BYU basketball: Epic battle set for Cougs, Lobos

PROVO — In looking forward to Saturday's sell-out and hyped game at the Marriott Center between 10th-ranked New Mexico and No. 13 BYU, the Cougars are reminded of two other recent home games against high-ranked opponents — the 2006 game against No. 13 Air Force and last January's game against No. 2 Wake Forest.

Fans, mostly wearing white, were packed to the ceiling for both games and didn't sit down or shut up for the entire 40 minutes. The Marriott Center doesn't get any louder, and that's what the Cougars are expecting today for what is being billed as the biggest game in Mountain West Conference history.

"With this being the last home game, we hope we play our best," Cougars coach Dave Rose said.

The Lobos are 26-3 overall and 12-2 in the MWC, and they have won 12 straight league games. The Cougars are also 26-3 on the season and 11-2 in conference play, and would jump ahead of New Mexico in the conference standings with two road games remaining next week at Utah and TCU. Clearly, the winner of this game has a leg up on the conference regular-season title.

"It's a big game, but it's a long ways from being over," Rose said. "The most important thing of this game going into the last week of the season is the winner of this game is going to be in the driver's seat. That's a good place to be, but it doesn't guarantee anything."

Not only is today's game crucial to the MWC race and to getting a favorable seed into the NCAA Tournament, it's also the last home game for seniors Jonathan Tavernari, Chris Miles and Lamont Morgan Jr. All three will be honored in a pregame ceremony.

"We've put together a nice string here that hopefully we can continue, and Jonathan, Chris and Lamont have been a big part of that," Rose said.

Miles began his career at BYU in 2004 and was part of a team that won only nine games. Since returning from an LDS church mission, however, he's played on a conference championship team each year — and hoping to be part of a third title-winning squad. "It's what I hoped for, and truthfully what I expected," Miles said of his teams' success at BYU. "But to see it come to pass is another thing. ... There's no program I'd rather be in, and there's no teammates in the country that I'd choose over the ones that I have."

Tavernari will finish his days at BYU as the winningest player in school history, and could possibly be on four BYU teams that have won MWC regular-season championships. His parents, Roberto and Thelma, have been in town for the past two weeks and will see their son play one last time as a Cougar before they return to Sao Bernardo, Brazil, on Sunday.