After 2 many years heading west, No. 20 BYU goes east for 1st Massive 12 Event

Estimated learn time: 5-6
minutes

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After a decade within the desert (after which some), BYU males’s basketball embarks on a brand new journey Wednesday when the fifth-seeded Cougars open the Massive 12 match championship in opposition to UCF (10:30 a.m. MDT, ESPN2).

In a season of firsts, the Cougars aren’t in Las Vegas anymore.

No. 20-ranked BYU (22-9) spent the previous decade at Orleans Area with the West Coast Convention, and all however a few years throughout its tenure within the Mountain West when the match moved to Denver.

Now the Cougars are buying and selling within the brilliant lights of the Strip for the well-known barbecue amid a significant glow up of the headquarters of T-Cell and Hallmark recognized equally for quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his coach, former BYU offensive lineman and graduate assistant Andy Reid.

“It is actually cool,” BYU guard Dallin Corridor mentioned. “We’re excited to get within the health club tomorrow and play. This can be a nice, excellent place and we noticed the sector on media day. It is a actually particular place.”

Las Vegas grew to develop into the epicenter of faculty basketball — a minimum of on the west coast — because it hosted as many as 5 convention tournaments within the two weeks previous to the NCAA Event.

However with BYU’s transfer to the Massive 12 and the upcoming dissolution of the Pac-12, it is no surprise that eyes have turned east — to a web site simply 10.4 miles away from the place early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been pushed from their houses earlier than finally settling within the Salt Lake Valley.

Irony exists throughout this metropolis for BYU, which is owned and operated by the church. Not that head coach Mark Pope is pondering a lot about early church historical past in the meanwhile, and even his unfamiliar environment.

“I type of assume that is the epicenter of faculty basketball,” Pope mentioned. “We’re simply so blissful to be right here and so blissful to be part of this league.”

BYU will face UCF, the Twelfth-seeded crew within the Massive 12 that beat Oklahoma State, 77-62 within the first sport of the match Tuesday. Ibrahima Diallo had 17 factors, 11 rebounds, three steals and two blocks to guide the Knights (17-14), and C.J. Walker added 12 factors, 4 rebounds and two blocks.

UCF — one other of the 4 Massive 12 newcomers alongside BYU, Cincinnati and Houston — is properly acquainted with BYU as one of many handful of groups to face the Cougars twice. The Knights misplaced 63-58 to the Cougars within the first assembly in Orlando earlier than a 90-88 setback in Provo.

But when the outdated adage that it is exhausting to beat an excellent crew thrice in a season is true, then BYU could also be on upset alert.

Now we have to begin learning them once more and now we have to attempt to discover changes that we will make, as a result of we had two shut video games,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins mentioned after Tuesday’s win. “They’re an excellent basketball crew. Mark (Pope) has achieved an excellent job with this group. We have to research them this night and discover out the issues we have to do higher. All we centered on coming into this match was Oklahoma State, since you by no means know if that is going to be your final sport or not, and so that you pour every thing into it, and now we’ll pour every thing into BYU.”

The Cougars are led by Jaxson Robinson, the senior from Ada, Oklahoma who averaged 13.9 factors on 43% taking pictures en path to Massive 12 Sixth Man of the 12 months honors.

BYU did not place a single participant on the All-Massive 12 first, second or third crew — Corridor, Robinson, Fousseyni Traore and Spencer Johnson earned honorable point out honors. However Robinson is as deserving as they arrive because the league’s prime reserve, and Pope break up the third-most votes for coach of the 12 months by the Related Press with Texas Tech’s Grant McCasland.

“Jax is my man, and he works his tail off,” Corridor mentioned. “He is all the time the final one taking pictures within the health club, placing up additional photographs, and simply placing in additional work. His street has gotten him right here, and it’ll preserve going; he is bought huge issues forward of him. I am tremendous blissful for him. It is clearly properly deserved; I feel he is one of the best sixth man within the nation. He is a big-time participant, an NBA-level man.”

The Cougars practiced Tuesday on the College of Missouri-Kansas Metropolis, and will not get observe time within the T-Cell Middle till pregame warmups. They’ve an choice accessible for shootaround at 7:30 a.m. native time, however Pope mentioned they most likely will not use it as a result of “that is the equal of 5:30 for a few of us.”

“We wish to get within the health club only for our guys to really feel the sunshine,” he added. “However now we have an hour to heat up within the health club.”

His place to begin guard is not anxious.

“We needs to be all proper. We have got some big-time shooters on this crew,” Corridor mentioned. “Our warmup is all we have to get able to go. It’s going to be nice for us.”

After arriving in Kansas Metropolis through constitution Monday night time and ending the night with Joe’s Kansas Metropolis BBQ — everybody besides Pope, because the coach joked his spouse Lee Anne has him on a strict weight-reduction plan that will not let him eat previous 5 p.m. as a result of he is packing on a number of undesirable kilos.

“I feel the fellows are excited,” Pope mentioned. “They wakened this morning just a little bit drained, simply due to the time change. However we had an excellent observe right now, they usually have been similar to each crew that has been working in direction of this all 12 months lengthy and never working in direction of a spot the place that is going to be any totally different than another sport it took them to be right here.”

Most up-to-date BYU Basketball tales