EnergySolutions Arena
Salt Lake City, Utah
Time: Saturday, 12:00 p.m. MST
TV: ESPNU
What To Watch For:
Wherefore Art Thou, Raul? Junior college transfer Raul Delgado arrived in Provo with a lot of fanfare, highly touted as a shooter and perimeter defender. However, in the early portion of the season, it appeared that many of those skills had been lost in his transition to the faster, more physical Division I game. As a result, Delgado rarely got off the bench. But then a few games ago, searching for any answer to shake up his team's relatively poor string of performances, coach Dave Rose decided to give him a chance — and Raul has made that decision look pretty smart. After a slow start, the newcomer has posted impressive performances in his last two games, scoring 7 and 11 points, respectively. He has done it by shooting efficiently, including a blistering 57 percent from beyond the arc — something this offensively challenged BYU team desperately needs — while also showing flashes of that much-ballyhooed defensive prowess. Will Delgado's hot streak continue? We will find out on Saturday, when his recent spate of performances will almost certainly earn him a good chunk of minutes off the bench. It's up to him to continue proving Rose right.
Erick Green Watch. It is no secret that the Cougars are not a particularly stout defensive team. They have trouble containing dribble penetration, which leads to a series of over-rotations by their back line that begets a multitude of open three-point attempts. This is a well-established pattern by now. So it is with more than a little concern that BYU fans prepare to welcome Erick Green, the nation's leading scorer (25.4 points per game), to the state of Utah. Green isn't a particularly prolific three-point shooter, hitting on only 35 percent of his long-distance attempts, but he can use his quickness to get to the basket basically whenever he wants, and he has a strong mid-range game to boot. (He's shooting 58 percent of two-point field goals attempts this season.) He has also proven willing and able to make the draw-and-kick pass out to his teammates, as he is currently averaging a career-high 4.5 assists per game — and that number would probably be higher if his teammates could consistently make an outside shot. All of this plays directly into the Cougars' biggest defensive weaknesses, which is disconcerting. Any hope they may have of containing Green will likely require a mammoth individual effort from the recently resurgent Anson Winder, a sizable helping of zone defense, and more than a little luck. BYU's team defense just hasn't proven to be good enough to stop players of Green's caliber, and I'm not optimistic about that beginning now.
Home Away From Home. I'm not sure what it is, but BYU seems to play especially well at EnergySolutions Arena — even better than they do in Provo. A lot of this may be due to the fact that the Cougars just shoot the ball better in Salt Lake City for whatever reason. In their last two games ay ESA dating back to last season, the team has made 40.4 percent of their three-point attempts, compared to the paltry 33.4 percent they have converted overall. That is a significant uptick that can't be outright ignored. To be sure, the sample size is impossibly small — just two games, one of which was against a middling Montana team — but when you're talking about a team that needs any sign of good news at this point, I'll take it. Can the Cougars keep their northern magic alive for one more game and notch a win over the Hokies? That remains to be seen, but the answer will likely depend heavily on whether those three-balls keep falling just right through the Salt Lake City air. (Also, a little defense would be nice as well.)
We've reached a point in this season where I really don't know what to expect from this team. Virginia Tech isn't unbeatable by any stretch of the imagination — since starting the season on a 7-0 streak, the Hokies have lost three of their last five games. They got absolutely blitzed by Colorado State their last time out. But at the same time, their strengths (namely Erick Green) are directly correlated with BYU's weaknesses. They have the necessary tools to exploit the Cougars' greatest flaws. So this could really go either way, depending on whether BYU decides to show up in Salt Lake for a full 40 minutes on Saturday afternoon. For the sake of our NCAA tournament hopes, let's hope they do — because while beating a mediocre ACC team at a neutral site wouldn't necessarily be a marquee win for the resume, this team has to start somewhere.
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