This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A week ago, the BYU Cougars were in Los Angeles preparing to play the LMU Lions at Gersten Pavilion. Today, both teams are in Provo for a rematch of BYU's 91-80 win.

Tipoff is at 9 p.m. MT and the game will be televised by ESPNU with Roxy Bernstein and Corey Williams on the call.

Chalk it up to the WCC's quirky schedule this year; BYU will play host to Pepperdine on Saturday, the same Pepperdine team that beat BYU 71-65 last Saturday in Malibu.

My preview of tonight's game can be found here and on the printed pages of Thursday's Tribune.

If you happened to watch Wednesday night's Boise State-UNLV game from Las Vegas, you will see the same well-known official, Verne Harris, at tonight's BYU game. Harris will be joined by Shawn Lehigh and Tom O'Neill.

Harris, who worked a lot of BYU games when the Cougars were in the Mountain West Conference, will be working his third BYU game this season. He also had the BYU-Utah game and the BYU-Gonzaga game. So the Cougars are 1-1 with him as the lead official, both on the road.

As for facing the Lions and Waves so quickly again, BYU coach Dave Rose said there are pros and cons to the deal. In mid-February, BYU will play at San Diego on the 18th and host the Toreros two days later, on the 20th. Now, that's really weird.

"The biggest pro for us today, I think, is we didn't have to get on an airplane," Rose said in Wednesday's news conference. "We actually were able to practice here. We get a chance to play at home. I think that's big for us. Our guys are pretty motivated. I think we've had some good practices, and they are really familiar with our opponent. Obviously, they know we have a real challenge because that first half, they outplayed us, and we were fortunate in the second half that we played probably as good of a half as we played this year, to be able to win the game.

And that's fresh on their minds.

Some of the cons of it is that I think that there will be some real adjustments made on both sides that are right fresh in coaches' minds. That probably gives an advantage to one team or the other. We will see how that works out.

I think when you play a team three or four weeks later, your guys feel like they can take the scouting report and adjust it. But when it is this quick I feel like maybe that scouting report, our guys feel, 'hey we put it in and we are really familiar.' But there are still a lot of adjustments we need to make, and hopefully our guys understand that."

As I detailed in the preview article, Rose and the Cougars predict an entirely different game than the high-scoring contest at Gersten. Both teams will make a lot of adjustments, especially defensively.

"It is amazing in this league, how many adjustments are made game to game," Rose said. "I think that's what is important, to be able to have your guys understand that it is going to be a different game, even though it is the same team that you are playing, the second half [of league play]."

What went wrong at Pepperdine? Having a few days to study the film, Rose said it was the same deal he suggested in his post game interview. The Cougars didn't share the ball well.

"Sometimes a guy can make a shot on this team and he can be pretty happy with himself, and there are four other guys who are maybe disappointed," Rose said. "What is important for us when a shot is made that all five guys feel like they've been involved in it. …. We are really happy to be back playing [at the Marriott Center]. Hopefully we get a full house. These will be two really important games. Well, they are all important now, but these two home games for us, coming back for being on the road for two weeks, are really big for us."

Rose said he's tried this week to show the Cougars that when they don't share the ball well, they finish with low shooting percentages, like 35 percent against Pepperdine and 38 percent against Portland.

"The problems we have had on the road are that we are shooting 35 percent, or shooting 38 percent. We are shooting in the mid to low 30s in these road games, and the guys naturally just take it upon themselves. 'OK, I am going to do it.'

And that's what leads to the [low] percentage issues. We shoot a way better percentage when we share it.

I have had teams that have overpassed. I don't think we've gotten to the point with this team where we've overpassed. But we do need to pass more."

Point guard Kyle Collinsworth said he will take it upon himself tonight and Saturday night to make sure everybody gets involved on offense, and the ball moves better than it did against the Waves.

"I think it is just a mindset, and it is contagious," Collinsworth said. "You saw that in the LMU game. You start kicking it out, and then that guy passes it and he passes it. So just getting that rhythm from the start. It gets contagious and everybody shares the ball."

Despite the Cougars' 5-3 start to conference play, senior guard Chase Fischer said he likes where the team's morale is right now.

"I think we have a lot of adjustments to make, but our heads are in the right place," Fischer said. "We are together, and that's the most important thing. A lot of teams can hit adversity. Like last year's team. We were in a similar stretch with a similar record, and we reeled off [six] straight, beat Gonzaga and had a good tournament run. So I think it is kinda make or break right now, but it is going to be a good last third of the season, because our team is very together.

We are still young. We are still learning to play together and execute, but I think we are in a good place right now."