When BYU fell in overtime to Saint Mary’s a year ago in Moraga, California, famed ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi was in attendance.
Lunardi told the Deseret News that night that the Cougars were an NCAA Tournament-worthy team, having lost a close road game without injured star Yoeli Childs.
Fast-forward 12 months.
Friday morning, after BYU’s huge 62-52 victory over the Gaels Thursday night — its first win in Moraga in seven years and an all-important Quad 1 victory — Lunardi once again put his real-time stamp of approval on the Cougars’ NCAA tourney hopes.
Lunardi released his latest bracket with BYU part of the “Last Four In” the 2021 Big Dance — in fact, as the last team in the tournament. The Cougars are projected as a No. 12 seed in his latest bracket.
On top of that, BYU leaped from No. 42 to No. 35 in the NCAA’s NET rankings Friday.
That’s what Thursday’s victory at Saint Mary’s did.
Since Jan. 6, the day before BYU’s 86-69 loss at No. 1 Gonzaga, the Cougars have soared 17 spots in the NET rankings, from No. 52.
So can BYU (10-3, 1-1) continue building momentum when it visits San Francisco Saturday (6 p.m. MST, ESPN2) at War Memorial Gym?
The Cougars are looking for a sweep on this Bay Area road swing.
“This is one out of two wins,” said guard Brandon Averette, who scored nine points, all in the second half, against Saint Mary’s. “We’ve got another one to take care of Saturday.”
The Cougars couldn’t have drawn up a more difficult way to open up West Coast Conference play — at Gonzaga, at Saint Mary’s, at San Francisco.
“We’re not ducking difficulty, are we?” said coach Mark Pope. “You think about this, we’re starting with these three games on the road, back-to-back-to-back.”
It wasn’t the original schedule, of course, but BYU’s first three games were postponed, creating a tougher schedule. Due to those postponements, the Cougars went three weeks with only one game. So Thursday marked their first win since beating Weber State on Dec. 23, 2020.
“The Gonzaga game felt like three losses, to be honest,” Averette said. “It felt good to be out here and finally get a win under our belt and get that winning feeling back. We’re going to keep it rolling.”
Last year at War Memorial Gym, the Cougars watched USF overcome a 14-point second-half deficit, staging a 21-0 run to take control of the game. The Dons won, 83-82.
San Francisco guard Khalil Shabazz came off the bench to explode for a career-high 32 points on 10 of 10 shooting from the floor, including 6 of 6 from 3-point range.
In the Dons’ 79-63 win at Portland Thursday, guard Jamaree Bouyea scored a career-high 28 points. Earlier this season, USF knocked off then-No. 4 Virginia.
“This San Francisco team is really, really talented. They cause a lot of problems for us, matchup-wise” Pope said. “They’re shooting 200-plus more 3s than their opponents on the season. They spread the floor the whole game long. Bouyea is a massive problem. We saw what Shabazz can do against us at their place last year. It’s a huge game for us and a really difficult matchup. Every single game is massive.”
Prior to the Saint Mary’s game, Pope made the first change in his starting lineup in a month when he replaced Connor Harding with Trevin Knell.
In his first career start, Knell played a team-high 32 minutes and finished with seven points, including the Cougars’ only 3-pointer of the game. The sophomore guard also hit a couple of big baskets during BYU’s decisive 19-2 run to end the game.
“I’m super proud of Trevin,” Pope said. “Those two buckets down the lane in the second half were so huge. He also made some big-time defensive plays. He was great. He made the only 3 of the game. He’s been knocking on the door for a long time. His future is ahead of us. He’s going to be a terrific player. He made a big difference for us (Thursday).”
Also making a big difference was Gideon George, who came off the bench to score eight points and play game-changing, lockdown defense against Saint Mary’s star Tommy Kuhse.
Pope revealed after the Saint Mary’s win that this was a taxing week for his team.
“We went through some personal challenges, locker room challenges the last few days. At the end of the day, they’re deciding that they want to fight for each other,” he said. “Two days ago, we had our worst practice maybe that I’ve ever had as a head coach. I felt like we had so much stuff that was sideways. I hadn’t slept the last couple of nights. We did a ton of individual meetings. We talk about ‘the best locker room in America’ and it’s so hard to get to.”
“We went through some personal challenges, locker room challenges the last few days. At the end of the day, they’re deciding that they want to fight for each other.” — Mark Pope
Pope didn’t go into details about the struggles, but he said Harding was instrumental in bringing the team together. “The guy that changed us the last 48 hours was Connor Harding,” he said.
While Harding didn’t contribute much in terms of stats against the Gaels, “people that understand team sports will understand what I’m talking about when I say we have no chance to win this game if not for the work Connor Harding did over the last 48 hours. I’m so proud of him and I’m so proud of this group of guys.”
For now, the Cougars are riding high after knocking off Saint Mary’s.
“We’re definitely mindful of where we’re at throughout the whole season,” Averette said. “We knew this was an important game, just like the next game and the game after that. We take the same importance every single night and we’re going to continue to do that for the rest of the year.”