PROVO — While BYU enjoyed otherworldly performances in road victories at Santa Clara and San Francisco the first weekend in January, the Cougars came back to Earth during their recently completed homestand against Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount.
BYU lost to the Waves Thursday, then struggled to put away the Lions Saturday.
How to explain such flawless performances on the road, and flawed efforts at home?
"You never know how it's going to turn out," coach Dave Rose said after Saturday's 85-72 win over LMU. "You could come home and play the same way and continue to be on a roll like that. But experience will tell you that those two games you kind of throw them away just like you would if you got beat (by large margins). We had that conversation with our team earlier in the week. Every game is a dogfight, especially where we are right now. Our margin for error is so slim, so narrow. We need to be really good in every area of the game that we have an advantage in because we have disadvantages in quite a few areas to start. I do believe that this is the best chance for this group right now to win games.”
One of those disadvantages is BYU’s lack of production inside. Forward Nate Austin has been sidelined for a month with a hamstring injury and still may be a couple of weeks away from returning to the lineup.
Starting forward Luke Worthington averages 2.7 points and 2.2 rebounds in 16.1 minutes per game while freshmen Corbin Kaufusi (3.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg) and Isaac Neilson (4.2 ppg, 2.6 rpg) make contributions off the bench.
“Our size is an issue,” Rose said. “We’ve got some really big guys that the game seems to be a little too fast for right now. Luke is the guy that is kind of holding that thing down for us."
BYU’s top rebounder is point guard Kyle Collinsworth, who averages 8.3 boards per contest. And the guards are providing almost all of the Cougars’ scoring. Tyler Haws averages 22.1 points per game, followed by Anson Winder (14.7), Chase Fischer (13.8) and Collinsworth (12.7).
This week BYU (14-5, 4-2) heads back on the road as it visits Pacific (9-8, 1-4) Thursday and Saint Mary’s (13-3, 5-0) Saturday.
“We look forward to Monday and practicing to improve on some things and hit the road again,” Rose said. “It will be quite a road trip.”
After playing the Tigers and Gaels, BYU will travel to San Diego. The Cougars’ next home game isn’t until Jan. 29 against San Francisco.
The last time BYU was on the road, it crushed Santa Clara and USF in games that saw the Cougars score, and make 3-pointers, at a torrid pace.
“It’s tough to shoot lights-out like that for long stretches for any team,” said guard Skyler Halford. “We were 11 of 15 against San Francisco in the first half from the 3-point line. That’s really tough to do night in and night out. As long as we can stay consistent … consistency is a big part of it.”
Things proved to be much tougher this past weekend at home against Pepperdine and LMU.
“In this league, night in and night out, you’re going to have a battle,” Halford said. “You’re going to need to be ready for every single game. You can’t think that games are going to come easy. That’s how this league is made. Coaches have been preaching to us to stay focused on the game at hand and not go too far in the past or think too far forward, but stay in the present.”