alt=Jeff CallPROVO — At first glance, it might appear that BYU could overlook its upcoming opponent, San Diego, which has yet to win a West Coast Conference game this season.
On top of that, the Cougars have a big showdown Saturday against the No. 1 team in the nation, Gonzaga, which is unbeaten in WCC play.
But don’t count on BYU taking the Toreros (7-12, 0-4) lightly Thursday (7 p.m., MST, BYUtv) at the Marriott Center.
For starters, the Cougars (13-5, 2-1) are without their leading scorer and rebounder Yoeli Childs, who is sidelined with an injury to his index finger.
Besides that, BYU hasn’t forgotten what happened the last time it played San Diego, in the quarterfinals of the WCC Tournament in Las Vegas last March.
The No. 7 seed Toreros dismantled the No. 3 Cougars from start to finish. They built a 46-19 halftime advantage, led by as many as 44 points in the second half, and went on to win, 80-57.
BYU shot an abysmal 1 of 17 from 3-point range — the worst 3-point shooting performance in WCC Tournament history. As it turned out, that loss ended the Cougars’ season — marking the first time since 2004-05 that they failed to win 20 games in a season and go to either the NCAA Tournament or the NIT. It also turned out to be the final game for coach Dave Rose, who retired weeks later.
On the one hand, BYU’s returning players wanted to erase that devastating defeat from their memories. On the other hand, it fueled the Cougars during the offseason and they still carry the painful lessons from that game with them.
“We had to move from it, but at the same time we always thought about it. What we took from it is, any team in this conference can get us if we don’t show up. That’s what we’ve been able to learn. On any given night, if we don’t give 100% effort, anyone can beat us. We’ll be ready” — senior forward Dalton Nixon
“We had to move from it, but at the same time we always thought about it. What we took from it is, any team in this conference can get us if we don’t show up,” said senior forward Dalton Nixon. “That’s what we’ve been able to learn. On any given night, if we don’t give 100% effort, anyone can beat us. We’ll be ready. We don’t want anything like that to happen in any game that we play. We’re really excited to be able to have a little bit of revenge from last year and also build on what we’ve been doing so far this year.
“There are so many good teams in the league,” Nixon continued. “We may have been in a position last year where we were just expecting to get past the first round and see Saint Mary’s in the semifinals. We’ve learned from that. Now that we have a lot of seniors on the team, we’ve been through some really tough games like that.”
San Diego was a senior-laden team a year ago with players like Isaiah Pineiro, Tyler Williams, Olin Carter III and Isaiah Wright. This year’s squad has just one senior, forward Alex Floresca.
“They’re super dangerous,” said BYU coach Mark Pope. “They’re really big. Their front line is big and physical. They crash the offensive glass pretty hard.”
Pope is confident that his players will be ready to play against USD.
“In this case, it’s easy to say overlooking San Diego for the Zags. But really what it is, is overlooking a game. These guys, so far, in the first half of the season, have been unbelievable at honing in at the task at hand,” he said. “It’s going to do us no good to go have a great game against the Zags if we don’t come compete and play as hard as we’ve ever played against San Diego. It just doesn’t do us any good. We don’t have time to waste. We have to get better every single day. You don’t do that by thinking about Saturday when you’ve got Thursday and Friday to go. I trust these guys. It’s human nature to get distracted by anything. That’s what everybody’s fighting all the time — the ability to stay focused. So far, these guys have proven to be really adept at being locked in and focused.”
San Diego is led by guards Braun Hartfield (13.1 ppg) and Joey Calcaterra (12.4 ppg).
“San Diego still runs the same offense. We know these guys,” Nixon said. “There are new faces but their identity has stayed the same. They run really good stuff in the halfcourt. That’s what we’ve been preparing for. We’re excited to play this team.”
As far as Nixon is concerned, what the Cougars have accomplished this season can be traced back to a brutal night in Las Vegas against the Toreros.
“We know every conference game for us is huge for us and what we want to accomplish this year, which is to win a conference championship and make a run in the NCAA Tournament,” he said. “Specifically with San Diego, a lot of us have the memory of that game in Las Vegas in our heads still. We want to be able to come out with intensity and we have a lot to prove. Some people may say this is an easy one to overlook. But as far as our team, we’re really focused.”
Cougars on the air
San Diego (7-12, 0-4) at BYU (13-5, 2-1)
Thursday, 7 p.m. MST
Marriott Center
TV: BYUtv
Radio: 1160 AM, 102.7 FM