Provo • Still basking in the euphoria of an important win over San Diego at the Marriott Center on Saturday night, BYU basketball coach Dave Rose took a deep breath and let out a big sigh.
Toward the end of his postgame news conference, Rose had been asked about the prospects of playing West Coast Conference-leading Saint Mary’s again, this time on the Gaels’ own floor at the stuffy sweat box known as McKeon Pavilion.
“My thoughts right now are that we need to have a good week of practice,” Rose said. “We battled them pretty good [in Provo on Dec. 30], but there are lots of things we can do better so we can execute over there and make a game of it.”
Saint Mary’s (8-0, 19-2) downed BYU 74-64 in overtime after Zac Seljaas’ 3-point attempt missed at the end of regulation. The Gaels are coming off a huge 74-71 win at No. 13 Gonzaga on Thursday and a 72-69 squeaker at surprising Pacific on Saturday and are sure to crack the national rankings again when they are released on Monday.
The Cougars are on a four-game winning streak since losing that 67-66 heartbreaker to Pacific when Seljaas’ last shot was ruled a split-second late, and have tied their best eight-game league record (6-2) in their seven years in the WCC. This is their best overall record (17-4) through 21 games since they were 20-1 in Jimmer Fredette’s senior season (2010-11).
BYU has now played every team in the WCC once, except Gonzaga. That the Cougars will play the Gaels twice before seeing the Zags isn’t lost on Rose.
“It has happened before,” he said. “We have been through this before. … and it is like that in quite a few leagues. I mean, television is probably the reason for most of that.”
A win might vault the Cougars back on the NCAA Tournament bubble. They are up to No. 50 in the Ken Pomeroy ratings and No. 55 in Jeff Sagarin’s ratings. However, their NCAA RPI is at 70.
They’ve still got a long ways to go, obviously, but have received a boost lately from guard TJ Haws, who was sensational while scoring 24 points in the 74-58 win over the Toreros on a night when big guns Elijah Bryant and Yoeli Childs struggled a bit.
Haws is shooting 59 percent (19 of 32) from the floor and 56 percent (10 of 18) from 3-point range in his last three games, for a 16.3 average. He is also averaging 4.3 assists per game in that stretch.
“Teej always spends time at it, but the last couple of weeks he has made a real conscious effort to come in a little bit earlier and stay a little bit longer,” Rose said. “The thing is that he has been doing this his whole life. Very seldom does a guy lose it and it never comes back. It is going to come back. It is just a matter of confidence.”
Haws was certainly confident — drilling long-range 3-pointers and making a couple of nifty passes. He made 10 field goals and also had four steals, both career highs.
“If I miss one, I try not to let that affect me,” Haws said. “I feel like I had been doing that a little bit earlier in the season.”
Versatile sixth man Dalton Nixon didn’t play against Saint Mary’s a month ago, but should see some time Thursday. He was on a pitch count Saturday and logged just seven minutes, his first action since early December. Still, he had two rebounds, a steal and a blocked shot.
“He has a real physical presence to him, with a lot of skill,” Rose said. “He really understands our defensive system. He is a really good screener on offense. You have to guard him on the perimeter because he has a nice shot. That will really give us [depth]. Everybody can be more aggressive when you bring one more guy on that can really help us.”
Thursday’s Game
BYU at Saint Mary’s, 9 p.m. MST
TV: ESPN2
