Comments about ‘BYU basketball: Cougars looking for strong start at Santa Clara’

If BYU starts the game with the urgency that this is a game that they absolutely have to win in order to get an NCAA tournament invite, which it is, then the Cougars have a very good chance of beating the Matadors.

Strong starts are overrated. BYU started strong at Baylor and lost big. How many times have you seen a game where a team scores a bunch of points in the first few minutes, only to lose the game as it unfolds?

Frank Arnold used to say that the most important part of a basketball game is the last few minutes of the first half and the first few minutes of the second half. However, BYU does need to keep things close at the start of the game or risk making a comeback impossible.

As much as I dislike the slow starts, it's better than getting an early lead and then not being able to finish and losing down the stretch - like a team up North.

If the Cougs fall behind by double digits against Santa Clara, Saint Mary's or the Zags; they will not be able to recover like they've done against a couple other teams.

If I use Sagarin's Predictor from his SOS rankings I get BYU at 83.93 and Santa Clara at 83.55 which, in the world of Statistics, means it is a toss-up!

Hopefully BYU can have a great FULL game! It should be an exciting game to watch!