A long and frustrating week for BYU’s basketball program, which saw the postponement of three consecutive games and attempts to schedule other games, resulted in the final challenge.
Tuesday, Cougars (9-2, 0-0) filled the void on Thursday’s schedule – advancing in a clash with the best team in the country.
BYU, who has not played since December 23, will visit No. 1 Gonzaga on Thursday (6:30 pm MST, ESPN). This will mark the opening of the Cougars’ West Coast Conference.
This week’s game against the Zags (10-0, 1-0) is a rescheduling of the February 6 meeting and not an additional game. What will happen to that February 6 game is yet to be determined.
“When all else fails, the only trainer and program in America that you know will be like, ‘Bring this on, man, we’re not scared’, are the Zags,” said trainer Mark Pope on his trainer program on BYUtv Tuesday at night. “I couldn’t love them anymore just because they’re like, ‘Let’s play.’ We want to play desperately and they want to play desperately. “
The WCC, BYU, Gonzaga (10-0) and ESPN worked together to modify the schedule. BYU was originally scheduled to host Pacific on Thursday, while the Zags were due to play in Santa Clara on Thursday.
Pacific and Santa Clara are on pause due to COVID-19 problems. About half of the WCC’s programs are paused.
Last weekend, four of the league’s five games were canceled due to concerns about COVID-19. This has led to discussions between coaches and league officials, Pope said.
“I think we have made some progress in terms of how we, as a conference, are going to proceed. I am incredibly optimistic about this. … All coaches started a dialogue. I talked to half the league coaches in the past 48 hours trying to work things out. This is how it will work for the rest of the year. “
The Cougars have not played since December 23, an 87-79 victory over Weber State. BYU has a goodbye on Saturday’s schedule. The next game scheduled is January 14 at Saint Mary’s.
Much effort was made to get a game on Thursday.
“It’s been a crazy mess. When we found out that we were losing these two games last weekend and this game this week, I really believe that we can’t just hope to postpone those games and get them back, ”said Pope. “What we did was start a great dialogue with the league and the league coaches. We talked to about 20 teams, some who were losing games because their opponent was on break outside our league, all the teams that could play within our league. As soon as we found out that our game (Saturday) was canceled on Friday, we called other teams, but it just didn’t work. Every day, several times a day, trying to find teams to play. “
Undoubtedly, Pope and his team are happy to have a game this week.
“I am very grateful to the Zags. I say that now, ”said the coach. “We will see how I feel Thursday night after the game. I can’t say enough good things about them. “
In the most recent encounter between BYU and Gonzaga on February 22 in Provo at the end of the regular season for both teams, No. 23 Cougars defeated No. 2 Gonzaga 91-78 in front of a crowded crowd at the Marriott Center.
The Zags have a streak of 14 consecutive wins, 44 consecutive wins at home and a sequence of 22 consecutive wins at the WCC.