St. Mary's is Favored

I love being the underdog.



I watched the Baylor vs. Miss St game last night (great game) and they mentioned several times how Baylor had felt dissed as they had be the underdog vs Northwestern @ Northwestern and vs BYU in Provo. Seemed to think that helped motivate them. I'm all for motivating the Cougs to win over St. Marys. I'm believing we win.

I think the team will step up big for this game. They need and Im sure want to make a splash statement for the first WCC game. They got up for the Baylor game and hopefully the new guys won't be intimidated with SM's small arena and crowd and team and, I guess, espn2.

If we hold down our to's and hit our FT's, we win this one in a tight game.

St. Mary's is at home, and hasn't lost to a team like Utah State (at least I think that they haven't). They should be favored. And I hope that they get knocked down a bit by a solid BYU team tonight



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St. Mary's is a good team at home. They should be favored,.especially when you consider BYU hasn't beaten anyone of note.



School is out for St. Mary's and BYU travels well. Every local BYU fan with the means to drop $50+ on a game will be there. St. Mary's has had to release student section tickets because there were no students to take them. You can bet their student section will have a healthy population of BYU fans. That ought to take the wind out of their sails a bit.



St. Mary's got crushed by Baylor. Granted, we played Baylor at home, but we matched up pretty well so that should give us some confidence.



Add in the fact we're the underdog and will hopefully come in with a chip on our shoulders and I like our chances. This team can get up for the big games. Yes, it was largely Jimmer, but Davies, Noah and Abouo were there last year when we knocked off a top 10 SDSU on their court.



Speaking of tickets, I have an extra if anyone wants it...



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BYU was favored against #6 Baylor? I don't think so...





St Mary's should be favored slightly at home against BYU. But with that being said, these guys haven't beaten anyone. They are SEVERELY OVERRATED. The only two remotely good teams they have played they have lost to. (Denver and Baylor). Someone up there mentions losing to Utah State in basketball, like that is a bad thing? Utah State is an annual threat to go dancing. And if we had Carlino - or a real PG - at the start of the year, we don't lose that game.



I think that BYU wins this pretty easy, with good officiating. It would be a much easier win if we had Ccoll and Rodgers for the game, but even so, I don't see this one being a problem, barring an absolute implosion by BYU. We will win, we will cover the spread. I'm thinking we win this by about 10 points tonight, if not much more. We will be up for the level of play, and BYU is going to look good tonight. Tues nights game was the perfect game to get the right mindset, and get some confidence that will carry over.

BlueIsBetter wrote:
BYU was favored against #6 Baylor? I don't think so...

Yeah, BYU was favored to win by at least Ken Pomeroy and ESPN. I know some vegas lines had BYU as winning by 1.5 and 3, but I didn't follow the lines up to kickoff.

So, is Saint Mary's a better or worse team than last year?

I think BYU could safely be labeled as a tick down from last year.

So, i get the "slightly favored" but is your confidence in a BYU win as warranted given my question? Iirc, we won by 2 last year at home.

NOt challenging. Just asking.



Andy Katz was the only major media person who picked BYU as an "upset." Which means BYU was the dog by odds makers.

The game last year was not at home but part of a tournament. If I remember right it was an island off of Texas.

South Padre Island Invitational. BYU played okay but had zero inside presence vs St. Mary's last year. Assuming we keep playing like we have this year I think we can actually do better this time around.

dmcougar wrote:
So, is Saint Mary's a better or worse team than last year?

I think BYU could safely be labeled as a tick down from last year.

So, i get the "slightly favored" but is your confidence in a BYU win as warranted given my question? Iirc, we won by 2 last year at home.

NOt challenging. Just asking.



Andy Katz was the only major media person who picked BYU as an "upset." Which means BYU was the dog by odds makers.

I think St. Mary's, like us, is a bit worse this year.



They lost their leading scorer, Mickey McConnell (G), who averaged 37 min a game, 16 pts/game and shot 50% from the field and 45% from 3 point land.



St. Mary's currently only has two players averaging more than 10 pts/game. After their starting 5 the production drops quite dramatically. They basically start 3 guards and 2 forwards. And, if I'm not mistaken, the tallest player on their starting 5 is 6'7".



BYU on the other hand has 4 out of 5 starters averaging more than 10 pts/game with Brock Zylstra due for a double digit night (remember he goes dark one game, lights out the next). Davies comes in at 6'9" and Noah at 6'8". Abouo and Zylstra are basically as tall as St. Mary's biggest starters. We have a complete size advantage on them that we better exploit to no end.



Also, word is Clint Steindl, St. Mary's 6'7" starting forward/center, sprained his ankle pretty bad the other day and until yesterday was questionable for tonight's game. He'll more than likely play, but he won't be 100 percent. Take it to him, Davies.

Thanks Gunk. Very helpful. THis indeed could be a 10+ point win for the Cougs.

Lets hope for a win tonight and tomorrow morning!

I think with Rogers and Ccoll healthy we are actually a better TEAM than we were last year (even with Jackson and Jimmer gone). We are deeper than I think we have ever been at every position. We just need one guy to step up and be the guy that stops runs. So far that has been Noah, and I think we need to continue to find him.



Carlino needs some time to get the point, then Winder and Cusick can run the backup position pretty well.



Davies made some pretty sweet passes off the double team the other night. That is a VERY VERY good sign for the cougs, if we get that going all season long.

BlueIsBetter wrote:
I think with Rogers and Ccoll healthy we are actually a better TEAM than we were last year (even with Jackson and Jimmer gone). We are deeper than I think we have ever been at every position. We just need one guy to step up and be the guy that stops runs. So far that has been Noah, and I think we need to continue to find him.



Carlino needs some time to get the point, then Winder and Cusick can run the backup position pretty well.



Davies made some pretty sweet passes off the double team the other night. That is a VERY VERY good sign for the cougs, if we get that going all season long.

No doubt about it. Rogers is good for scoring every game and with Noah actually playing like a big man we have 3 big guys whereas last season it was just Davies and the Anderson poster.