This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
Provo • Dave Rose has been involved in college basketball for more than 25 years, but he is about to do something he's never done before: play the same opponent twice in the span of three days, at different venues.
Fresh off two of their best performances of the season — a 114-89 win at San Francisco and a 96-62 win at Santa Clara — the Cougars head back out on the road Thursday for a game at San Diego (9 p.m. MST, ESPNU). Saturday, the teams will have a rematch in Provo (7 p.m. MST, BYUtv).
"I just told the guys we are going to have to do this on the fly, because I've never done this before," Rose said Saturday at Leavey Center after the Cougars improved to 19-8 overall, 10-4 in the West Coast Conference with the demolition of the Broncos.
The rare double-header came about because the WCC opted to start its schedule before Christmas this season, and BYU had already committed to play in the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii that week. Saturday's game is the one rescheduled and mutually agreed upon by both schools, which are traveling partners.
"We will approach Thursday just like a normal Thursday, play our travel partner and do it that way. But Saturday where we will play the same team, have to travel back, hopefully we will get the same kind of consistency that we got in these two games," Rose said.
San Diego (8-17, 3-11 WCC) defeated the Cougars 77-74 last year at Jenny Craig Pavilion, but is struggling this season under new coach Lamont Smith, who replaced Bill Grier. The Toreros scored just 17 points in the first half against San Francisco on Saturday and lost 68-51 to fall to last place in the WCC standings.
Meanwhile, the Cougars seem to have hit their stride and are playing some of their best basketball of the season, thanks in no small part to the play of freshman Nick Emery. They are averaging 84.3 points per game, seventh-highest in the nation and the most since they averaged 85.5 ppg. in 1987-88.
"We just gotta keep building momentum," Emery said after the Bay Area sweep. "We gotta keep getting better and learn from our mistakes. There were mistakes tonight, but our energy this whole entire week was different, and we just gotta carry that into other weeks."
If Emery doesn't win the WCC Player of the Week award on Monday, there ought to be an investigation. He averaged 34 points on 69.4 percent shooting, including 65 percent from 3-point range (13 of 20).
"This is what we need," Rose said. "We need a consistent scorer besides Chase [Fischer] and Kyle [Collinsworth]. Nick had a tough week, and he spent a lot of extra time at it, [we had] a lot of extra conversations with a lot of guys, trying to find that combination where he is aggressive and confident and how he fits with this group, and this would be great if we got another month of [him] shooting 65, 70 percent from the field."
Emery is the first BYU freshman to record back-to-back 30-plus point games. He is now averaging 16.1 points per game, the highest average for a BYU freshman since Danny Ainge scored at a 21.1 clip in 1977-78 (before the 3-pointer was instituted, amazingly). The two leading scorers in BYU history, Tyler Haws and Jimmer Fredette, averaged 11.3 and 7.0 points per game, respectively, in their freshman seasons.
"Some of those [points for Emery] came in transition where he slowed down a little bit and got to his rhythm and his pace," Rose said. "I am really happy for him, because he spends a lot of time at it, and the expectation for him is really high, and sometimes a bit unfair, but he's had a great freshman year, and hopefully the team can finish in a way where he will remember it was a great freshman year."
Emery is averaging 30.2 minutes per game. Haws averaged 26.4 minutes before departing on a mission, and Fredette just 18.5 minutes while not starting in a single game in his first year in Provo.
"I think it tells you what our character is, and what type of guys we are. We are fighters. We battle through the tough times, and no matter who we are playing, we are going to give it our best," Emery said of the way the Cougars bounced back after losing 77-72 at home to Pacific on Feb. 6.
Twitter: @drewjay —
Thursday's Game
BYU at San Diego, 9 p.m. MST
TV: ESPNU