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BYU Basketball: Three keys to evening the season series with St. Mary’s

By Shaun Gordon

LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 05: TJ Haws #30 of the Brigham Young Cougars drives to the basket against Jordan Ford #30 of the Saint Mary's Gaels during a semifinal game of the West Coast Conference basketball tournament at the Orleans Arena on March 5, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Cougars won 85-72. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 05: TJ Haws #30 of the Brigham Young Cougars drives to the basket against Jordan Ford #30 of the Saint Mary's Gaels during a semifinal game of the West Coast Conference basketball tournament at the Orleans Arena on March 5, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Cougars won 85-72. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /
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PROVO, UT – FEBRUARY 02: TJ Haws #30 of the Brigham Young Cougars fights for the ball with Killian Tillie #33 of the Gonzaga Bulldogs during a game at Marriott Center on February 2, 2017 in Provo, Utah. (Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)
PROVO, UT – FEBRUARY 02: TJ Haws #30 of the Brigham Young Cougars fights for the ball with Killian Tillie #33 of the Gonzaga Bulldogs during a game at Marriott Center on February 2, 2017 in Provo, Utah. (Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images) /

2 – Play 30-second Defense

On thing St. Mary’s coach Randy Bennett has always excelled at is instilling a patient, disciplined gameplan. On offense the Gaels are more than willing to use most of the shot clock to get the right shot, and on defense they’re not going to get out of position and break down their defensive rotation.

And while BYU is good enough offensively to score on St. Mary’s, it’s questionable whether they’re good enough defensively to stop the Gaels, especially late in the shot clock.

BYU plays decent defense at the beginning of a possession, but they’ve lacked the discipline and focus to hold their rotations deep into the shot clock. All it takes is one player to overplay the ball, give the opponent a driving lane, or get beat on a ball-fake for the entire defensive rotation to break down and lead to easy baskets.

St. Mary’s will make you pay if you give them good looks. They’re hitting 48.9% of their shots and 39.5% of their three-pointers, putting them in the Top 20 nationally in both categories.

The only reason they don’t score as many points on average as other teams (like BYU) is their deliberate use of the shot clock. They’re one of the 50 slowest teams in the country in possessions per game, but they’re the masters at making the most of fewer possessions.

St. Mary’s will slow Thursday night’s game down and use the shot clock to their advantage, waiting for the BYU defense to make mistakes. If the Cougars make those mistakes regularly they’ll have little chance of beating the Gaels.

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