BYU Basketball’s Retooled Identity Proves They Can Still Win Big Games
Dec 4, 2021, 5:58 PM
BYU basketball guard Alex Barcello leads the way for the Cougars. (Nate Edwards/BYU Photo)
(Nate Edwards/BYU Photo)
PROVO, Utah – No. 12 BYU basketball entered Saturday’s game against Missouri State with many questions. Could BYU still win big games after losing to Utah Valley on the road and losing center Gavin Baxter for the season?
Final: No. 12 #BYU 74, Missouri State 68.
Cougars improve to 7-1.
Next up: Utah State at the Marriott Center on December 8th.#BYUHoops @kslsports
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) December 4, 2021
Missouri State from the Missouri Valley Conference on name value alone wouldn’t warrant “big game” status. But the metrics behind the Bears (Top 100 KenPom team) suggest it was another non-conference game for BYU that could have significant March implications.
Without Baxter and an ill Gideon George, who didn’t make the trip to BYU’s first-ever game in the Show-Me State, BYU pulled out a hard-fought 74-68 victory over the Bears.
BYU basketball reworked everything to take down Missouri State
The team’s look was far different than the squad that took down the likes of San Diego State, Oregon, and Utah, but the result was the same.
“We had to rework everything. Because you take away Gideon and you take away Gavin and then all of a sudden we just become really small and our rotation is just super small,” said BYU coach Mark Pope in the BYU Sports Network postgame (on KSL NewsRadio).
A new addition to the rotation on Saturday was Hunter Erickson. Erickson, a sophomore from Timpview High, played 34 minutes in his BYU career coming into the game. However, with all the changes to the rotation, Erickson earned a career-high 14 minutes.
Erickson finished with a plus/minus of minus-six, but for the first time in his BYU career, he has meaningful minutes on film to build off moving forward.
From UVU loss to Missouri, reinvention took place.
📸📸📸 from the dub. pic.twitter.com/dWHvtrEFpY
— BYU Men's Basketball (@BYUMBB) December 4, 2021
Trevin Knell and Seneca Knight were replacing George and Baxter in the starting lineup. Knell filled the stat sheet with six points, five rebounds, and two assists. Knight, a former transfer from San Jose State and LSU, is still trying to find himself on the offensive end of the floor. But defensively, he came up big for BYU down the stretch with two key blocks. Knight also had four rebounds in 20 minutes of action.
“When you have guys that are so willing to just do whatever needs to be done to win –these guys had to reinvent themselves in a matter of two days– it’s awesome,” Pope said. “So we’re out here, you know, go figure we’ve been dominating great teams on the glass and now we’re playing small ball. That’s why a season is great because it tests you in every single way. …Aside from that, the schedule is daunting and it’s so good for us because it’s making us get so much better. Like, it challenges us in so many ways.”
Saturday’s group likely reminded many BYU fans of the team two years ago, Mark Pope’s first team in Provo. An undersized crew that eventually rose up to be the nation’s number one three-point shooting team before the COVID-19 pandemic shut the season down prematurely.
No one will mistake this year’s BYU team as the nation’s best three-point shooting team, but they found answers against Missouri State when they needed a big shot from deep. Most notably from Spencer Johnson, who strengthens his case as BYU’s most improved player. Johnson finished with 14 points and was a perfect 3-of-3 from three-point range.
One thing remains the same for the Cougs
But with all the different looks from the win over the Bears, one thing remained the same, BYU will go as far as their guards take them this year.
— BYU Men's Basketball (@BYUMBB) December 4, 2021
Seniors Alex Barcello and Te’Jon Lucas led the way combining for 38 points on 51% shooting from the field. Lucas shined on the defensive end in the final 14 minutes of the first half on Missouri State guard Jaylen Minnett holding him scoreless after the starting guard scored three quick buckets early in the game.
Barcello scored a game-high 21 points and as Mark Pope said in the postgame, “He probably said two words the last three days” after the loss to Utah Valley. However, BYU will still only go as far as their guards take them with the retooled lineup.
At 7-1, BYU basketball will likely see their ranking dip after falling to Utah Valley, but a week of tough challenges await with rival Utah State on Wednesday then Creighton at the Pentagon in South Dakota the following Saturday.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.
