The BYU men’s basketball team beat West Virginia on Saturday and has another Big 12 road game at Oklahoma on Tuesday.

It’s a quick turnaround for the Cougars, especially challenging since the program doesn’t hold practices on Sunday. Instead, the team attended church in the morning, flew to Oklahoma and then some of the group participated in a fireside in Norman.

“The vast majority of tomorrow (Sunday) is just going to be the guys having a chance to get spiritually, physically and mentally fresh,” BYU coach Mark Pope said on Saturday after the win at West Virginia. “The most important thing for us is that we can show up at every venue 100% fresh. This league just wants to tear you down. Then Monday will be a heavy day. We’ll hit film hard in the morning then go practice midday. We’ll hit film hard that evening. Then we’ll get another run-through on Tuesday morning and it will be prepped to go.”

The players appreciate the hard work of the coaching staff in weekly game prep.

“Our coaches do a fantastic job of providing the scout,” sophomore guard Dallin Hall said. “We cannot thank them enough or speak highly enough about what they do in their preparation. They really put us in positions to to go out and perform and succeed. Coach (Nick) Robinson’s did a great job of the scout (for West Virginia). They’re just also consistent. Each of them puts in their due diligence. They make sure that we’re prepared and it’s really incredible. It’s just the culture that we’ve created and that they’ve helped create. And so they’re super key to what we do.”

Pope added: “These guys’ hearts and minds are way more important that my X’s and O’s.”

There is always a danger of overwhelming the players with too much information for an opponent, especially with only a couple of days to get ready on the road.

“It’s a filtering process,” Pope said. “Especially with the moving parts that we had on our own team that we’ve got to kind of revise with these guys. You really just get to six main points. We try and weed it down to three main offensive and three main defensive points to kind of get through all the stuff that’s not going to be the difference makers and get to the stuff that is going to be the difference makers.”

Getting healthy is another key for the Cougars, who played Saturday without starting big man Aly Khalifa. The 6-foot-11 center stayed in Provo, along with assistant coach Collin Terry, recovering from the flu bug that has been running through the team. Starting forward Noah Waterman, who went scoreless against West Virginia, was also ill but battled through 16 minutes and had a key block in the second half to set up a Cougars fast break.

Pope said there was a chance Khalifa would be able to join BYU in Norman on Tuesday.

SCOUTING REPORT

Oklahoma, picked to finish 12th (out of 14 teams) in preseason Big 12 predictions, started 10-0 and rose to No. 7 in the AP poll. The Sooners (16-6 overall, 4-5 Big 12) were No. 23 last week but fell out of the poll after a 74-63 loss at UCF on Saturday.

Oklahoma went hard into the transfer portal in the offseason. Sienna transfer guard Javian McCollum leads the Sooners in scoring with 14.3 points. Sophomore guard Otega Oweh averages 13 points per game and 6-7 junior forward Jalon Moore, a Georgia Tech transfer, logs 10.2 points and six rebounds per game. Former Utah Valley sharpshooter Le’Tre Darthard is second on the team with 32 3-pointers.

It’ll be strength-on-strength at the 3-point line: BYU makes 12.1 triples per game and Oklahoma is No. 1 in the Big 12 in 3-point field goal percentage defense (28%).

In other words, another very challenging game in the best basketball league in the country.

“I think it’s just the character of the guys we have on our team that our coaches have recruited,” Hall said. “Everyone’s dream is to compete at the highest level. That’s all we’ve ever wanted since we were young. And so to have a platform in a place where we can do that every night is like a dream come true for us. We’re just trying to relish it and really enjoy it and have fun while we go out there and play because that’s why we play basketball.”

Men’s College Basketball

No. 21 BYU (16-5, 4-4 Big 12) at Oklahoma (16-6, 4-5 Big 12)

Tuesday, 6 p.m. MT

Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla.

TV: None

Streaming: Big 12 Now on ESPN+

Radio: KSL 102.7 FM/1160 AM

Live stats: byucougars.com

The Word: The BYU-Oklahoma series is tied at 2-2. … The Cougars won the last meeting, a 76-75 victory at the Maui Invitational in 1992 on a last-season putback from Kevin Nixon. … Oklahoma has lost three of its past four games. … BYU is averaging 12.1 3-pointers per game and the Sooners are the top 3-point defensive percentage team in the Big 12 (28%).

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