The second game of the day, the final game of my visit to
Utah, and the whole reason I came to Utah in the first place, was to watch #2
Gonzaga visit #23 Brigham Young at the Marriott Center in Provo. While I’ve seen Gonzaga play a bunch of times
across the country, this was my first opportunity to see them in a West Coast
Conference game and it was in by far the biggest venue within the
conference. The Marriott Center, which is
Arena #165 on Mission 351, has a capacity of over 19,000, which is more than
double the size of any other arena in the conference and more than 3x the size
of the McCarthey Athletic Center where Gonzaga plays their home games. I’d always imagined in my mind how huge this
place was going to be, but it actually turned out it wasn’t as massive as the
picture I had in my mind.
Additionally, it’s been a while since I’ve been to a
sold-out game with a raucous crowd so I was thrilled to walk into the building
75 minutes before tip and see a packed student section already amped up for the
game. As the rest of the crowd filled in
and Senior Day activities began for the Cougars, the anticipation for the game
was electric. I’m not sure I’ve ever
seen as elaborate a pregame ceremony and hype video as BYU had having huge
curtains drop down from the ceiling to show the hype video on those
curtains. Obviously, I had no interest
in the BYU fans being hyped for this game, but definitely could appreciate the
presentation and turnout to create one of the best college basketball
environments I’ve been in for a long time.
I fully expected this to be a difficult game and environment
for Gonzaga knowing BYU had a strong inside/outside punch with 6’8 Yoeli Childs
on the inside and sharpshooter (and I think 10th year senior) TJ
Haws on the outside. What I didn’t
expect was such a poor defensive effort from the Zags as they got carved up
inside and outside throughout the night.
BYU was able to pretty much do whatever they wanted to do throughout the
evening and Gonzaga wasn’t able to keep up consistently. The Zags allowed 46 points in the first half
to trail by 8 at the break. Things got
better for a bit in the second half as Gonzaga managed to get the lead down to
1 point at the under 8 media timeout after trailing by as many as 14. However, that is as close as Gonzaga would
ultimately get as BYU hit more timely shots and pulled away for a 91-78 victory. While it was definitely disappointing to see
the Zags take home the L, I can never be upset as a college basketball fan in
general to witness a good court storming in action.
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| Entrance to the Marriott Center on the campus of Brigham Young |
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| View from the upper level of the Marriott Center |
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| Unbelievable intros here dropping down a giant curtain to show the pregame hype video |
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| Opening tip between the Bulldogs and Cougars in front of 19,000+ |
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| Killian Tillie of Gonzaga with the interior shot as the Zags attempt to comeback in the game |
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