Alford believes BYU better without returning players

Tipoff is just a few hours away and I picked up a copy of the local paper to see what pre-game coverage the ABJ had in it.

UNM coach Steve Alford’s take on the Cougars who lost Trent Plaisted, Ben Murdock and Sam Burgess:

“They’re really good. I think they’re better than last year, to be honest with you. I think the amount of ways they can score, the way they share the basketball, their confidence. They’re an eyelash from being 16-0. After they lost those senior guards, everyone thought they would lose something. But Freddette and Emery have been terrific. They’ve just got a lot of hard matchups.”

In my column today, I mentioned the Lobo fan hatred directed at Plaisted at last year’s game here. He was part of a lot of UNM frustration on how that game ended. The Lobos failed to run a play involving J.R. Giddens in regulation. When Jamaal Smith missed an off-balanced jumper, Dairese Gary tried the tip but got smacked in the head by Plaisted and there was no call.

The crowd went nuts. According to the ABJ today, “On first view, it appeared Plaisted knocked Gary to the floor. But replays from other angles showed that Gary was falling before Plaisted grazed him.”

The fans didn’t care, they were pretty intense at Plaisted. I remember after the game, Chris Miles egged on the crowd who were on the Cougar team pretty good.

“I think it was OK for them not to call it,” Gary said a year ago. “That game shouldn’t be decided on that.”

Anyway, some pregame thoughts….