BYU And Saint Mary's Start West Coast Action

Noah Hartsock and BYU open WCC action Thursday at Saint Mary’s.

Talk about diving right into a conference schedule, and a new conference at that.

The Brigham Young Cougars will waste little time getting their feet wet in their inaugural West Coast season when they travel to face the Saint Mary's Gaels on Thursday night.  Tip-off at McKeon Pavilion in picturesque Moraga, CA comes a bit past 11:00 p.m. (ET) with ESPN2 on hand to televise the battle between the Cougars and Gaels.

Oddsmakers sent Saint Mary's out as a 4-point favorite for the contest with 144 for the total.

Having vacated the Mountain West and turned independent in football, BYU chose to align with the West Coast Conference for its other sports starting this season.  Adding the Cougars, who have been hugely successful under Dave Rose, should shine a little more limelight on the WCC, or at least on both Saint Mary's and Gonzaga.  That trio fills three of the top 14 slots in the latest mid-majors poll and each is receiving votes in the coaches poll.

Brigham Young will be facing its first true test since a tough 86-83 loss at home to a very strong Baylor bunch.  The Cougars have since responded with nice wins and covers over Buffalo and UC-Santa Barbara, plus a glorified scrimmage against Cal State-San Marcos that failed to make the college basketball betting board.  They're just a few points away from having covered their last seven lined affairs, and stand 6-4 against the spread overall in reaching the current 11-3 overall record.

Life without Jimmer Fredette, now toiling in the NBA for the Sacramento Kings, hasn't been so bad for Rose & Co.   In fact, it's been pretty darn good since Matt Carlino made his BYU debut in that loss to Baylor.  The UCLA transfer has scored at least 10 in each of his four games so far, reaching 22 in the victory over UCSB, and has been better than advertised on defense as well as dishing off to the open shooter.

That open shooter has more times than not been Noah Hartsock.  The 6-foot-8 senior leads the team in scoring, and would probably lead in rebounds as well if not for the excellent glass work by forward Brandon Davies and swingman Charles Abouo.  Davies has really been impressive coming back from his controversial suspension this past March.

Like their counterparts from Provo, Saint Mary's (11-2 SU, 5-3 ATS) also fell to Baylor, only not by a few like BYU did.  Just before Christmas in Las Vegas, the Gaels dropped a 72-59 decision to the Bears as 3-point underdogs, with Baylor pulling away strongly in the second half following a tight first half.  Randy Bennett's crew rebounded nicely the following evening (Dec. 23) in a decisive 77-61 win over the Missouri State Bears, easily covering the 7½-point chalk and continuing to do a great job at not beating themselves.  The Gaels are among the nation's leaders in fewest turnovers, committing less than 12 per game.

Rob Jones is also among the leaders in rebounds, grabbing 10.6 boards per game to go along with his team-best 14.0 points per outing.  The scoring has dropped off, however, and he's not the guy Bennett wants at the free-throw line with the game in the balance.

A key for this game will be Gaels guard Matthew Dellavedova, specifically his ability to hit from outside. The back-&-forth on both ends of the court between him and Carlino is going to be fun to watch.

This will be the first action for Saint Mary's since that win over Missouri State, so there could be some rust to shake loose with BYU having a little advantage there having had that game vs. CS-San Marcos on Tuesday.  But if the game is anything like the last time the Gaels and Cougars met a little more than a year ago, we're in for a treat.

Brigham Young was laying 1½ down in Texas at the South Padre Invitational in Nov. 2010, and just eked out a 74-73 win behind a late trey by Fredette.  That game fell just short of a 150-point total.

Neither team will have much rest after this one before hitting the court Saturday afternoon.  Saint Mary's makes a quick trip to play Pepperdine while BYU is home to host San Diego.  The Cougars and Gaels meet again in Provo on Jan. 28.