It was such a joy to see the Cougars humming on all cylinders and finish Tuesday night’s opener strong after some first-half struggles shooting the ball. The shooting prowess and team chemistry building will hopefully continue in the first game at the Marriott Center.
BYU has not lost a home opener since 2005 when it fell to LMU 71-63. The ROC is going to be bumping as always, and the Provo crowd will show out even if it is against an opponent from The Summit League. As long as the Cougars play how they should, that home opener win streak will likely continue.
What Omaha brings to the table
Omaha also won its first game of the season against the Mid America Christian Evangels. Yeah, I hadn't ever heard of that school either until I looked it up. Based on that game, I believe there are two players BYU should look out for who could potentially get hot. Those boys are guards Cahmai Crosby and Jonny Jordan Jr.
Crosby was their leading scorer, dropping a game-high 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field and 4-of-7 from three. His resumé tells us he will let it fly from downtown. He made 77 trey balls in his final season in JuCo before transferring to North Texas last offseason. In his lone season there, Crosby averaged just 9.4 minutes per game yet still put up 72 3-point tries, making 25 of them (34.7%). Kevin Young and his staff know that he is the engine for the Mavericks, so containing him will make this contest a landslide in a heartbeat.
The one dark horse for BYU to keep an eye on is Jordan Jr., a true freshman. He notched 13 points in 25 minutes off the bench in Omaha on an efficient 5-of-9 from the field and 2-of-4 from behind the arc. His basketball background is what makes him stand out to me more than what he did on the floor. Jordan Jr. was a three-star recruit and a top-10 Missourian prospect who played at Chaminade College Preparatory School. That name should have a familiar ring as they have produced some hoopers. All-NBA players Jayson Tatum and Bradley Beal, former all-star David Lee, and Tarris Reed Jr., a first round pick this year who had an incredible March Madness run with UConn, are the most notable to come through there. Jordan Jr. averaged 22.5 points per game during his time there, so do not be surprised if he brings a sudden scoring spark off the bench.
My only concern this season for BYU is how well can the perimeter defense hold its own considering much tougher guards to guard are looming on the schedule. Making those Maverick guards uncomfortable will be a small step in the right direction towards the development of that part of the Cougar defense.
Goals for the game
Rob Wright III scoring 30 again is definitely not out of the realm of possibility since he did that two times during Big 12 play last season. One of our multiple other starters could certainly drop 20. I am not paying too much attention to that because I have a good feeling either or all of those things could happen. Here are my goals for the team to accomplish outside of just winning the game:
- Hold Omaha to under 60 points
- Have at least two bench players hit double figures
- Win by 40
As a power four program in the top-25, this is a take-care-of-business kind of game. We all know and have seen how quickly this team can put up numbers. There will be the “yeah, but it’s Omaha” comments if BYU holds the Mavericks below my 60-point benchmark, but it will at least show competency on that end.
Dawson Baker will be coming back any day now once his conditioning is up to speed. One or two more capable scorers off the bench alongside him would be a huge bonus for the rest of the season. I suspect the whole bench will get plenty of opportunities late in the game assuming the Cougars are up by a ton. BYU only had 8 points from bench players against Ohio State which would make conference play and the playoffs much more challenging if that is the case for most of those contests. This portion of the season is the time for the bench in addition to Baker to build up confidence as he gets himself back into game shape.
Accomplishing the first two goals will result in the third, beating Omaha by 40. Progress in those facets of the team naturally will give us that output.
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