After home loss to Houston, BYU basketball hits road to open December daze

PROVO — It was one of the games where everyone just wants to move on.

After BYU basketball’s 76-62 home loss to Houston on Saturday afternoon, BYU head coach Dave Rose admitted his guys just needed to get back in the gym and move on.

Houston (4-0) isn’t a bad team; on the contrary, the red Cougars ranked No. 37 in KenPom and rank 22nd in adjusted offensive efficiency. BYU moved up from 69th to 63rd in KenPom after the loss.

So the loss isn’t a bad loss. But it is one the Cougars hoped to move on from — even if BYU’s no-Sunday play policy kept them out of the gym the next day.

Learn from it, and move on.

“It felt a lot like the Nevada game where were in the game, but there was a breaking point,” BYU forward Dalton Nixon said, referring to the Cougars’ other loss of the season, 86-70 to a UNR team that currently ranks No. 5 in the nation. “It was a good learning experience, and we’ve been watching the film so that when we are in another situation like that we can come out on top.”

Now there’s no time like the presence to move forward — and out of the gym. The Cougars (5-2) will play six of their next eight games away from the Marriott Center, beginning with Wednesday night’s 7 p.m. MT tip at Illinois State (ESPN+, KSL Newsradio).

The Redbirds are 5-2 to open the season before Missouri Valley Conference play, and boast one of the more unique post players in the country in 6-foot-6 senior Milik Yarbrough. The 215-pound combo guard from Zion, Illinois averages 16.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game — but the veteran is coming off a 28-point, eight-rebound, six-assist performance in the Redbirds’ 73-70 win over Boise State in the fifth-place game of the Cayman Islands Classic last week.

Rose praised the senior’s versatility.

“He’s a guy who can post up and score against a really strong defensive post guy, and he can bring the ball up and initiate offense,” Rose said of Yarbrough. “He shoots threes well, and he’s got a really versatile game for a guy his size.”

Beehive Boot on the horizon

BYU will travel to Normal, Illinois on Tuesday for the Cougars’ Wednesday night tip, then fly home in time to face Weber State at 7 p.m. MT Saturday night in Ogden.

The Wildcats (3-2) are the second in-state opponent to face the Cougars in 2018. After a home-opening 75-65 win over Utah Valley, the Cougars will also face Utah State at home Dec. 5 before playing rival Utah in the second-annual Beehive Classic at Vivint SmartHome Arena on Dec. 8 on ESPNU.

“A lot of us are local players, and there is nothing better than going to a school that recruited you -- or didn’t recruit us,” said BYU senior McKay Cannon, a Shelley, Idaho native who played 67 games in two seasons at Weber State. “It’s exciting to play in-state games because everyone wants to win.”

Cannon averaged 2.6 points, 1.2 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game for the Wildcats as a sophomore in 2016-17, then transferred to BYU, where he delivered 3.5 points and 1.2 rebounds in 18.5 minutes off the bench after becoming eligible last year.

Saturday’s game will be his first trip to the Dee Events Center in Ogden as a member of the visiting team. The Cougars beat Weber State, 74-68 a year ago in Provo.

“It’ll be a little bit erie, but I’m excited,” Cannon said of returning. “I loved my time there, but BYU has been awesome to me. It’ll be different, to be in a different locker room a different side, but I’m excited.”

In control

BYU’s shooting has taken a knock in the first seven games of the season.

The Cougars’ 45.3 percent field-goal shooting ranks 162nd in the nation, and their 28.8 3-point shooting ranks outside the top-300 teams in the country.

But through seven games, the Cougars are top-10 in turnovers (seventh at 8.9 per game), and assist-to-turnover ratio (third at 1.98:1).

BYU has averaged just 6.8 turnovers per game over the last four contests, a mark that would rank best in the country.

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