All told, the coach is 13-10 in conference tournament games. Rose's third-seeded Cougars will attempt to boost that percentage on Saturday when they open the 2016 WCC tournament against sixth-seeded Santa Clara at Orleans Arena (2 p.m. MST, BYUtv).
BYU hopes it is the first step toward winning a conference tournament for the first time since 2001, when Steve Cleveland was the coach and the Cougars edged New Mexico 69-65 down the road at the Thomas & Mack Center.
The Cougars (22-9) crushed the Broncos (11-19) twice in the regular season, by scores of 97-61 and 96-62, but conference tournament games are a different animal, Rose has stressed to his guys all week.