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Provo • BYU basketball coach Dave Rose said this month that the 2015-16 Cougars have the potential to be the deepest team he's had in 11 years at the helm.
It better be, because the Cougars will play their exhibition opener on Friday night without four key players, including three probable starters. BYU will play host to Arizona Christian University at 7:30 p.m. at the Marriott Center.
Point guard Kyle Collinsworth (left knee tendinitis) and center Corbin Kaufusi (hamstring) sat out of Wednesday night's Cougar Tipoff with injuries, while shooting guards Chase Fischer (quad contusion) and Jordan Chatman (high ankle sprain) were injured during the intrasquad scrimmage.
Collinsworth's injury is the most troublesome, seeing as how the senior runs the offense and is expected to be the Cougars' best player.
"I think we will wait as long as we can on Kyle [before he returns]," Rose said. "I mean, he really wants to jump back in there and get going again. And we want him in there, but we want to make sure that we give him time. Tendinitis is an interesting issue."
BYU's second exhibition game will be on Saturday, Nov. 7 against Alaska. The season begins on Nov. 13 in the Marriott Center against Utah Valley University and new coach Mark Pope, the former BYU assistant.
Rose said more will be known about Kaufusi's "slight hamstring" issue on Friday or Saturday.
"He's a guy that I don't think you can put out there and tell him to play half-speed, or play easy," Rose said. "He's going to go all the way, so hopefully we can get it right before he goes back out there."
Rose said he and his staff know a little about Arizona Christian because the Firestorm have played already this season, a 108-89 win over Life Pacific University in a rough-and-tumble contest that featured 67 fouls and 98 free throws.
Arizona Christian was scheduled to play at Dixie State University in St. George on Thursday night. An NAIA Division I school, ACU is picked to win the Golden State Athletic Conference and was ranked No. 4 in the NAIA D-I preseason poll.
"It is a team that presses, plays fast," Rose said. "It will be a full-court game. … I expect it to be a pretty fast-paced game."
ACU senior guard Collin Woods played at Salt Lake Community College and Dixie State before transferring to the private, non-profit Christian university in Phoenix with fewer than 700 students.
Twitter: @drewjay —
Arizona Christian at BYU
P Friday, 7:30 p.m.
TV • BYUtv