Post Season Work Begins

Dave Rose knows the score. His team may be the champions, but now the MWC Tournament in Las Vegas opens a whole new season.

“This is a whole new challenge than the goals you have for the year,” said Rose. “What you have to do is take it one game at a time. You have to get the first win before you can go anywhere. It’s all about winning now.”

The MWC changed the format this year. Instead of the champion (BYU) playing the winner of the play-in game after that game is played on a Tuesday, that preamble is now played on Wednesday.

That does two things and they’re probably a push. It forces the winner of CSU-Wyoming to play the next day with no rest in between, a plus for BYU. But it also gives Rose and his staff almost no time — just an evening — to know who their opponent will be and to digest a game plan in one practice session.

Meanwhile, UNLV and the remaing teams in the tournament, have known their opponent since Saturday.

Rose said because this is the third time his team will be playing either Wyoming or CSU, there aren’t many secrets and familiarity rules. It’s a matter of fine tuning a game plan, which he believes his staff is up to the task.

“We do have to clean up some things,” said Jonathan Tavernari. “We can’t come out flat like we did in the second half against TCU.”

The Cougars won the regular season championship with 14 wins, the most conference wins by any team in the nine year history.

BYU will practice Monday afternoon and get in a session Tuesday in the Marriott Center before departing for Las Vegas.