3s, tempo, and J-Rob: 5 takeaways from BYU's exhibition win over Life Pacific

PROVO — BYU basketball returned to the Marriott Center for its first (and last) preaseason exhibition Wednesday night.

Jaxson Robinson poured in 20 points, including 6-of-9 shooting from 3-point range, and Spencer Johnson added 18 points and five assists as BYU pulled away for an 83-55 win over Life Pacific.

Fousseyni Traore added 12 points and seven rebounds for BYU, which shot 48.5% from the field and 33.3% from 3-point range while outrebounding the NAIA team 45-28.

Freshman Malakhi Jensen had 15 points, and Idaho State transfer Austin Cook added 14 points to lead the Warriors.

But Robinson clearly has taken the next step in his progression.

"It's just hard work. I couldn't thank anybody but my teammates," Robinson told BYUtv. "They're the guys that push me every day, that help me to succeed. They make me a better person."

Here are five takeaways before the regular season opens Monday against Houston Christian.

Is 3-Y-U back?

After shooting 46.1% from 3-point range a year ago, Johnson similarly couldn't miss Wednesday night against the NAIA opponents. The Cougars shot 38% from deep in the first half, and 50% overall, en route to a 43-29 lead.

Exhibition games against lower-division teams are rarely about the result, but how you get it. And for more than 20 minutes, BYU was getting it done from the 3-point line.

The Cougars cooled off a bit in the second half, connecting on just three of their first 13 triples and finished 5-of-17 after the break. But the way to Big 12 contention — or even a handful of wins — for this club will be to stretch teams with their shooting.

"I learned that Jax needs to shoot a lot of threes," Johnson said, "that Fouss needs to get a lot of catches in the post, and that we need to play in transition offense a lot."

Jax attack

Robinson went to work in the offseason.

The 6-foot-7 native of Ada, Oklahoma, averaged 8.5 points and 2.9 rebounds per game last year, shooting 38.6% from the field and 34.3% from three. But the former Arkansas transfer with a 7-foot wingspan seems to want a bigger role in leading the Cougars into the Big 12.

Robinson shot 7-of-12 from the field, including his six 3-pointers, three rebounds and three assists in Wednesday night's win. The junior canned back-to-back triples to spark an offense that fell flat in the second half, not scoring until Johnson's bucket nearly five minutes after the halftime break. He finished with more than half of the Cougars' 11 triples (Johnson and Trevin Knell had two each).

"I thought he shot it really well today," BYU coach Mark Pope said. "He's got really, really extended range, especially when he gets in a rhythm, he can make shots. But he's got so much more to his game; he's still trying to get back from nursing an injury. … But he's going to have to be really good for us this year. We need him."

Dallin Hall, Dawson Baker on ice

The Cougars sent out a starting lineup of Trey Stewart, Johnson, Knell, Noah Waterman and Traore — a big move as point guard Dallin Hall and UC Irvine transfer Dawson Baker sat on the bench in street clothes.

Baker — the 6-foot-4 returned missionary from Coto De Caza, California, who averaged 15.3 points and 3.2 rebounds in 27.2 minutes last year for the Anteaters — will be back tomorrow, if you ask him.

Ask his doctors, though? Not so fast, quipped Pope, who is taking a similar day-to-day attitude with Hall.

"We just don't know yet," he said. "I think Dallin is probably a little bit closer than Dawson."

Tempo, tempo, tempo

At the risk of taking too much from a preseason exhibition, the Cougars played at a frenetic pace — taking 68 shots, 33 of them from deep, and forced 15 turnovers with 11 steals.

Playing without an established point guard like Hall makes that more of a necessity, and living in transition may be a reality until the sophomore from Fremont High returns to full speed.

Can BYU keep it up?

"It's been a big focus for us," Johnson said. "Obviously, you go through growing pains and ups and downs, but it can be a really big, effective weapon for us if we stay with it, if we believe in each other, and we keep pushing it."

Home-court advantage

BYU's first year in the Big 12 will take the team to such historic college basketball venues as Phog Allen Fieldhouse at Kansas, Hilton Coliseum at Iowa State and the Lloyd Noble Center at Oklahoma. But there may be no place like home for the Cougars, who drew an announced crowd of 13,733 fans for Wednesday night's exhibition.

And they won't take it for granted.

"We're really blessed," Pope said. "Everywhere else, attendance is going down and people are struggling, but here it keeps going up and up. The heart of it is our students; they bless us.

"You walk in here and the student section is almost to the rafters — in this game. We're really blessed. Cougar Nation is real, and the one thing I know about this team is we are going to fight, the floor is going to be bloody, and Cougar Nation is going to walk out of here being proud of this team."

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