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STOCKTON, California — It took BYU coach Mark Pope a very long time to emerge from the locker room on the Spanos Heart Saturday evening.
Behind closed doorways, Pope addressed his workforce. Then he talked to a reporter as he made his method again to the court docket for his postgame radio present, making an attempt to elucidate what occurred to his workforce over the earlier 48 hours.
There’s no solution to sugar-coat this — it was a depressing, forgettable weekend for BYU basketball.
First, there was a dramatic, one-point setback at Santa Clara on Thursday. Then got here an embarrassing, inexplicable 76-73 defeat at hapless Pacific Saturday. That was a Quad 4 loss, marking Pope’s worst because the Cougars’ coach. And it was the primary time BYU has misplaced back-to-back regular-season video games in three seasons underneath Pope.
With the win, Pacific earned its first West Coast Convention victory of the season. The Tigers entered the evening ranked No. 303 within the NCAA’s NET rankings and mired in a seven-game dropping streak.
All of a sudden, BYU, which was just one spot exterior the Related Press Prime 25 ballot final Monday, and has been projected as a No. 8 seed within the NCAA Event, is in peril of enjoying its method out of the Huge Dance.
The Cougars dropped six spots, from No. 28 to No. 34, within the NCAA’s NET rankings Sunday.
BYU (17-6, 5-3) sits in fourth place within the WCC standings. And issues solely get harder from right here.
The Cougars host San Francisco (No. 38 within the NET) Thursday and No. 2 Gonzaga (No. 1 within the NET) Saturday.
Pope blamed himself for the pair of losses over the weekend. And he indicated that adjustments are coming this week.
“We’ve had two actually subpar defensive video games for ourselves the final two nights. I’ve executed a poor job making ready our workforce for these video games. We’ve executed a poor job having an edge to protect. We've got to protect,” Pope mentioned.
“It’s actually necessary. We’ve gotten to the place that we’ve been at as a result of we’ve guarded and rebounded at an elite degree. We actually didn’t try this on this journey. Each workforce goes to undergo stretches the place they’ve bought to re-tool themselves. We’ve bought to re-tool ourselves proper now.”
Final weekend’s efficiency magnified points that BYU has had this season, particularly inconsistency. The Cougars had 18 turnovers towards Santa Clara and 13 towards Pacific. BYU shot 42% from the sector and 33% from the 3-point line Saturday.
As Pope mentioned, his workforce has hung its hat on its protection and rebounding all season lengthy. However BYU wasn’t ok in these areas final weekend.
The Cougars had a four-point lead and the ball with lower than one minute remaining towards Santa Clara earlier than collapsing.
Saturday, BYU needed to mount a livid rally to slice a 13-point deficit with a bit of greater than two minutes remaining to 2 factors within the remaining minute. However the Cougars couldn’t recover from the hump.
The loss to the Tigers is an eyesore on the Cougars’ NCAA Event resume and it may show pricey on Choice Sunday. There’s little margin for error from right here on out.
This isn’t a perfect time for re-tooling, what with the Dons and the Zags paying visits to the Marriott Heart. However Pope and his workers want to determine how you can repair their workforce’s points.
“San Francisco would be the hardest sport we’ll play all yr, similar to this Pacific sport was the toughest sport. It’s all the time the identical. It by no means adjustments,” Pope mentioned. “That’s how the season goes — the subsequent sport is the toughest sport we’ve ever performed.
“We is likely to be studying that a bit of bit, perhaps. However I've plenty of religion in these guys. These guys reply and so they’ll ring the bell. I do know I’ll get higher. We’ll transfer on. It’s what we do. This sport asks you ways you’re going to reply and it’s actually asking us that proper now.”
Gamers weren’t made out there for interviews after Saturday’s loss.
Pope described them as “tremendous upset. These guys work laborious. They’re nice younger males. They’re tremendous dedicated. What they’re making an attempt to do is de facto laborious. They took a few hits. This sport is so lovely about ripping you to shreds and form of exposing your entire world after which seeing the way you reply. Actually, we’re in a spot now the place we’re actually challenged to see who we're and what we’re fabricated from.”