BYU

Saturday, January 6th, 2024
10:00 PM (EST)
Marriott Center
ESPN2

The Bearcats (11-2, NET #37, KenPom #40) will make their longest road trip of the season this weekend to take part in their first ever Big 12 conference game at BYU (12-1, NET #2, KenPom #4).

The Cougars are looking to have their most successful season yet under 5th-year head coach Mark Pope, and have proven to be elite in many areas through the first two months of the season.

They lead the country in scoring margin, assists per game, assist/turnover ration, and 3-pointers made/game.

Their leading scorer, 4th-year 6'7 wing Jaxson Robinson, comes off the bench and averages 16 ppg while hitting 41.4% of his 3s at 7.3 attempts/game. He represents the first of several major NBA draft prospects we will face during conference play.

5th-year 6'5 guard Trevin Knell and 5th-year 6'11 forward Noah Waterman both average 12 ppg while shooting 43% from 3 on 5.5 attempts/game each.

The Cougars are also hoping to see the return of 3rd-year 6'6 forward Fousseyni Traore on Saturday (10.2 ppg, 5.5 rpg) who has missed the last 7 games with a hamstring injury.

In BYU's only loss of the season, a 73-69 rivalry game at Utah (KenPom #25), they shot a season-low 36.6% from the field, 23.3% from 3, and 55.6% from the FT line while allowing Utah to make 64.5% of their 2-point shots.

Great preview as always. BYU gets a lot of attention for their offense, and for good reason, but their defense is just as good this year. They are holding opponents under 26% from three, third best in the country. They grab over 80% of opponent misses, second best in the country. And they only allow 25% as many free throws as field goal attempts, 13th in the country. This is an elite defense with really only one weakness: rim protection.

On offense, three point shooting grabs the headlines since nearly half of their shots come from beyond the arc, which they make at a 38% clip. They are even more efficient inside the arc though, making 60% of their twos including an insane 80% at the rim. They are extremely difficult to gameplan against because everyone can score at all three levels.

The keys to the game are just general strategies against any opponent. We should invite them to take midrange shots and then grab the defensive rebound. Giving up second chances could be lethal against this team, but we can't sacrifice perimeter defense to do it. Our defense has been a disaster with two bigs recently, so I'd rather see Skillings and Reed at the 4. On offense, we have to try to take advantage of their one weakness and get to the rim. Again, a smaller lineup will allow us to spread the floor and attack the basket.

On top of the monumental basketball challenge, we also have to deal with altitude and a 2 hour timezone change (something we'll have to get used to in the Big12). Honestly I'll be happy if we can keep this one to single digits. I'll be upset if we start two bigs and get run off the court in the first 20 minutes.

Skillings starting at the 4. Good to see us make an adjustment.

Get. Skillings. Out. Now.

I'm happy with the gameplan on both ends, we've just got to stop throwing the ball away. Many of our turnovers are unnecessary risks that aren't in the process of attacking. Our defense has been pretty good aside from a couple breakdowns, and we're focused on getting to the rim on offense. Cut out the silly turnovers and we're right in it.

Might be time to start switching screens against Knell. I'd rather try our luck risking a guard getting pinned down low than watch Knell keep hitting threes.

What a win. Knell's shooting was the only thing keeping BYU in the game in the second half. When he sat on the bench for about 6 minutes we went on a huge 16-2 run.

We stuck to the defensive gameplan, playing straight man and only helping in the lane. BYU only got to the rim 5 times, attempted 10 free throws, and rebounded less than a quarter of their misses. There were a couple breakdowns and we could have adjusted our scheme against Knell, but in general this was a defensive masterclass. Kudos to Wes and the staff for learning from the last few games and and not running Jamille out there with another big. Vik, Reed and Skillings did a great job defending the perimeter, and Aziz was a huge presence inside. He only had one block but pulled down 10 defensive rebounds in 22 minutes and forced BYU into 13 midrange shots compared to only 5 rim looks (which were mostly on back door cuts). Holding BYU under 0.8 points per possession on the road went way beyond my expectations.

The offensive gameplan was decent. We were clearly trying to get to the rim, as we only settled for 15 threes. We converted 12 of 14 attempts at the rim and got to the free throw line 24 times, which is outstanding. But many drives ended in wild shots resulting in an abysmal 5 of 25 from midrange. And of course we couldn't hang on to the ball, posting an equally abysmal 25% turnover rate. We ended up scoring 0.95 points per possession. As I've been saying in recent weeks, putting up close to 1 point per possession is going to be good enough to win some games against good teams. We can do that consistently if we attack the basket.

Day Day had a really rough game, with zero points from the field, no rim looks, and 7 turnovers. Jizzle was dominant in his limited minutes. I'm not sure why we aren't seeing more of Jizzle at this point. I expected Day Day to get more minutes early on given his experience at a higher level, but Jizzle is starting to show his higher upside.

Overall this was a satisfying and unexpected win that shows we're capable of using our defense and rebounding to beat good teams on the road.

BYU isn't very good. But I'll take the win

More Aziz. More Jizzle.

That was a potentially season-changing victory yesterday. Kudos to Wes and staff for laying out a winning game plan and to the players for staying the course through some rough stretches and persevering in the end.

Going into the BYU game, I saw a 9-9 record in the Big 12 with maybe 5 quality wins (Q1/Q2) being our ceiling.

Now that we've proven we can win on the road in tough environments, there's reason to believe that we can be even more competitive over the course of this conference schedule.