BYU’s upset of Gonzaga spices up WCC tournament

For most of the season, it appeared the West Coast Conference basketball tournament would serve as little more than a coronation for Gonzaga on its way to another league title and a top seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Then came Saturday.

BYU went on the road and knocked off the Bulldogs to spoil their undefeated WCC season and throw a wrinkle into the event that starts today at Orleans Arena.

Eighth-seeded San Francisco (13-17, 7-11 WCC) will play No. 9 Pacific (12-18, 4-14) at 6 p.m., followed by No. 7 Santa Clara (13-17, 7-11) taking on No. 10 Loyola Marymount (8-22, 4-14) at 8:30 in today’s opening-round action.

The second-seeded Cougars (23-8, 13-5) hit the floor Saturday with a quarterfinal matchup against either Santa Clara or Loyola Marymount at 8:30 p.m. BYU coach Dave Rose hopes his team can use the momentum of the win over the top-seeded Bulldogs (29-2, 17-1) in the season-finale as a springboard to success in Las Vegas.

“I think our confidence level is good,” he said. “One of the biggest challenges as a coach is getting your team to respond after a big win and respond at the same level and intensity after having a whole week where people are congratulating you on the win and telling you how great it was and you’re feeling good about yourself. Hopefully we can handle all that in a way that we can still maintain that edge we have to play with in order to be good.”

The Cougars have been very good the last few weeks.

BYU has won six games in a row since squandering a 16-point lead in an 80-74 loss at Pepperdine on Feb. 5. The Cougars stood at 7-5 in the league after that defeat and were left asking questions of themselves.

“I really believe our guys kind of found themselves,” Rose said. “They had to decide, ‘Are we going to play 20 or 25 minutes and let (games) get away or are we really going to try to focus on getting over the hump and having that second, third, fourth effort on plays and really see what we’re capable of?’ ”

It didn’t take long for Rose to get the answer.

While the Cougars have had expected impressive seasons from standouts Tyler Haws, Kyle Collinsworth and Bishop Gorman alum Anson Winder, Rose felt the role players were too inconsistent.

That changed and so have the Cougars’ fortunes.

“The biggest point from that game on that had to do with our success is we’ve had some additional guys on our roster really step up and play consistently well for us,” Rose said. “We went through a period of time where we had some guys play well besides the guys we rely on every night, but they’d play well for a game or two.

“I think now we’ve found a group of guys that are consistently playing well for us.”

Josh Sharp is a prime example. Through the first 25 games, ending with the Pepperdine loss, Sharp had sat on the bench due to coach’s decision 12 times and seldom made more than cameo appearances in the other 13 games.

He was inserted in the starting lineup for the last six contests and the move has paid dividends.

“He is a senior who’s been around for a long time,” Rose said. “He’s started the last six games and his rebound numbers and understanding of our defensive urgency have been great.”

Rose also pointed to the development of Corbin Kaufusi and Ryan Andrus, along with the emergence of Skyler Halford on the perimeter as major factors in the team’s turnaround.

Of course, BYU’s success is still largely tied to the performance of its stars.

Haws is averaging 21.9 points per game and has made 37 percent of his shots from 3-point range. Last week, the senior guard surpassed Jimmer Fredette as the school’s all-time leading scorer.

Yet, Haws may not even be the Cougars’ most important player.

Collinsworth, a 6-foot-6-inch junior, set an NCAA record by recording five triple-doubles this season.

He enters the postseason averaging 13.5 points, 8.6 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game.

“He’s a really gifted athlete. He’s got great athleticism,” Rose said. “But he really sees the floor well, he’s really unselfish and he just plays as a team-first guy. He leads the league in defensive rebounds playing point guard. That’s a unique combination that just tells you what a special talent he is.”

Collinsworth had 20 points, eight rebounds and three assists in the 73-70 win over Gonzaga on a night Haws struggled shooting the ball.

It proved that not only could BYU beat the Bulldogs, but it could do so without its big scorer having a huge game. While the Cougars remain an offensive-minded squad, Rose said there’s a more important barometer for their success.

He pointed out the team has yet to lose a game in which it out-rebounded its opponent this season.

“We’ve got to hit shots. We don’t score a lot at the rim. We’re a shot-making team,” he said. “We’ve got to make baskets in transition, but we’ve got to be very solid defensively and we’ve got to rebound.”

BYU outrebounded Gonzaga 41-39 in the victory Saturday. The Cougars now know they can do it and hope to get a shot to duplicate the performance in Tuesday’s championship game.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj.