Products You May Like
In the middle of the BYU basketball team’s 10-2 start is a trend that might be a little troubling down the stretch in the Big 12 race that ratchets up Saturday at No. 14 Houston, one of the best defensive squads in the country.
In his last three games, Egor Demin, the 6-foot-9 freshman point guard from Russia via Real Madrid, has not played like the projected lottery pick in the NBA draft that he is supposed to be.
Instead, wily veteran Richie Saunders, who scored a career-high 30 points in unranked BYU’s 76-56 blasting of a decent Arizona State team Tuesday in front of more than 16,000 at the Marriott Center, has clearly emerged as BYU’s best player.
The other highly-touted freshman on 10-2 BYU’s roster, four-star recruit Kanon Catchings, had a better December, too, after a slow start from beyond the 3-point arc. Catchings, also in the 6-foot-9 range, made 3 of 7 3-point attempts on New Year’s Eve and finished with 11 points, two rebounds, a steal and a rim-protecting blocked shot.
“So my biggest thing with Kanon and Egor is to try and help them get better every day,” BYU coach Kevin Young said, responding to a question about Catchings’ improved defense. “And if we do that and just think about what the best versions of them (will) look like in March, that gets me excited relative to what else we have in our locker room.”
Demin played reasonably well in November, scoring 14 points or more in five of seven games that month. But he struggled mightily in the 83-64 loss at Providence — a knee contusion sustained early in that game in Rhode Island slowed him down — and missed the Fresno State, Wyoming and Florida A&M games while recovering.
Tuesday he was 2 of 8 from the field (0 of 5 from 3-point range) and is now 5 of 25 from the field and 0 of 12 from beyond the arc in his last three games.
Recognizing that his shot just wasn’t there against the Sun Devils (9-3, 0-1), he turned to his biggest strength — passing the ball — and had a game-high seven assists to offset five turnovers.
Young said Demin’s struggles could “maybe” be attributed to rust, but added that the teenager’s shot selection hasn’t been great, either.
“He takes some forced (shots) at times,” Young said, noting that late in the game ASU coach Bobby Hurley put 6-9 freshman Jayden Quaintance on Demin and that caused him some problems.
“I think it was good for (Demin) to play against that level of length, and he will continue to get better,” Young said.
Overall, however, Young is happy with where his first BYU team is at. And it is finally healthy, after going through December with various expected contributors on the bench.
“We have a good basketball team. We have a lot of talent. We got guys that play the right way,” Young said. “I think our chemistry is really growing. So because of all those factors, I think our guys should play with an extreme level of confidence.”
ASU’s coach wasn’t surprised.
“I really like what they have. They jumped out at me on film. I knew it was going to be a really hard game because they have good young players and Saunders is a very good player,” Hurley said. “He was excellent tonight.”
Young said BYU’s toughness with the basketball “was the game-decider” against ASU, the 4th-best shot-blocking team in the country.
“Physicality shows its head in a lot of ways. Not just setting screens and rebounding. I think it is ball toughness. It is how hard you cut. It is how hard you sprint back. That is something we harp on every day, and I did think we were the more physical team tonight,” Young said.
It will take another standout performance by Saunders, and more, on Saturday, as BYU heads to Houston for its first true road game since that disaster at Providence.
Houston is 1-0 in Big 12 play, having downed Oklahoma State 60-47 in Stillwater on Monday, and 9-3 overall.
The red-wearing Cougars’ losses are to No. 11 Auburn, No. 9 Alabama, and perennial Mountain West power San Diego State.
“Yeah, let’s go,” Saunders said of the rematch with the other Cougars, having lost to Kelvin Sampson’s crew 75-68 in the Marriott Center last season. “That is going to be a big game. We know how good Houston is.”
BYU is good, too, especially when Demin plays like he did in November.