Brigham Younger Cougars cheer as they're profitable within the closing minutes of the second spherical of the 2022 West Coast Convention males’s basketball match towards the Loyola Marymount Lions on the Orleans Enviornment in Salt Lake Metropolis on Friday, March 4, 2022. BYU received 85-60. Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
Is Fousseyni Traore BYU’s child Charles Barkley?
On the best way to what quantities to an NCAA play-in sport towards San Francisco, BYU beat LMU for the third time this season, this time 85-60.
However extra importantly, Mark Pope is getting some consistency out of his staff. Though an underdog towards the higher-seeded Dons, Pope’s bought some hope with the elevated confidence in what's now a three-game win streak.
You’ve bought to admire what he’s bought in freshman middle Traore.
He’s solely 6-foot-6 and barely sufficiently old to drive.
Do not harm em Fouss 💪 pic.twitter.com/IOLDVQYqd4
— BYU Males's Basketball (@BYUMBB) March 5, 2022
But it was enjoyable to see Traore matchup towards LMU’s senior Eli Scott on Friday night time.
Scott can also be 6-foot-6, and LMU likes to put up him up inside as a result of he's so robust and efficient at shifting folks round. He has a large physique, fast toes and is constructed like a Marvel Comedian mini-Hulk.
On Friday, LMU appeared to Scott as its major offensive weapon.
On this sport, Traore and Scott have been going at it within the paint. Scott bought his factors, however Traore was extraordinarily spectacular towards the way more bodily mature and skilled LMU ahead.
Traore nearly doubled Scott in rebounds.
Scott completed with 24 factors on 9 of 15 taking pictures with a team-high six rebounds in 32 minutes.
Traore had 15 factors on 6 of 8 taking pictures from the ground and 11 rebounds in simply 22 minutes. He has had 40 factors and 25 rebounds the previous two video games.
“I don’t suppose he is aware of how good he's,” stated BYU’s senior star Alex Barcello of Traore after the sport.
On the 3:14 mark of the primary half, Scott posted up Traore and commenced to again down the Cougar freshman. Scott made his spin transfer, rose as much as shoot and Traore smacked it away.
Traore had two thundering dunks within the first 22 minutes, each coming dwelling from excessive above the rim.
The factor Pope has to like about Traore is he's nonetheless in his infancy as a basketball participant, though he had a stable profession at Wasatch Academy earlier than coming to Provo.
It's a must to word the parallel rebounding universe he’s working towards with teammate Caleb Lohner.
In Lohner, Pope has an especially gifted athlete with a physique made to rebound. He's two inches taller than Traore and has fast hops.
A 12 months in the past as a freshman, Lohner led BYU in rebounding with simply greater than seven a sport. This on a staff with 7-foot-3 middle Matt Haarms, who had 5 rebounds a sport.
So, in idea, Lohner is a stud contained in the paint relating to rebounding. In BYU’s win over LMU, he had simply 6 factors on 3 of 4 pictures and hauled down 10 rebounds.
Traore got here into Friday’s sport towards LMU main the Cougars in rebounding with simply over eight a sport, taking part in a median of a minute extra a sport than Lohner as a result of he’s been pressed into taking part in the put up within the absence of injured Richard Harward and Gavin Baxter.
Down the stretch this season Traore and Lohner have had their share of battles going for a similar rebound, combating one another. This occurred a number of occasions Friday night time, when each have been in the suitable place.
Lohner is a greater rebounder out of his space together with his quickness. Traore is healthier inside more often than not as a result of he has a type of ghost-like further seven or eight inches on the apex of his soar peak.
Time and time once more, Traore merely reaches excessive of outstretched palms and absorbs missed pictures with a one-handed vice.
Traore will end the season because the third main freshman rebounder of all time behind Yoeli Childs and Shawn Bradley.
His six offensive rebounds towards LMU tied him for sixth all-time by a freshman in a single sport.
Lohner, who completed with 10 rebounds, has three consecutive double-digit rebounds in post-season video games after Friday’s efficiency.
The Cougars play a much more proficient and taller staff in San Francisco Saturday night time. The Dons are a 26 ranked staff within the NET, a stable Quad 1 opponent. The Cougars break up with San Francisco throughout the common season. The winner performs No. 1 seed Gonzaga on Monday.
Saturday is an enormous one.
BYU will want some extra of this Traore/Lohner hustle that’s surfaced the previous two weeks.
It'll take that and much more struggle witnessed within the final assembly of those two squads.