This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
For the first time since that devastating 114-101 loss to Utah Valley back on Nov. 26, a loss that looks less surprising by the week, BYU's basketball team is back in the Marriott Center tonight. The Cougars (5-3) will take on Weber State (2-5) at 7 p.m. MT. The game will be televised by BYUtv.
My biggest takeaways from that Saturday matinee game in Provo: The Cougars should never agree to another home afternoon game again (they lost to Pacific last year while the sun was still out), and 3-point shooting is once again a huge factor in the college game.
And right now, the Cougars are not faring well from 3-point range. That's the topic of this article in today's Salt Lake Tribune. Bottom line: BYU ranks 322nd out of 347 teams in the country in 3-point shooting percentage — 29.1 percent.
They are tied for 263rd in 3-point field goals made, with just 48. Granted, the Cougars are shooting fewer 3-pointers than most teams, 165. They ranked 179th in 3-point field goal attempts heading into Tuesday night's games.
"The majority of the shots are pretty good shots — shots that we want," BYU coach Dave Rose said Tuesday when I asked him about the 3-point shooting woes. "I think that with the way that our big guys are playing, I just feel like we need to get that ball inside a little bit quicker and more often.
Maybe working inside out might give the guys a little more confidence. It is an easier shot when it comes out from the post.
All our post guys, their shooting percentages are good. Maybe we will try to slow down some of the real quick threes that are kinda being rushed and try to get them all in a pace where they feel more comfortable to us. But still that doesn't guarantee anything. We will just … We have to take advantage of maybe more opportunities to drive it and get to the free throw line. We are a pretty good free-throw shooting team."
Yes, they are. The Cougars are shooting 77.6 percent from the charity stripe and were tied for 13th in that category before Tuesday.
"We are right close to a number that is pretty good for a power team, if that is what you are going to become, more of a power team than a finesse team. We have made just about as many free throws as other teams have shot. That could be something that we could really work towards, is our guards getting in there and trying to get fouled a little more."
The Cougars will probably be without sophomore forward Braiden Shaw tonight. Shaw didn't practice Tuesday and Rose said the product of Eagle, Idaho, is still battling an issue that kept him off the court last summer.
Certainly, they won't have sophomore wing Elijah Bryant, who is still nursing a sore knee.
They should have Kyle Davis, who missed the Utah State game and played limited minutes in the 91-84 loss to USC.
"Yeah, KD is progressing. He's still not fully all the way back, but I thought the minutes he gave us the other night were good minutes for us," Rose said. "With just that spot, I mean we are just going to have to keep throwing guys in there. Yoeli [Childs] is doing a really nice job for a young player. We will just have to keep playing it by committee until we can find a backup or see what is going to happen there. Yoeli is starting right now, but we will see what happens when KD gets back to 100 percent.
KD was playing about 24, 25 minutes a game. I think I played him 18 or 19, something like that. That is the number we are going to try for until we see how he responds night after night for the next week or two. Right now, it looks like he is going to be able to play pretty well tomorrow, as far as getting minutes."
As far as tonight's game goes, it will mark the first time that Nick Emery faces the Wildcats, since the BYU guard had to sit out last year's game at Vivint Smart Home Arena to serve a suspension for punching Utah guard Brandon Taylor. The Cougars downed Weber State 73-68 that day, and Rose expects another tight contest with the instate foe.
"It was interesting. I was watching a lot of the Weber State game from last year at Vivint Home Smart Arena. That game, KD is the only familiar face that I see from our team that is playing a lot of minutes. We got a lot of new guys, and we have played a lot of games in a short period of time. Eight games in three weeks. We are going to play three games in the next two weeks. This is a good time for us to kind of regroup a little bit and find ourselves as far as what this team is really good at, and what we can really try to work on, what we can do more of to be more efficient and work on getting better at."
Rose said Weber State coach Randy Rahe has a good team that will be ready and won't be intimidated by the Marriott Center crowd, much as UVU's guys weren't in awe, either.
"I like Randy's team. Randy is trying to replace a pretty legitimate NBA player in Joel [Bolomboy]. They are really close. They have lost three games by a bucket, one game by a point, and all kinds of controversial plays in all those games.
I think [Jeremy] Senglin is probably as good of an offensive player there is on the West Coast as far as his ability to shoot threes and drive it and get to the free throw line. They got a really good point guard who can get them into their offensive sets, which they are really good at. Half-court offensive sets, they execute really well.
[Dusty] Baker is a really good shooter. He shoots 67 percent from the three-point line [12 of 18]. Then their big guys are strong and physical and really good around the basket. I like his team. I really do. I think we are really going to have to guard the perimeter in this game, and hopefully we can keep Senglin under control because he can really get off and get going.
He is shooting 42 or 43 percent from three [26 of 61], and he is coming off a game where he was 3 for 13 or something like that. What was he shooting before that? Pretty good."