Provo • The message coming out of the BYU women’s basketball team two days before its first-ever Big 12 Conference game felt measured.
No talk of how many games the Cougars would win. No talk of where they’d finish in the conference standings. Not a peep about a surprise NCAA Tournament berth.
Instead, the Cougars seemed to make one thing very clear: This season could be rough.
“Every team that we face is going to be good,” coach Amber Whiting said Thursday. “There’s no easy games out there. It’s not like what we’re used to seeing. Every single game, I feel like we have to go in fighting. As long as they fight and are resilient, and have that grit and toughness that they’ve shown in the preseason, I’m OK with whatever happens.”
BYU plays No. 23 Texas Christian University on the road Saturday. It’ll be the first true test in the new conference for the Cougars, who come in at 10-3 against an the undefeated Horned Frogs (13-0).
Athletes and coaches have PhDs in competition, so they’ll never flatly say they have no chance in any given game. But teams that know they have a talent or experience disadvantage don’t let their delusions of grandeur get the best of them, either.
That’s what the Cougars face starting Saturday. They’re a very young team whose roster has gone from 16 to 13 in the last six months. They start two freshman in Amari Whiting and Kailey Woolston, and veteran Nani Falatea abruptly left the program earlier this month.
That would be tough enough if they weren’t also about to play teams in what is widely considered the best college basketball conference in the country.
Entering Big 12 play, four teams are currently undefeated (TCU, Texas, Baylor, West Virginia) and appear in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. Kansas State and the University of Central Florida have just one loss, and Texas Tech and Houston have two losses. That’s half the league.
Records only mean anything on paper. But even the Cougars know they’ll have to be nearly flawless to make some noise in conference play.
“I can’t have one girl, two girls, even three at their best,” Whiting said. “I have to have 13 at their best.”
But BYU flexed its education in competition plenty when asked about its position as a team in advance of Saturday’s game.
“Our team is made up of a bunch of dogs,” freshman forward Ali’a Matavao said. “I think we’re in a great spot, actually.”
The Cougars showed resilience in several nonconference games, like the come-from-behind overtime win over Idaho State. It’s those types of performances that give Whiting confidence in her team.
“I feel like we’re going to surprise a lot of teams,” Whiting said. “I feel like these girls have really stepped in and they really want to do that. I’m excited about what they can do this upcoming conference season.”
Matavao said BYU’s defense will “shock” many teams. The freshman guard Woolston said that while the team is smaller than most, that can be an advantage if it plays with a high pace.
But the task ahead isn’t lost on the Cougars. Woolston said “taking each game like it’s a championship game” is going to be key in the Big 12 schedule.
And when Matavao was asked what BYU would consider success in the Big 12, her response lacked specifics in favor of a broad, anything-can-happen outlook.
“I think success would be just staying together as a team and growing as a team,” Matavao said. “I think that we’ve already done so much in the preseason and I feel like once we get to the Big 12 [schedule], we’re only going to go up. I feel like our progression up is what’s going to be the success for us.”
