Starch madness: Can 'tater tot heir,' BYU men's basketball slow down high-octane Alabama?

NEWARK, N.J. — Richie Saunders expected to get a lot of questions as the BYU men's basketball team opened its time in the NCAA's East regional semifinals after Wednesday's open practice with the media.

He expected to hear about the Cougars' first Sweet 16 berth in 14 years, about his team-high 16.3 points per game, and even about BYU's streak of 11 wins in the last 12 games — one of the hottest teams in the tournament.

He didn't expect — or maybe he should have — as many questions about potatoes.

"I've probably been asked 75% tater tot questions to 25% basketball questions," said Saunders, whose great-grandfather F. Nephi Grigg founded potato giant Ore-Ida and is credited as the inventor of the tater tot. "I didn't think that was going to happen when I got here; I thought I was here to play basketball. But we're going to talk about tots."

Saunders recently signed a name, image and likeness deal with Ore-Ida, where the company offers free tater tots every time the Cougars win. The company even changed its name briefly to "Ore-Richie" as a nod to its own "tater tot heir."

That's all naturally led to plenty of questions about the Riverton product by way of Wasatch Academy.

A lot of them come from his teammates, like Egor Demin, who recently tried tater tots for the first time, and Trevin Knell, who grew up on the starch staple and now sees them seemingly every time they go to team meals.

"We're always joking about where the tater tots are," Knell said. "But shout out to Richie and his great grandpa, honestly. We're glad that he can stay in the family business."

When it comes to basketball-centric questions asked most Wednesday of BYU was offense.

That is, the Cougars and Crimson Tide both rank among the top offensive teams in the country — including top 10 each in KenPom's predictive metrics.

No. 7 Alabama averages 90.1 points per game with an average scoring margin of plus-9.8, while No. 17 BYU scores at an 81.2-point clip with similar field-goal and 3-point shooting as their SEC counterparts.

Like looking in a mirror, right?

"A little bit," first-year BYU coach Kevin Young said. "I think our end-goals are similar. I think the style of play is a little different in how we generate those things, but in raw metrics and data, there are going to be a lot of similarities."

Many of those similarities date back to Young's time with the Phoenix Suns, when the NBA's former highest-paid assistant coach was working for Monty Williams and Alabama's Nate Oats, who previously coached at Buffalo, would visit the team's training facility in the Valley of the Sun for strategy and mentoring.

"I was probably the one who spent the most time with Nate when he came out," Young said. "Being able to spend time with him, and now fast forward a couple of years and we're playing against each other in the Sweet 16.

"Nate's a smart guy; he wasn't just studying us. I know he made the rounds in the NBA, and he's got a couple of guys on his staff with pro backgrounds that I know as well. They're well-coached and they're whole group does a great job."

Most expect a shootout from the opening tip Thursday (5:09 p.m. MDT, CBS). Such a high-powered offense like the one at Alabama boasts six double-digit scorers, including Mark Sears (18.6 points per game) and Grant Nelson (11.7 ppg).

Aden Holloway (11.3 ppg), Latrell Wrightsell (11.5 ppg), Labaron Philon (10.5 ppg) and Chris Youngblood (10.0 ppg) also score in double digits.

"They're a really high-octane offense," Knell said. "They have really dynamic guards that are really well-coached. I think it's going to be fun to play a team from the SEC and fun to play a team of that caliber."

Added Demin: "I think it's important for us just to be focused on our basketball and not change anything in how we play. Try to play good defense and make them score less than us."

The Cougars aren't offensive slouches, either. Since Feb. 12, BYU boasts the No. 1 offense in the country, per barttorvik.com, with an adjusted efficiency rating of 134.7. They also boast the No. 50 defense in that span, per Torvik.

Alabama is right behind at No. 8, or an adjusted offensive efficiency of 128.2 to go along with the No. 36 defensive team in the same time span.

"Our defense is going to have to be elite but our offense is going to have to be really good, too," Oats said of BYU.

Can BYU also bring the defensive muscle to slow down the Tide, though?

"We know what we need to do," Saunders said. "It's just a matter of executing it."

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