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Close losses are fuel for BYU men’s basketball progress

By Darnell Dickson - | Feb 2, 2023

Harold Mitchell/Special to the Herald

BYU's Dallin Hall drives to the basket against Saint Mary's in a men's college basketball game at the Marriott Center on Saturday, January 28, 2023.

There are a lot of ways to break down a college basketball season but in the end, you are what your record says you are.

Right now, the BYU men’s basketball team is 14-10 overall and 4-5 in West Coast Conference play. Post-season opportunities, whether the NCAA or the NIT, are looking like a long shot.

Head coach Mark Pope knew with such a new and young roster there would be good and bad times during the 2022-23 season. A wicked two-game stretch with losses to South Dakota and Utah Valley was followed by a seven-game winning streak. Now the Cougars have lost five of their past seven games, including a pair of one-point losses to No. 8 Gonzaga and No. 22 Saint Mary’s.

In fact, BYU has three one-point losses (including the South Dakota setback) this season and of its ten losses, nine were by single digits.

It’s enough to drive a coach mad.

“This is too complicated for me,” Pope said. “I hope it (the close losses) doesn’t go totally behind us because this has a purpose for us. We knew what we were walking into this season. I think we all just feel desperate to grow and these guys grew on Saturday (the last-second loss to Saint Mary’s) for sure. My most frustrating moment so far this season was San Francisco. We’ve lost other games but that was a game where I felt like we didn’t grow. I felt like we regressed. I don’t know if they have put it behind them. I don’t know if I want them to put it behind them. I wish they could all swallow in the emotion of it. We got punched up pretty good and so it fuels us.”

Pope is trying to focus on the day-to-day improvement for his team and not where they are specifically headed this season.

“I’ve tried not to spend so much time this year on looking at numbers,” Pope said. “It’s kind of what you do when you’re in the hunt, where we’ve been over the past three years. We’ve lived and died by every national statistical prognostication. Right now, I think we feel super overwhelmed with just the job of trying to get better. I mean, you count the guys that were in and out of my office today. It started early in the morning and then all day long, in terms of reviewing film one-on-on and talking about individual games. Trying to lift up guys hearts and spirits. I just think that’s swallowing all of our oxygen right now.”

Freshman Dallin Hall is a perfect example of the growing process and how it can be, to use Pope’s phraseology, “super painful.”

Hall scored a career-high 23 points against Saint Mary’s. He was fantastic on multiple drives to the rim and reading what the Gaels elite defense was giving him. But Hall also went 3 for 6 from the foul line in the second half, including a critical miss in the final ten seconds to leave the door open for a last-second knife-to-the-heart shot by Aiden Mahaney for the win.

“One of the most valuable lessons (from the Saint Mary’s loss) is that we can play with any team in the country,” Hall said. “We have to figure out a few things to close those games out. We’ve just got to take what we can from the game and move forward, otherwise, we’re going to prevent ourselves from progressing. It’s frustrating at times, but we just try to control what we can control.

“Coach has talked about how every champion has been in a hard spot before and it feels like we have been throughout this year. So we’re going to learn from it, grow with it and prove ourselves as champions.”

Scouting Report

BYU plays the second of three straight home games on Thursday against Loyola Marymount. The Lions beat the Cougars 64-59 in Los Angeles on January 5, pulling away in the final few minutes for a hard-earned victory.

Two weeks later, LMU shocked Gonzaga 68-67 in Spokane, ending the ‘Zags 93-game winning streak against unranked opponents and 75-game streak of home victories.

The Lions (6-3) are in third place in the WCC behind Saint Mary’s (8-0) and Gonzaga (7-1).

“They are playing even better now,” Pope said. “Saint Mary’s in the best team in our league right now and LMU is the hottest. They have probably the best point guard in the league. At every position they are super experienced but it’s (Cam) Shelton who is stirring the drink in a really masterful way.”

Shelton, who scored 27 in the win against Saint Mary’s, was just 6 of 15 from the field in the BYU win and scored 13 points, but also hit some key shots in the second half for the Lions. He’s averaging 19.3 points per game.

The Cougars played short-handed against Saint Mary’s due to a one-game suspension served by Noah Waterman, Jaxson Robinson and Atiki Ally Atiki. All three of those players will be back for the game against LMU on Thursday, which will give Pope some more options in the rotation.

Men’s College Basketball

Loyola Marymount (6-3, 16-7) at BYU (4-5, 14-10)

Thursday, 7 p.m. MT

Marriott Center, Provo

TV: CBS Sports Network

Radio: Sirius XM 143/BYU Radio.org/BYU Radio app/KSL 102.7 FM/1160 AM

Live stats: byucougars.com

The Word: BYU leads the overall series with LMU 22-6. … The Cougars are 10-2 against the Lions in the Marriott Center. … LMU won the last meeting 64-59 in Los Angeles and went on to upset Gonzaga in Spokane two weeks later. … The Lions have won four games in a row. … BYU has lost three games in a row and five of its past seven.

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