Originally, BYU was scheduled to open the West Coast Conference season at Pepperdine but that game was postponed. In an intriguing scheduling twist, the Cougars and Waves will meet again next Wednesday afternoon in Malibu to make up for the postponed contest
Riding a three-game win streak, including last Thursday’s 95-67 pounding of Portland at the Marriott Center, BYU is on a roll.
The Cougars moved up five more spots Friday to No. 29 in the NCAA’s NET rankings and are a No. 9 seed in ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s latest NCAA Tournament projections.
In order to keep building momentum, and its tournament resume, BYU can’t afford losses in games against opponents not named No. 1 Gonzaga.
And coach Mark Pope knows the next opponent, Pepperdine, is a serious threat and poses plenty of challenges. BYU hosts the Waves Saturday (8 p.m. MST, ESPN2).
“Coming into the season, I think everybody thought they were going to compete to be in the top three in this league, for sure. I don’t know if they’re the second-most talented or third-most talented team in this league,” Pope said. “They’re a problem. Defensively, they’re really talented on the wings.
“They can really guard you. … They’re a big-time team. I don’t know where they are in the NET, I think they’re 200. That’s crazy. They’re a top-100 team, no doubt about it. … We have every expectation that they’ll be near the top of this league.”
Originally, BYU (12-3, 3-1) was scheduled to open the West Coast Conference season at Pepperdine (6-6, 2-1) on Dec. 31 but that game was postponed.
In an intriguing scheduling twist, the Cougars and Waves will meet again Wednesday afternoon in Malibu to make up for the postponed contest.
“Pepperdine’s a great team and we’re going to have to play them back-to-back this upcoming week, starting Saturday,” said guard Alex Barcello.
Thursday, Pepperdine defeated Pacific at home, 85-68. Forward Kessler Edwards poured in a career-high 37 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. Guard Colbey Ross chipped in seven points and 11 assists.
“Colbey Ross is a pro and Kessler Edwards might be a big-time pro,” Pope said. “They really shoot the ball, one through five.”
The Cougars already prepared to play Pepperdine a few weeks ago. They were on a charter flight headed to Southern California when the game was postponed due to COVID-19 issues. The pilot had to turn the plane around and return to Provo.
Pope said the Waves are a different team, and a better team, since then after going on pause due to COVID-19 concerns.
Besides Edwards (who averages 18.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game) and Ross (who averages 15.9 points, 7.8 assists and 1.3 steals), Pepperdine has other dangerous weapons like forward Kene Chukwuku, guard Jade Smith and forward Jan Zidek.
But the Cougars are confident they’ll be ready for the challenge.
“Our coaches do a great job getting us prepared. … The guys do a great job of listening and executing on the court,” Barcello said. “The toughness and effort that we bring every day, I’m really proud of. It’s going to be a battle. We have to play them back-to-back, which doesn’t really happen, if at all. I’m excited and I know the guys are, too. Let’s get it.”
This season, and particularly during WCC play, the Cougars have proven to be a strong second-half team.
BYU has gotten off to slow starts in each of its four games against WCC opponents. But the Cougars have outscored their opponents in the second half against Gonzaga (40-34), Saint Mary’s (37-23), San Francisco (46-36) and Portland (58-36).
“We’re not a young team but it has taken us a minute, at least recently, to kind of get a feel and a flow for a game,” Pope said. “It actually hasn’t been the first couple of minutes. The first couple of minutes we were really good at San Francisco. Somewhere in the first half we’ve stalled a little bit and we’ve given up some buckets we didn’t want to give up. Our guys have done a nice job making adjustments.”
“We’re always focused on our approach coming into every game. We’re going to be the first to give a punch,” Barcello said. “How are we going to respond when things aren’t going our way in the first half or second half or whenever that may be? It’s just happened the last three games and a couple of games earlier in nonconference we had to respond in the second half.
“We didn’t have too great of a first half. But that shows how tough we are. It shows that we can battle through adversity. I’m really proud of these guys because it’s a hard thing to do. The guys are really coming together and we’re making it happen right now.”
Against Portland, Matt Haarms scored 23 points, a BYU career-high, and hit all nine of his field goal attempts and all four of his free throws.
Haarms scored 17 of those points, and hit seven of those shots, in the second half. He said this team is accustomed to dealing with adversity in the first half.
“It’s one of our little tag-lines of this team — we turn frustration into fight. That’s something we always hear from the coaches, it’s something coach Pope especially really preaches in these kind of frustrating games,” Haarms said. “There are teams that give into the frustration sometimes and then you get into positions where you don’t want to be.
“What we do with frustration is, we’re like, ‘We frustrated. That’s exciting because it means we can improve and that means we can work harder and play harder.’ We sit there at halftime in the locker room and that’s all we’re talking about.”
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/3pbis9n
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