Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd gave his slumping team a couple of days off this week, hoping the rest will recharge a squad that has stumbled in the closing minutes of its past three games.
If BYU coach Kevin Young were to give his players time off from grueling practices, it would be for a different reason.
The Cougars (18-8, 9-6) enter Saturday night’s Big 12 Conference game against the No. 19 Wildcats (18-8, 12-3) in Tucson, Ariz., on a roll, having demolished No. 23 Kansas 91-57 on Tuesday following solid wins over Kansas State (80-65) and West Virginia (73-69).
The Kansas score was not a typo.
Richie Saunders continued his season-long stellar play with 22 points, Trevin Knell hit four 3-pointers in scoring 15 points, and Mawot Mag added 13 to lift BYU to a landslide victory over the visiting Jayhawks.
The Cougars head to Arizona on a three-game winning streak and sit in sole possession of fifth place in the Big 12.
“I feel like this is just a continuation of the past couple of games,” said Knell, who scored the 1,000th point of his BYU career against Kansas. “This is just another team win that we’re stacking. Every day in practice, we’re competing, and it’s showing out on the court. It’s a great team win, and I feel like it was a statement.”
BYU led by as many as 38 in the 34-point victory in what wound up matching the worst defeat in scoring margin in Kansas coach Bill Self’s 22-season career.
“I think we’re just hitting our stride right now at the right time of the year, playing our best brand of basketball,” BYU’s Dallin Hall said. “We’re less concerned with the opponent in front of us, and more concerned with executing our side of things — the game plan on both sides. I thought we did a really good job of that. We’re hitting our stride, and trying to put the country on notice.”
The Wildcats should be well-rested for Saturday’s intriguing matchup. Lloyd gave his players Tuesday and Wednesday off after they played a Saturday-Monday set, capped by a 74-67 victory at Baylor.
Although Arizona won, it was a continuation of a concerning trend. The Wildcats were leapfrogged by Kansas State in the final four minutes of a 73-70 loss on Feb. 11. Next, they saw a seven-point lead with nine minutes remaining evaporate in the final nine minutes of a 62-58 setback against then-No. 6 Houston on Feb. 15.
Arizona then got a scare from the Bears down the stretch after blowing the majority of a 53-39 lead with under 13 minutes remaining.
“You and I can think about every excuse in the book. I’m not an excuse guy,” Lloyd said. “We had two games that I thought were winnable. I’ve re-watched them, and I re-watched the end of them really closely, to try to figure out ways I can get better, and to help our guys a little bit more, obviously giving them some advice on how I think we can close these games better.
“I think we’ve been a good closing team the last couple months. We just lost a tough game to a K-State team that’s playing really well at home, and obviously, Houston’s got a great thing going. So we’ve got to move on. We’ve got to move on to the next one.”
–Field Level Media
