BYU basketball: Previewing the Texas Southern Tigers
BYU basketball hosts the Texas Southern Tigers on Saturday night. Will the Cougars keep things rolling in Provo?
BYU basketball’s final non-conference game is on Saturday night, as the Cougars host lowly Texas Southern.
After that, West Coast Conference play begins for the Cougars. But the team won’t leave the Marriott Center until the new year (a two-game road swing at San Francisco and Pacific).
For now, BYU basketball’s attention is focused squarely on the Texas Southern Tigers.
Texas Southern enters the game 0-12, without a home game on the season.
Yup, you read that right. The Tigers have 13-consecutive away games to open the 2017-18 season. Besides being utterly insane, it surely tires out the team (we BYU fans know all too well how travel can slow a team down).
However, Texas Southern has played a number of teams tough. They took Washington State to overtime, lost to Clemson by seven, Oregon by six and trailed No. 12 TCU by just two points at halftime.
Realistically, BYU basketball shouldn’t have much trouble putting away the Tigers on Christmas Eve eve.
Players To Watch
Demontrae Jefferson: Pound-for-pound, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better player in the country than Jefferson. At just 5-foot-7 and 150 lbs., Jefferson is as small as they come. But he’s explosive, able to use his small stature to his advantage while driving to the hoop and is a solid shooter. Currently, he’s connecting on 43 percent of his 3-point attempts and is averaging 23.4 points per game. McKay Cannon and Jahshire Hardnett will have their hands full trying to corral him.
Donte Clark: Clark, a 6-foot-4 senior guard from North Carolina, is the Tigers’ second-leading scorer. He’s averaging 15.2 points per night. However, the UMass transfer is shooting just 36 percent on the season. But, he’s a good rebounder (5.2 per game) and a decent defender.
This all-feline matchup tips off at 7pm MT on Saturday, December 23. ESPN’s Matchup Predictor gives the Cougars a 90.5 percent chance of winning.