Saint Mary's, BYU square off in early WCC test (Jan 05, 2017)
Neither Saint Mary's coach Randy Bennett nor Brigham Young coach David Rose is completely satisfied with the state of his team, and both hope their teams find their comfort zone this week.
They know mediocre play won't do the trick when the No. 19 Gaels host the Cougars in a pivotal West Coast Conference game on Thursday in Moraga, Calif.
"I don't think we're anywhere near a finished product," Bennett said after a 72-60 home victory over San Diego on Saturday.
Even though Saint Mary's is 12-1 overall and 2-0 in the WCC, Bennett knows it will take a better effort against a team like BYU, which is having problems finding its groove as well.
"After 15 games, there should be more continuity than we actually have," Rose said, according to the Deseret News. "I think everyone's looking forward to the next two weeks to see how it kind of all evolves. Hopefully during that process we can win some games so we can stay in this (West Coast Conference) race."
BYU (11-4) is also 2-0 in the conference, but it had to rally from an 18-point deficit to beat Loyola Marymount on Saturday. The Cougars scored the final 11 points of the game to escape with an 81-76 road win.
BYU's leading scorer, 6-foot-10 sophomore Eric Mika, struggled mightily in that game, going 4 of 17 from the field. Nonetheless, Mika leads the team in scoring at 20.2 points per game and rebounding at 8.9 boards per game.
Mika's matchup against 6-11 Saint Mary's center Jock Landale will garner plenty of the attention because Landale leads his team in scoring (17.6 points per game) and rebounding (9.7) while shooting 63.8 percent from the field.
Rose leaves little doubt what he wants to do.
"Right now, the emphasis with this team is to play to our strength. And our strength is to pound that ball inside," he told the Deseret News.
The Cougars' inside game suffered a bit when they lost starting forward Kyle Davis on Nov. 26 when he suffered a season-ending knee injury. But they recently added 6-10 forward Corbin Kaufusi, who played on the BYU football team this season. He joined the basketball team after the Cougars' Dec. 21 Poinsettia Bowl win over Wyoming.
Kaufusi, who started 23 games last season, played a total of just five minutes in his first two games last week, but his playing time should gradually increase.
For Saint Mary's, the wild card is redshirt freshman Tanner Krebs. He was a virtual non-factor in the Gaels' first nine games, making just 3 of 18 3-points shots in limited playing time. But over the past four games Krebs is 9 of 14 from long range, and his 4-of-4 3-point shooting against San Diego was pivotal in the Gaels' victory.
He was part of the Gaels' strong bench performance in that game. Saint Mary's reserves scored 35 points against the Toreros compared with the 37 scored by the starters, and the bench players' 6-of-9 3-point shooting was considerably better than the starters' 1-of-7 accuracy from long range.
"It's good to see the bench come in and perform well," Krebs said.
It was the kind of scoring depth the Gaels had been lacking.
"We were good offensively after the first eight to 10 minutes of that game," Bennett said after the San Diego game. "We looked more like ourselves tonight."
The Cougars have looked more like themselves from 3-point range in WCC conference play.
BYU always relies heavily on outside shooting, but they were made just 29 percent of their 3-point shots in the first nine games. The Cougars turned that around last week, hitting 18 of 35 (51.4 percent) from beyond the arc in their two WCC games.
"We're playing inside-out right now, and when we get the ball into them, they get double-teamed and they're kicking it out to us," BYU guard Nick Emery told the Deseret News. "We're getting open shots. When a guy's in your face, it's harder to knock down a shot than when you're open. So I attribute that to our bigs."
Emery is the team's second-leading scorer at 15.7 points per game and is part of strong offensive squad that averages 84.4 points per game.
"They're always high octane," Bennett said. "I know they'll be able to score."
Scoring against Saint Mary's is difficult, however, as the Gaels limit opponents to 57.8 points per game, which ranks fourth in the nation.
