensively, he's always got four guys on the floor who can really score."
The Toreros are led by shooting guard Johnny Dee and his 15 points per game. Three other players average between nine and 10 points per game. The Toreros are second to BYU in three-point shooting during conference games, while USD leads the WCC in conference-play scoring defense, at 59 points per game.
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Rose was asked about Carlino's recent back spasms, and said his sophomore point guard "is still treating it; had treatment yesterday, treatment again today, and he says it's feeling better. I was actually pleased with how he played (against St. Mary's); I thought he took a couple of really tough falls and got right back up, so, hopefully he's on the mend."
Also on the mend is senior center Brandon Davies, who since his ankle sprain in late December has seen his offensive productivity take a substantial dip. On the recent slide, Rose said "I think he's getting a lot of attention from the opposing team. I think physically he feels good, and I look for Brandon to break out here pretty quick, and the sooner the better for us."
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Saturday's BYU-USD game tips at 7:00 p.m. MT, with pregame coverage starting one hour prior on KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM/1160 AM—following Cougar Sports Saturday, which starts at noon.
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Photo Courtesy: BYU Photo
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