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PROVO — You win some and you lose some, to sum up the BYU Cougars' past week at the Marriott Center. Starting out with a disappointing 67-61 loss to Pepperdine on Thursday night, the Cougars bounced back with an 85-72 win Saturday against Loyola Marymount. For the next two games, BYU heads out on the road to face two very different conference opponents, opening against the Pacific Tigers who have lost their last two games.
After that, the Cougars take on Saint Mary’s, a tough 13-3 team that’s currently enjoying a winning streak. BYU head coach Dave Rose talked about the team’s defeat against Pepperdine, injuries and the game plan for next week during the coach’s radio show Tuesday night.
“Pepperdine came in here and did a really good job against that four-guard offense that we have, and I think that our ability to get to the foul line was probably the demise of that game,” Rose said. “That was a disappointing loss, but once you have once of those losses you have to figure out how you are going to crack that and get back out and win another game.”
Despite the loss to Pepperdine, senior guard Tyler Haws passed Michael Smith for No. 3 on BYU’s all-time scoring list, then turned around and scored another 26 points against LMU on Saturday. Haws now sits at No. 3 in career points with 2,363, behind No. 2 Danny Ainge (2,467) and No. 1 Jimmer Fredette. To top off the night, Haws once again passed Fredette but this time in career free throws, making 7-of-7 from the line to give him 628, just one more over Fredette’s 627.
“This team has been very resilient and very, very good numbers-wise on the road, so we are looking forward to a good week and hopefully we can get started on the right foot on Thursday," Rose said.
BYU has been putting up big numbers in its recent play, but a question from the audience didn’t let Rose forget about the injuries currently plaguing his team. Senior forward Nate Austin is currently out from a torn hamstring, as well as guard Anson Winder experiencing some pain in his right knee after an LMU player fell on him in the first half of the game.
But the show’s guest, Kyle Collinsworth, seems to be almost fully recovered from the knee injury he suffered in last season’s conference championship game against Gonzaga.
“There are still some hiccups with my knee here and there, nothing serious but I feel like there’s a lot of upside with my knee so I’m excited,” Collinsworth said. “It’s the process. I think once we get over a year, I think we can be as good as new and move on for sure.”
As BYU gears up to go on the road, especially after the previous week’s home split, the Cougars are hoping to get into a mindset that will allow them to get crucial conference wins while away from home.
“I feel like we get more of an edge to us … people are against us when we are on the road, and when they are against us we get that edge and sense of urgency, so I think that’s been huge for us on the road,” Collinsworth said.
As far as Rose is concerned, the key to BYU getting an edge seems to be in getting Collinsworth to post up and getting points around the basket.
“We need to expand these parts of it until we really feel comfortable so that whatever happens, when Nate comes back or some of our other guys develop a little bit more, we have that confidence,” said Rose. “We just need to spread our game and open it up a little bit more, and I think we can do that with quite a few of our guards down there in the post.”
