With the exception of the next two weeks, when they will play on Tuesdays against Utah (Jan. 11) and TCU (Jan. 18), the BYU basketball team will now settle into a Wednesday-Saturday game rotation, which is just how coach Dave Rose likes it.
If the Cougars had to play Air Force tonight, rather than Saturday, they might have had some trouble re-focusing, after the big win at UNLV on Wednesday.
"I think that the way that it is set, most of the time you got a Wednesday-Saturday, and I think the guys can get a lot of confidence from some consistent preparation, and we had a good workout today," Rose said after Thursday's practice. "We will come in tomorrow, put in our game plan, and I have said this since I have been here: the most important guys on non-game days are that scout team, and how they prepare our guys. I thought they did a terrific job getting us ready for UNLV, and hopefully we can do the same for Air Force."
Jimmer Fredette said Air Force's win over Utah on Wednesday will help the Cougars take the Falcons a bit more seriously, although overlooking opponents hasn't been a problem for this team in the past. BYU has defeated Air Force 10 straight times, including pastings of 91-48 and 67-49 last year.
"This is a long process, and good things can really happen to your team, and that doesn't necessarily mean that is going to happen all season long. I think that you look at some of the teams last year: Texas had a big win, then wasn't very good in league....I just believe that one of our challenges is that when you do get beat, the next game is really, really important to come together, to play more together," Rose said. "Now we are in a situation where we got a really big win, but we can't rely on that and think that we are going to win another one. The next one is every bit as important, and we got to stay together and get prepared and try to win the next one."
Rose said he let the players enjoy the UNLV win until practice started on Thursday, then it was all forgotten.
"This is a whole different challenge now. This Air Force group, they are playing really confidently. They have won 10 games. They won their first league game, and it is a much-improved team. They shoot the ball really well from the three-point line. It is a good defensive club. They rebound the ball well. But the pace of this game will be much different than what we just played. So it will be a challenge."

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Here's a bit more from Rose after Thursday's practice:

On what the win over UNLV does for the team:

"The first conference road win is a difficult thing to get, and when you get it at a tough place, one of the top teams in the league, it gives your team a lot of confidence. Hopefully that's what it did this week."

On where the win ranks for him as a coach:

"Well, I can tell you that those are the best wins, when you are on the road and it is a packed house, and the odds are kind of against you a little bit, and the guys come through and play. They were good last night. Our guys really played.
We told them we didn't have to play a perfect game, but we had to execute our game plan, keep that floor spread, not turn the ball over, and hit shots. We did, so I was proud of them."

On Chris Collinsworth's condition:

"It is a sore knee, and hopefully he will have it re-evaluated today or tomorrow. They drained it and were trying to see if that might help it respond a little bit. Maybe we might get him out and practice him a day and see if it swells again. But right now, it is kind of a day to day thing."

On whether he said anything to Jimmer Fredette after the slow start:

"It is not so much saying anything to him as you want to see him really get into the gear that is going to make him really successful, and sometimes it takes him a little bit longer than maybe you as a coach want. You want him to step out there and hit stuff from the very beginning. But he's a pretty good player, and he's trying to feel his way through. Last night, I thought he was getting a pretty good idea of how they were going to guard him.
Then once he saw the ball go in the basket, and made a couple of shots, made a free throw, then he was off to the races. But he gets really a lot of confidence when his teammates hit shots. Because then he really knows that he can just play free, and he can make moves, and if they want to shut him off and double team him, that he has guys he can get it to who can convert and make shots. That makes him even better."

On Brandon Davies' improvement:

"Our ability to throw the ball into the post and get positive plays has really improved over the first probably five or six games of the season. The most important thing is our players have confidence in our post guys. They have got to the point where they want the ball there, and Brandon continues to get better and better. Noah has had big games for us, so those two guys are really stepping up."