Provo • On paper, this week's games may not seem as important to the Average Joe, but they're anything but.
Sure, Loyola Marymount and San Diego, who BYU will face on Thursday and Saturday, respectively, are two of the bottom three teams in the West Coast Conference at the moment. But that’s part of what makes the games more dangerous.
The Cougars will also be facing these hungry teams on the road. BYU currently has a losing record in true away games, 3-5, but hopes to even that out this week.
Either way, coach Mark Pope believes that what is so beautiful about league play is that every single game is life or death.
“You have to fight at 100% to have a chance to win a game,” Pope said. “I think both these two teams have struggled so far in league, but if we don't come 100%, we're not going to have a chance to win. And if we come 100%, we're going to have a chance to win. The game keeps you honest. You can't come in with any assumptions. Unless you're Gonzaga, you can't roll in with any assumptions – you have to come play and play with every bit of your heart and soul.”
The Cougars have also historically struggled at Gersten Pavilion in Los Angeles and Jenny Craig Pavilion in San Diego. The last two times BYU lost to Loyola Marymount was on the road, and two of the last three times the Cougars lost to the Toreros was in San Diego (the third loss was in last year’s WCC Tournament).
So either team is capable of winning at this point.
While the Cougars have already faced both of this week's opponents earlier this season, Pope is still always curious to see how teams change their plan of attack in the second game of the series. Right now, he's really interested in Thursday's opponent.
“There’s no team that is more confusing to me than this Loyola Marymount team because they’re switching defenses all the time and they make it really chaotic that way,” Pope said. “Even within a possession, they switch defenses and they’re calling stuff out. They’re playing a really interesting lineup right now with no traditional point guard and really no traditional (No.) 2 guard. … We’re going to have our work cut out for us.”
Senior Zac Seljaas said the team’s mentality going into this week will be to play the best they can.
They hope to continue learning from their most recent game and continue working on their defense – an issue they’ve struggled with over the last couple of weeks. But if they can fix their defensive issues this week, Seljaas believes the Cougars will be in a good place to wrap up the regular season and get ready for the WCC tournament.
“It’s just always different,” Seljaas said. “It’s always a different game whenever you go out, especially when it’s back-to-back road trips.
