BYU men’s hoops shoots 43 threes in historic season opener
Welcome to a brand new season of BYU basketball.
If you think you know this team, let me tell you: you don’t. Though there may be some familiar faces, this style of basketball is reminiscent of teams years ago.
The thing that set those teams and this one apart? The three-pointer.
It may be easy to label BYU’s first game of the season against Houston Christian an overreaction. However, if you can recall the Cougars’ season opener last year (and for your sake, I hope you can’t), BYU won a grueling 60-56 game against the Bengals of Idaho State. The Cougars shot 3-16 from three that night.
Tonight, they were 15-43.
“We’re not going to get 43 threes in a lot of games, but we’re going to fight to get them up,” said head coach Mark Pope after tonight’s blowout.
On top of a 35% shooting clip from beyond the arc, BYU scored 110 points, marking the highest against a Division-I school in the Pope era. Perhaps more important than the number of points was the confidence from the players to pull from deep. 11 different players took a three-pointer, and for the most part they were quality looks.
“It’s really important for us this year that teams guard us 50×47,” Pope added, referencing the size of half a basketball court.
Some notable shooters Monday night were Trevin Knell — who shot 5-9 and looked healthy coming off a year-long injury — Noah Waterman who shot 3-6 and Jaxson Robinson who shot 3-7.
BYU seems committed to playing fast and getting up a lot of shots. If this trend continues throughout the season, Cougar fans can look forward to some exciting games here shortly. They are also likely to see some frustrating games from BYU when the shooting goes cold, but time will tell.
As the old adage goes: you live by the three and die by the three. BYU was alive and well tonight.
Follow Chase on X — @chase_rogers0
