BYU Basketball is 'The Healthiest They've Been by Far' Going into March Madness
On Saturday night, BYU basketball wrapped up the regular season with a win over Oklahoma State in front of a sellout crowd. After the game, head coach Mark Pope was asked about the health of his team going into the conference tournament and the NCAA tournament.
"Incredibly, we're the healthiest we've been all season by far. It's not even close," Pope said. "We have a bunch of guys that are already scheduled for surgery immediately after the season, so we have our contingent of those guys, but they're kind of hanging in there. And they're still super productive, so we feel pretty good about that. We feel pretty good about the pieces we have on the floor."
BYU has dealt with numerous injuries this season. BYU starting center Aly Khalifa missed multiple games this season due to a knee injury. Another BYU big man, Fousseyni Traore, injured his hamstring against NC State and missed the rest of the non-conference slate. BYU sharpshooter Trevin Knell missed multiple games after he suffered an ankle injury. Prior to his injury, Knell was the best three-point shooter in the conference. Knell has struggled to regain that consistency since returning from injury, but his shooting percentages have slowly started to improve.
Some BYU fans might forget about other injuries like the ones to Dawson Baker and Marcus Adams Jr. Baker was expected to play a critical role on this BYU basketball team, but a foot injury limited his playing time all season. Marcus Adams Jr., one of BYU's biggest recruiting wins of the offseason, dealt with an injury throughout the season that limited his participation.
Now in March, BYU is playing some of its best basketball of the season. That has a lot to do with the health of the team. Guys are banged up, but all the critical pieces that BYU has had throughout the year will be available for the conference tournament and the NCAA tournament.
There's no better time to be healthy. BYU's ceiling is as high as any team in the country when the threes are falling. Health is a prerequisite to a deep tournament run. Now that the Cougars are healthy, they have a chance to leave their mark in March.
Follow us for future coverage:
Facebook - @CougsDaily
Twitter - @Cougs_Daily and Casey Lundquist at @casey_lundquist
Instagram - @cougs_daily
