ANAHEIM -- While many people visiting Anaheim are hoping to make their dreams come true at Disneyland, all of the thoughts of the BYU men's basketball team are focused just down the street from the Magic Kingdom at the Honda Center, where NCAA Tournament first-round play begins Thursday.
The Cougars completed their first full day in Anaheim Wednesday, meeting with the media and conducting practice at the Honda Center.
The team took the floor at the Honda Center for the first time Wednesday afternoon, running through a 40-minute practice in preparation for Thursday's first-round game against Texas A&M. Before practice began, BYU head coach Dave Rose and captains Sam Burgess, Lee Cummard and Trent Plaisted participated in the pre-tournament press conference while the rest of the team conducted additional interviews with the media covering the tournament.
"We are excited to be in the tournament," Rose said. "I'm very proud of our team and how we have responded over the course of the year. We have been extremely consistent. Being able to win the Mountain West Conference regular season championship is a big accomplishment for our team, and we are looking forward to playing a very talented Texas A&M team. I know our players will be ready, and it will be a really competitive game.
"Texas A&M has five really good post players and are a really good offensive rebounding team. They really track down loose balls very well and are very physical and athletic. Those are issues that we'll have to deal with."
Texas A&M head coach Mark Turgeon offered his thoughts on the Cougars during his news conference.
"We know we got a tough draw in BYU," Turgeon said. "But if you look around all the brackets, everybody's got a tough draw. We are looking forward to it, and we know we've got a very skilled, very smart, very intelligent, very tough team that we're getting ready to play tomorrow.
"We can show (our team) film of (BYU) beating Louisville, taking Carolina to the wire, and Michigan State to the wire. ... I've watched BYU enough to know that if they would have played in the Big 12, they would still have been an NCAA Tournament team. They have enough good players, enough maturity, and they have all kinds of skill, and they have a toughness about them that they'd still be in it."
All eight teams participating in Anaheim conducted press conferences Wednesday. Kentucky head coach Billy Gillespie was asked during his press conference if he had followed BYU and Dave Rose at all since both coaches are coaching at the same NCAA site for the second straight year and Gillespie once tried to hire Rose as an assistant coach.
Gillespie responded, "I've always had a great respect for Dave. He is a fantastic human being, number one. And he is a great basketball coach. He's done a great job over there. I haven't had the opportunity to study their team much. I did see them playing against Louisville earlier in the season when we were preparing to play against Louisville. I haven't studied him lately. There's no question he is one of the better coaches in the country. It's always good to see Dave because he always has a smile on his face and has a great attitude and you are happy about the success he continues to have. But it doesn't surprise you. And I wish he would have come on our staff. I couldn't talk him into it."
No. 8-seed BYU plays No. 9-seed Texas A&M Thursday at 4:25 p.m. PT. CBS plans to air the BYU vs. Texas A&M game in Utah, New Mexico and Texas and in parts of Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana with potential break-in coverage in other markets depending on the status of other games. Click the pdf link above to find out if the game will be televised on CBS in your area. It will also be available for free viewing online at www.ncaasports.com/mmod.
Click to read transcripts of pre-tournament press conferences