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Provo • Officially, there are three seniors on BYU's basketball roster. But five young men will be honored on Senior Night before the Cougars' showdown with No. 2 Gonzaga at the Marriott Center (9 p.m., ESPN2).
In addition to starters Brandon Davies, Craig Cusick and Brock Zylstra, coach Dave Rose said Stephen Rogers and Chris Collinsworth will also receive their framed jerseys and be introduced to the crowd. Rogers and Collinsworth were forced to give up basketball prior to the season due to lingering knee injuries.
"All five of them, they all came in at different times," Rose said. "They all came in in different situations. But they were all able to accomplish a lot of the same things. They all played in an NCAA Tournament game, all of them were able to win a conference championship — at least one — and those are things that those kids will remember forever."
Davies said the fact that it is such an important game "drowns out the feelings that it will be my last game here on this floor," but acknowledged the contest "has a lot of sentimental value to it."
Zylstra said it feels "surreal" right now and he hasn't thought much about it.
"Maybe when we are out there getting our flowers for our moms, and our wives, that's maybe when it will hit me a little bit," he said.
No hope
The Cougars are holding out hope that if they can beat No. 2 Gonzaga they will jump back into the NCAA Tournament picture for an at-large berth.
But noted bracket expert Andy Glockner of Sports Illustrated and SI.com says the Cougars still have to win the West Coast Conference Tournament to get in.
"The Cougars are auto-bid or bust, in my opinion," Glockner wrote. "They have failed in every game against a quality opponent this season. You can't do that with a WCC slate."
Briefly
In this week's RPI report from the NCAA, BYU ranks 58th among 347 Division I schools. Gonzaga is No. 10 and Saint Mary's is No. 43. ... BYU's Tyler Haws leads the WCC in scoring with a 20.9 average and is ninth nationally in scoring. ... A week after Cusick's father, Randy, learned he has a cancerous tumor in his small intestine, he attended Tuesday's practice.
Twitter: @drewjay —
No. 2 Gonzaga at BYU
O Thursday, 9 p.m.
TV • ESPN2