KANSAS CITY — A little more than four months ago, new BYU coach Kevin Young and the other coaches in the Big 12 gathered on the basketball court at T-Mobile Center for a group photo to kick off the conference’s basketball media day.
While the other 15 coaches mingled, exchanged pleasantries and renewed old friendships, Young mostly stood off to the side, not knowing any of his new counterparts — with the exception of Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd. He marveled that he was now coaching in the same league as legendary coaches such as Kansas’ Bill Self, Houston’s Kelvin Sampson, Colorado’s Tad Boyle and Baylor’s Scott Drew.
“Those guys probably don’t know who I am,” Young said on Oct. 23.
Well, suffice it to say, they certainly do now.
Sampson deservedly earned his second-straight Big 12 Coach of the Year award after leading the Coogs to a league-record 19 wins in a single season. But Young also made a strong case for a vote or two by taking a team picked to finish ninth in the league to a tie for third with Arizona.
In short, the first-year college head coach and the Cougars proved they belong, going 14-6 in league play, 23-8 overall, and earning a No. 17 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 poll heading into the conference tournament.
Which brings us back to Kansas City; No. 17 BYU opens Big 12 tournament play against No. 12-ranked Iowa State (24-8) on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. MDT (ESPN2) at the same downtown arena in which the media event was held, and is playing with house money, as it were, its ticket to the Big Dance next week having already been punched due to its eight-game winning streak and 6-6 record in Quad 1 games.
Iowa State (24-8) advanced to the quarterfinals with a 76-56 win over Cincinnati on Wednesday at T-Mobile in a second-round game played in front of thousands and thousands of Cyclone fans. Coach TJ Otzelberger’s squad will have a decided home-crowd advantage against the Cougars, almost as many as watched BYU edge ISU 88-85 in double overtime nine days ago in Ames, Iowa.
Iowa State outrebounded Cincinnati 41-23, shot 53.7% from the field, 47.6% from the 3-point line (10 of 21) and controlled the game the entire way, never trailing. About the only thing the Cyclones didn’t do well was pressure the ball — Cincinnati had just 11 turnovers, after BYU had a whopping 29 at Hilton Coliseum in the 50-minute game there.
The big crowd flocking in from Des Moines, Ames, and throughout all of the Hawkeye State “just gives us a little more of a boost of energy, just because if we are in a slump, the fans will get up and get loud,” said ISU forward Milan Momcilovic, who had 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting. “It just helps us. It doesn’t hurt us, obviously. It is good to have fans here. We’re amped up.”
The Cougars flew into Kansas City on Tuesday night, and practiced Wednesday afternoon at Hyvee Arena, some 2.5 miles west of where they will play Thursday. They won’t get to see the T-Mobile floor until a few hours before tipoff.
“It is super interesting, because we are not going to know who we are going to play until about 1:30 p.m. (CDT) and the game is the next day,” Young said after the Cougars dumped Utah 85-74 in Provo on Saturday. “That is actually insane.”
So the familiarity advantage goes to ISU, while BYU will be more well rested. Additionally, Iowa State thrives in conference tournaments; the Cyclones have won five of the last 10 Big 12 tournament titles.
While BYU’s Kanon Catchings is “day to day” with a left knee injury, according to Young’s comments last Monday, the Cyclones could also be a bit shorthanded.
Forward Keshon Gilbert played only 10 minutes before leaving the game and not returning at all in the second half vs. the Bearcats, while guard Tamin Lipsey left the game with a minor groin injury after playing 29 minutes and scoring 16 points.
“As far as Keshon goes, it will be re-evaluated tonight and in the morning and see what he’s able to do,” Otzelberger said. “Not sure right now. … With Tamin, sounds like something with his groin. He tweaked it, but I think for sure he will be fine and good to go tomorrow.”
Having been part of the BYU team that lost to Texas Tech in the quarterfinals here last year, senior Trevin Knell knows what kind of atmosphere the Cougars will be facing Thursday.
“Cougar Nation, let’s make sure we show up in Kansas City. I know other Big 12 schools make sure they show out,” Knell said last week. “I know Cougar Nation is everywhere, so I am super grateful for them and it is going to be awesome. This team is battle-tested. So we are ready, we are hungry, and we are excited to make a run.”
BYU didn’t make any players or coaches available to the media Wednesday (other than BYUtv), but last Saturday junior guard Dawson Baker said the Cougars will rely on their depth and hard practices to stay ready.
“We haven’t had a lot of hard practices because games are pretty close to each other. So it gives us time to dive back into practice, play each other again, which is kind of our strength,” Baker said after scoring 15 points against Utah off the bench. “We got a deep team, so our practices are super competitive, which makes us super good. We got a lot of guys that stay ready … That is the culture that we have here.”
