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LAS VEGAS — It was revenge night at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas Friday night as the BYU Cougars looked to avengean earlier season loss to the San Diego Toreros, but sometimes revenge can turn around and bite you.
That Feb. 7 defeat began a stretch of four losses in six games for the Cougars essentially eliminating any chance for BYU to get to the NCAA Tournament.
Friday night's loss, well, sent a lot of BYU fans home earlier than they had hoped and the Cougars into the NIT losers of three of their last four games.
Revenge is sweet bitter
#box
The only hope BYU had of going to the NCAA tournament was to make an unlikely run through the WCC Tournament, which would have included a semifinal matchup against St. Mary's and a likely matchup in the final against Gonzaga.
I'm not saying it couldn't have happened, stranger things have happened ... and they did.
San Diego joins the Gaels and Bulldogs as the only conference opponents to beat BYU twice this year.
BYU had their chances, like Matt Carlino's 3-pointer that rimmed out at the buzzer, but destiny did not come to Vegas from Provo.
Davies can be dominant
The master of the multi-pivot is BYU's No. 1 option in the post and there's a good reason. He's the Cougars' only option, but he's also one of the best players on the WCC.
Davies dominated the paint offensively and defensively for the Cougars. He finished the night with 20 points and 9 rebounds. He also led BYU with 8 assists.
But sometimes Davies falls into the Al Jefferson trap of holding onto the ball too long and settling for jumpers.
Davies has an array of effective post moves and can get to the basket seemingly at will, but those darn jumpers.
I mean, what's Davies doing shooting a 3-pointer? (He's only 3-12 on the year). Okay, so this time it was a good shot. He made it.
Haws must be hotAfter shooting, and missing, twice in the first 16:26 of the game, the WCC's top scorer turned it on. BYU scored just 28 points in the first half, partly because Haws scored all of four points in the first half (he also only played 12 minutes). Haws needs to shoot more than four times in a half and in the second half the Cougars worked the ball to Haws and Haws worked to get to the free throw line.
Haws hit five straight shots after his first two misses, and finished the night with 20 points on 7-13 shooting (5-6 from the free throw line).
But what could have been if his first half was more indicative of the Haws we got in the second half.
And, without Davies or Haws who puts points on the board for BYU?
Triple double?
It could/should be sophomore point guard Matt Carlino, who is a triple-double waiting to happen. Even though he's struggled with his shot this year (41 percent from the field, 30 percent from behind the 3-point line), the kid's got a scorer's mentality, he can rebound (7 versus San Diego) and he's BYU's primary distributor (leads BYU with 4.4 assists per game).
But Carlino packs the stat sheet in another column, turnovers. He had another four Friday night.
So as prolific as he can be, Carlino's also a little sporadic.
He's destined to get a triple-double; hopefully his first doesn't include the TO column.
New Edition
It was good to see forward Matt Austin in the starting lineup for only the third time this season.
His last start came Dec. 21 against Baylor. He scored 8 points in 18 minutes, but fouled out.
With his 6-foot 11-inch frame, Austin provides BYU with some size, but maybe more importantly gives the Cougars that lunch pale-type of guy.
You know what I'm talking about; energy, hustle, defense, rebounding, taking charges. Plus, he's the team's biggest cheerleader; always looking for and giving a High Five, picking guys up off the floor, clapping from his rump after taking another dive to the floor.
Yes, he fouled out again with 6 points and 4 rebounds (in 21 minutes), but his contributions don't always show up on the box score. Austin earned Friday night's start.
Christian 8?
Now that the Catholic 7 have officially left what was the Big East (they are taking the conference name with them), maybe they'd be willing to become the Christian 8 and let BYU tag along.
They've apparently already invited several others.
It is reported that the Catholic 7 - DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John's and Villanova - will add Butler, Xavier and likely Creighton, to form a 10-team league.
Some may question going to a bigger, better conference when the Cougars struggle to be the third best team in the WCC, but others blame the conference for BYU's lack of star recruits.
Better conference = better talent = better results. Seems like simple math.
