A mariachi band greeted the BYU basketball contingent Tuesday afternoon when they arrived at their hotel in San Diego, and the plan Wednesday called for the wives and children of coaching staff and support staff to hit the SeaWorld theme park.
“We have had a good run at home, playing against teams that we took care of business against, and now we are looking forward to taking the show on the road.”
— BYU coach Kevin Young
A Thanksgiving feast was scheduled later Wednesday night.
But make no mistake about it, head coach Kevin Young said in a media teleconference Wednesday morning, the Cougars are in the so-called “America’s Finest City” for one reason, and one reason alone: to win the Rady’s Children Invitational at UC San Diego’s LionTree Arena.
While most of America will be chomping on turkey, mashed potatoes and all the other fixings, unranked BYU (5-0) will be taking on No. 23 Ole Miss (5-0) at 3:30 p.m. MST Thursday on Fox Sports 1. Purdue (5-1) and North Carolina State (5-0) are on the other side of the bracket.
The championship game is set for Friday at 4 p.m. MST, while the third-place game is at 1:30 p.m.
“As I told our players, this is a business trip. Don’t get confused. This is a business trip, and that’s what we are here to do, is take care of business,” Young said, after describing the welcome reception and giving a “shoutout to the mariachi band, which was a pretty nice touch” and noting that BYU had a “pretty deep” traveling party.
Ole Miss coach Chris Beard was just as dialed in, saying many of the Rebels’ players had never been to the West Coast before, but would focus on an undefeated BYU team before taking in the sights and sounds of San Diego.
“This game presents a lot of challenges for us,” Beard said. “I describe it this way to our players: We are going to be in a lot of games like this this year against a lot of really talented teams in the SEC. I put BYU in that same category.”
Neither team has faced an opponent as talented as the other to date in the 2024-25 season.
Ole Miss, which is averaging 80.8 points and allowing 63.0 points, has defeated Long Island (90-60), Grambling (66-64), South Alabama (64-54), Colorado State (84-69) and Oral Roberts (100-68).
BYU, which is averaging 91.0 points and allowing 59.8, has defeated Central Arkansas (88-50), UC Riverside (86-80), Queens (99-55), Idaho (95-71) and Mississippi Valley State (87-43).
“We have had a good run at home, playing against teams that we took care of business against, and now we are looking forward to taking the show on the road,” Young said. “This is a great tournament here in San Diego. Beautiful city, obviously. Just really looking forward to competing against some of these bigger teams” that are in the tournament.
Clearly, the next three games will go a long way in showing how good this BYU team really is; up next after the tournament is a road game in Rhode Island against Providence College of the Big East. The Friars were 5-0 heading into Wednesday’s game against Oklahoma at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas.
Young said five games against mostly overmatched teams, all at the Marriott Center in Provo, showed the staff that the parts are there for a successful season, but there’s work to do in areas such as perimeter defense.
“I think our togetherness and our unselfishness has really showed its head offensively for us,” he said. “I think defensively we have made strides, (had) different points of emphasis. Now we have to do it against guys who can test us a little bit more on that end and it will be a good thing for us.”
Like almost every team in college basketball, Ole Miss has a revamped roster built from the transfer portal. Five players have scored more than 1,000 points in their college careers. Led by Jaylen Murray (14.0) and Sean Pedulla (13.3), five players are averaging more than 9.7 points per game.
“They are extremely experienced across the board,” Young said. “… They clearly went out and got a bunch of guys who know how to score. So we will have our hands full with a bunch of different players, and we will have to be really good defensively.
“They are really aggressive, trapping a lot of things in and around the paint (on defense),” Young continued. “So I think our spacing will be very important. I think we have had a good week of preparation. We were able to dive into these guys quite a bit, so I think we know what to expect.”
Beard mentioned BYU’s “dynamic point guards” — freshman Egor Demin and veteran Dallin Hall — and the Cougars’ ability to play inside the paint and outside the 3-point line as aspects of the team that gives it a solid identity.
“It will be a real challenge for our defense to guard on all three levels,” Beard said. “They also do a good job pushing tempo and playing in the open floor.”
The 6-foot-4 Hall, a junior, played for the first time all season against MVSU after recovering from a toe injury. He had 10 points, five assists and three rebounds in 21 minutes. Hall replaced Trevin Knell in the starting lineup against the Delta Devils.
“He is a guy who is going to increase our 3-point volume as well. He is a good shooter. I think he got seven 3s up in that game, all of which were good shots,” Young said. “So that will increase our 3-point rate. And then just from an overall leadership standpoint — he is one of our captains. He is one of our leaders. … He is really kind of an extension of me out there on the floor, to a higher degree.”
Starting post player Keba Keita sustained an undisclosed injury against Idaho and did not play against MVSU. Young said Wednesday that the 6-foot-8 junior transfer from Utah “is progressing well” and will be a game-time decision.
“We will see how he feels after what we do (Wednesday afternoon),” Young said. “But everybody else is feeling good.”
