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PROVO — It's been 10 days since BYU basketball wrapped up the regular season with a 65-51 win over Saint Mary's on senior night in Provo, the second consecutive senior night that ended victorious under second-year coach Mark Pope — though the Cougars' win over the Gaels wasn't nearly as celebrated as a court-storming victory over Gonzaga a year ago.
That's 10 days without a game, 10 days without an opponent, and — until the 11th hour Saturday night — 10 days without even the knowledge of an opponent. As many as three teams could have been in line for BYU (19-5) when they open the West Coast Conference as the No. 2 seed in Las Vegas on Monday night (10 p.m. MT, ESPN2).
Under normal circumstances — say, a year without a pandemic, like last year's WCC Tournament, which was one of a handful of college basketball tournaments that finished before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the sport for months — such a layoff can be difficult to master. Take, for example, BYU's loss to Saint Mary's in last year's WCC Tournament semifinals, when the Gaels rallied by the Cougars in what turned out to be an unceremonious end to the careers of Yoeli Childs, Jake Toolson, TJ Haws, Dalton Nixon and the rest of BYU's seniors.
This year, however, a 10-day layoff is surprisingly normal. In a year where every team has been touched by the virus, even teams that weren't shut down during the regular season — like BYU — saw their schedules rearranged on the fly as they navigated program pauses and COVID cancellations.
The Cougars had a 10-day layoff after a 82-71 loss to No. 1 Gonzaga on Feb. 8 — their last loss of the season, and there's a reason for that, Pope says. They got better. They took some time to focus on themselves, and it showed from the moment they tipped off again Feb. 18 at Pacific.
It's a similar window to what they've faced over the past week, not leaving Provo until Sunday evening and spending as little time exposed to the outside world as possible.
"We had 10 days or so right after the Gonzaga game, so we have a working template that is really successful for us. We got way better," Pope said. "We were really chasing games, and at the end of the day, I'm grateful one didn't work out for us. We got so much better. It gave us this unique window to work on ourselves. The improvement the team made was remarkable.
"The trick is, can we reproduce it? I think we've been pretty solid, and the guys had a chance to get some rest. I do think the craziness of the season so that the postseason seems a little more normal. There's nothing brand-new for us. The Gonzaga game was rescheduled for a Monday night, and while the outcome stunk, we've been through it before … so now there should be nothing that catches us by surprise."
Nothing has been comfortable about the 2020-21 season. But a 10-day layoff is, in many ways, surprisingly comfortable — or at least, normal — for the Cougars.
"We've had these breaks, so we're used to it. We know what to do with this time," BYU center Matt Haarms said. "We've had a few breaks, and we know what we need to be working on. We're fully focusing on us; we're not going to focus on a game that is two weeks away, but what we need to work on.
"We've been really productively making use of our time. We all know that we've gotten better during those previous breaks, so we're just using this week to get better."
The Cougars practiced for all three teams they could've faced Monday — Pepperdine, Santa Clara and Portland — before the Waves' 78-70 win over the Broncos in Saturday's quarterfinals set up a matchup of a rare team that split the regular-season series with BYU.
Pepperdine coach Lorenzo Romar doesn't expect the same team Monday night, though.
"They have been an absolute buzzsaw since the last time we played them," Romar said the Cougars, who have won six of seven games since the 76-73 loss in Malibu. "We already knew they were really good, but they've turned it up.
"They've made some lineup adjustments, they've got kids playing really well. Lohner is one of the best players in the country, and Haarms just dominates the game with his presence. They have a lot of good pieces, they're well coached, they play with a purpose. We're going to have to play really good basketball in order to come out on top in this game."
Defending the Cougars starts on the perimeter, Romar said, and being able to guard a litany of shooters — led, of course, by a guy he knows well. Romar briefly coached BYU's Alex Barcello when he spent time as an associate head coach at Arizona, before the 15.7-point, 4.6-assist man transferred to BYU and the former Washignton head coach replaced Marty Wilson on the shores of Malibu.
"He's always had this ability and been capable of playing the way he has played," Romar said. "But now he's playing with a lot of confidence, and everyone is able to see what his potential is."
The Cougars have tough task, as well. They have to face mismatch nightmare Kessler Edwards, who had 21 points and 11 rebounds Saturday, and Colbey Ross.
Ross had 25 points in Saturday night's quarterfinal to set a new career scoring mark in WCC Tournament history — passing the late great Hank Gathers of LMU.
Ross finished the night with 196 points in nine conference tournament games to edge Gathers, who died on the court in Loyola Marymount's 1990 appearance in the tournament and finished with 186 points in seven games.
But Ross and the Waves have higher goals.
"We didn't come here to just win one game," he said. "That's not our goal. We know how good BYU is; we know how good every team in the WCC is. We're going to come prepared, figure some things out in practice, and be ready to go."
WCC TOURNAMENT
Semifinals: Monday, March 8
WBB: Gonzaga vs. Santa Clara, 12 p.m. MT (BYUtv)
WBB: BYU vs. San Francisco, 3 p.m. MT (BYUtv)
MBB: Gonzaga vs. Saint Mary's, 7 p.m. MT (ESPN)
MBB: BYU vs. Pepperdine, 10 p.m. MT (ESPN2)
Championship: Tuesday, March 9
2 p.m. MT: Women's Championship (ESPNU)
7 p.m. MT: Men's Championship (ESPN)
