The SMU men's basketball team had to play California without its biggest player coming off his best game.
Just a few days after putting up a career-high 20 points, including four key free throws, in the win at NC State on Saturday, Samet Yiğitoğlu missed Wednesday's game with an injury.
"He was fouled numerous times in the NC State game, and some were called, some weren't," SMU head coach Andy Enfield said. "But he had aggravated, just kind of an aggravation, and he got a little swelling. He's actually improved a lot the last few days, so we expect him to be day-to-day from here on out. We, just out of precaution, sat Samet (Wednesday), but he has certainly improved the last few days."
While the 7-foot-2 freshman was out, the Mustangs were able to turn to 6-11 Yohan Traore, 6-10 Jerrell Colbert and 6-9 Keon Ambrose-Hylton. That trio combined for seven points and seven rebounds.
"It was unfortunate. Samet had his career high, 20 points, against NC State, four free throws on the road in crunch time, had blocked shots," Enfield said. "But that's what a deep team does, guys step up. I thought Yohan played very hard, Jerrell gave us great defense the second half and Keon helped us go on that first half run where he was very energetic and made a lot of good plays."
While the Mustangs were without Yiğitoğlu, Cal was without its regular starting center Mady Sissoko. That left both teams rethinking the plan they came into the game with.
"They have a deep bench. They did a really good job with roster construction," Cal head coach Mike Madsen said. "With Samet out, they changed some of their ball screen coverages. I think both teams were probably scrambling in the 45 minutes before the game, because that's when they learned Mady was out and that's when we learned Samet was out. I think both teams probably scrambled a little bit in that hour before the game to try to make adjustments."
Ultimately, both teams were forced to go to smaller lineups on the court. SMU still had its trio of Traore, Ambrose-Hylton and Colbert while the Bears still had Lee Dort, but a big part of their center rotations were gone.
"You saw we had Keon at center a lot. They have Dort, who's a true center, but they played some other guys at the center position," Enfield said. "So, we both went small for a big part of the game. The adjustments were just trying to put our best players out there and defend even though we were small. I thought Matt Cross with 14 rebounds, B.J. (Edwards) with nine, Boopie (Miller) came in and got six, really helped us, even though we're playing small."
Cross was a major part of that equation. While he often plays bigger than his 6-7 frame, it was on display even more Wednesday night.
He picked up his sixth double-double of the season with 15 points and a game-high 14 rebounds. Along with the double doubles, Cross has another four games of double-digit scoring and at least eight rebounds and two games with double-digit rebounds.
"It hurts not to have him because he has a big presence down there on both sides," Cross said of Yiğitoğlu. "But we still have other bigs like Jerrell and Yohan, Keon, so I kind of just go about it the same way. I just try to get in there as much as possible, just sometimes it falls in my hands when the 7-2 guy's not on the court."
As Cross would 'get in there,' his teammates followed. It was something that was missing in the Louisville loss, something Cross spoke about after the game. So he made sure that wasn't the case on Wednesday.
"You saw his toughness tonight, 15 points, 14 rebounds. He brings it," Enfield said. "He was very physical, very tough. He leads by example. The other guys went along with him (Wednesday) and played tough. We missed eight open 3s in the second half. So we couldn't really extend the lead, which hurt us. We didn't shoot the ball great the second half, but at least we were tough."
Cross also became a player the guards could turn to in Yiğitoğlu's absence. Some of the sets that they are able to run with Yiğitoğlu just don't work without him on the court. Instead, they looked to Cross who was able to make plays himself, or get it back to open perimeter players.
"Samet is definitely a big advantage being 7-2 and with his skill set," SMU guard Chuck Harris said. "But him not being on the court, I think we looked to play through Matt a little bit more in the post, and then if they wanted to heavy gap and maybe go double him, we've got shooters all around. I think that means better spacing for Matt to get his iso in. But, I think whatever group on a court at any given time, we're pretty comfortable with going to war with that five on the court."
That versatility is what makes the Mustangs a tough team to defend and a dangerous team offensively. If a defense is only worried about stopping one player, there are plenty of others who can step up.
Four players reached double figures, led by Harris with a game-high 20 points, without Yiğitoğlu.
"We've got a lot of guys on our team. I think you can't really game plan for one guy," Cross said. "If you game plan for one guy, I think it's shown that anybody can go off. If you want to focus all the attention on one or double on one, we've got three guards that can go for 20 at any given night and spurts like that. We've got forwards that know the rotations and can dominate in the post at any given night."
SMU has now won back-to-back games and five of its last six since dropping two straight to No. 2 Duke and North Carolina.
As the Mustangs are learning, that's life in the ACC. After a bit of a learning curve, they are ready to keep the wins coming.
"That's just what comes with the conference," Harris said. "The ACC, every game you've got to be ready. I think we've grown through that stretch. Obviously we had some defeats through that, but I think, as a team, we've kind of matured and now we feel pretty battle-tested and that there's not much we haven't seen at this point of the season."
