I would like to say the game was surprising, but in my mind it was not except I thought we would be better defensively inside. We knew the officiating would be pro-Gonzaga and it was. We knew Gonzaga would try and force the ball down our throats inside-they did and that opened up the outside three point shots. We saw our weaknesses throughout the season and they have gotten better lately, but they were exposed tonight. KC played well, but too much was asked of him offensively. FB4 just seemed too hyped up-couldn’t even dribble the ball in the first half. Fischer horrible in first half, started 2nd half well offensively but then disappeared on the bench-maybe defensive liability. Haws played a credible game. Halford had turnover problems, but hit a few big shots. The difference of course-inside-no question about it and the officials didn’t help things. A couple of horrible calls, but they didn’t cost us the game. Crossing my fingers on selection Sunday.
I’m proud of our guys. They fought hard and gave it their all. We don’t have the program Gonzaga does, but we proved we can scrap and claw our way to compete with them, heck even beat them earlier. We may just be a little team from Provo, but we have heart and this mid major if given a shot can put a scare in some of the big boys out there. Let’s pray for a spot.
If the officials didn’t cost BYU the game they surely helped Gonzaga all night long, al la rec league WCC. Everyone knows that the ECC is dominated by GU, including the officials on the basketball court. The big guy for GU pushed and mauled hisself all night long. He played more like a fullback in the NFL and constantly bullied the BYU players into breathing fouls as he constantly grabbed and pushed and pulled on BYU players who were called for fouls, when more than often he was the fouler, niot the BYU players. The GU guard on Haws pushed, grabbed, and pulled on Haws all night long and was the benefactor of numerous phantom fouls called on BYU players. This was the usual WCC over reach of WCC officials pandering the GU.
Refs not the best but not reason for loss.
Inside game on both ends was just pathetic. Take away our point guard, who is by far our best inside player, and BYU may well be the weakest inside team in college ball. It is what it is. Had Mika been around, or at least Austin for D, this would have been a different season.
I just don’t think an NCAA invite makes sense. It’s a one and done deal.
Go NIT and make a run.
By the way, fisher did a big game disappearing act again tonight and Bartley looked completely inept. Both of these guys struggle big time handling pressure in games like this, which is sad to watch. Kyle is just the reverse as he proved again tonight
I disagree about the officials. At halftime two things were decided: 1) no 3 second rule enforced, and 2) BYU would not be allowed to defend the post. I honestly don’t know whether it is bias or just ineptitude. The result: 6-0 fouls in 4 minutes, point blank shots for GU every time down, and the game was OVER with 16 minutes to go. Incidentally, when they finally called the late 3 seconds on Karnowski, I rewound and counted to 7 before the whistle. When Sabonis quadruple pumped, I counted 6. My point is that we were completely outmanned in the post as it was, but when the rules were modified we had zero chance to compete. We may have lost anyway, but I’m just saying what I think I just saw.
It’s hard to say that the officials cost BYU the game. I have watched Gonzaga many times this year and they are seldom ever called for lane violations and I’m not saying they don’t happen, just saying they aren’t called. The tell-tell stats are shooting percentages 53%-40%-3 point 66%-39%. BYU actually out-rebounds Gonzaga, but had more turnovers, but turnovers really weren’t a factor for either team. BYU had many chances to get the upper hand in this game despite the obviously blind officials, but didn’t make key shots. When was the last time you saw Rose get a technical? Fischer had many chances the first half to hit open 3’s and just missed. BYU does better as a team when KC has less points and more assists, but when your teammates aren’t hitting their shots their isn’t anything left to do except try to score. I stated in a previous post that BYU needed a healthy Winder to win here and advance in the tourney and I stand by that statement, especially with a cold shooting Fischer and Halford only getting 7 shots. BYU scrapped most of the game, but couldn’t overcome the inside presence that opened up the wide-open three point shots that killed us.
It happens every time in the WCC when Gonzaga is playing. The dwarfs in stripes bend to GU and let them bull doze every opponent that does not have GONZAGA written on their jerseys. The referees are a disgrace in the rec WCC which ought to change its name to WCGUC or the West Coast Gonzaga U Conference. The truth is the truth. BYU may not be as good as GU but the officials should call the game fairly. They do not when a championship is on the line and the GU men are playing.
Speaking with blue goggles? I saw nothing wrong with the way their bigs played the game. There was no dislodging, just weak bodies like Neilsen and Andrus. The difference with their bigs is they play correct defense. We grab, swat down at everything. Play too much with our hands and arms on defense and not enough with our feet and legs. There were a couple of bad calls but reality is, we did foul them and a lot. Was it big enough to lose the game? No. We shot a miserable 40%. That’s where we lost the game. Also, we did nothing to create fast breaks which would have caused the shooting percentage to go up and stay in the game.
Face it, we have trouble with back-to-back games. Fischer was cold and so was everyone else. Haws shot okay but got stuffed a couple times. KC’s last shot was with 6:30 to go. Didn’t take another shot and yet had 28 points. The only one really scoring. Then, coach didn’t help with the technical.
Must read comments from Mark Few:http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger/mark-few-makes-a-case-for-byu-after-gonzaga-s-title-win-055409508.html
Few has always been a gracious winner, and he makes it easy for me to root for Gonzaga (even though I can’t stand Wiltjer’s smirking whenever he makes a play). Remember that Sabonis is a freshman–he will have some epic battles with Mika and Aytes and Davis and Dastrup in the years to come!
Yep but Gonzaga will direly miss what’s his name-ooo yeh Pangos-that guy is about as unselfish a ball player as you can get. I watched him get four fouls a few games ago and the Zags were far from the same team without him and I haven’t seen anyone on their roster that comes close to measuring up to him, but they will probably find someone we have never heard of. BYU can only get better with their bigs, now they need to have someone step up and replace Haws or do better by commitee.
BYU just could not defend the low post once Kaufusi got into foul trouble. Nielson has got to hit the weights and get some strength to his core or he will be a liability for his entire career. If you are getting paid to play in college at least hit the weights in the summer and come back strong enough to play the game.
Once Gonzaga established the inside game, they were free to bomb away and when Bell and Wiltjar started hitting, there was 0 chance of BYU contending…yeh, the refs…yeh they were biased but that had nothing to do with GU winning this game.
Rooting for BYU to come in and play Indiana. We actually could win a few games.
Maybe you can do it Chris or maybe somebody else can, but perhaps an explanation or some reason why BYU was able to “defend the low post” in Spokane but not in Las Vegas? I mean Few made it look so easy last night with Karn bulling his way inside, camping in the key, using his arms to create space and shuffling his feet during moves to the basket more than once.
Seriously, how did they do it and how was BYU not able to stop it in this game but by some miraculous way they did in Spokane?
I believe it is all in the way the game is called… so to say that the officiating had NO effect on whether BYU won or lost is sort of inaccurate, isn’t it?
Not sure why everyone keeps changing their tune, depending on how they feel at the moment. Gavenman just looks at the stats and comes up with his reasons…
Remember Kafusi is a freshman too with huge upside. Our post players in the future are is huge! So is our guards. Things are looking up!
We played better defense. Kam wasn’t dislodging Kaufusi. But, he was the other skinny centers we have. He wasn’t doing it illegally either. Those are ligit bumps and he was not extending his arms. All perfectly legal. Take those blue glasses off and you might see better.
As far as 3 seconds In the key, that’s called much more in high school, not so much in college and very little in the NBA. I find it hilarious how so many in here count 3 seconds. Watch them count for the 5 second counts. It’s basically 2 seconds in real time for 1 second in basketball time. We simply a step slow on defense most of the game. 0 steals the entire game? Can’t win doing that. Playing the 7th team in the nation, you have to play your very best on both offense and defense and we did neither.
once again, your comments don’t address my questions and you misunderstood.
I was talking about the use of his arms when he is trying to position himself, not once he has the ball. He used his arms and body to push guys out of the way and establish inside position. Many of those could have been called fouls but the refs never did. They only called fouls on the defenders trying to establish their own position. I don’t think Karnowski fouled much at all once he got the ball. He was very good at moving himself toward the basket without knocking guys down. However, he did shuffle his feet quite a bit and was NEVER called for 3 seconds.
That’s another thing, you don’t have to count when the shot clock is on the screen the entire game. Did you not notice that? Once he enters the key, even having one foot in, the count begins. If he is in there for three seconds, even if he has the ball, it is a violation. The count only ends once a shot attempt is taken and if the ball is loose for a rebound there is no count. The only time it was called actually was one time when Wiltjer (I think) had the ball in there for about 6 or 7 seconds. I guarantee Rose was harping on it most of the second half so the call was made to pacify him and probably involved a little guilt on the part of the ref.
And FYI, it IS called in college when you have officials that are paying attention instead of getting caught up in the drama and emotion of the game while allowing one team to do whatever they want.
Some of you guys are like the clapping monkey that Gary alluded to. Just sit there and clap when BYU scores, like the monkey with cymbals attached to his hands. Sorry man, that just isn’t a fan IMO. Where is the passion and excitement? Where is the analysis of what is going on and what could be done better?
Clap away monkeys…
Yeah, things are looking up… at Gonzaga.
That is where BYU will be for the foreseeable future, on their proverbial backsides looking up at the conference darlings.
I wonder how long BYU will have to pay the price for the beatdown that Jimmer delivered to Gonzaga back in 2011… it’s been 4 years now.
lol great post
At Spokane Byu hit big shots and Gonzaga could not get either the inside or the outside game going. In Vegas, Gonzaga missed few shots inside, then Bell hit some outside shots and then Wiltjer, the Pangos all hit big outside shots…couple that with Haws and Kaufusi in foul trouble early and that is a recipe for a blowout.
If Gonzaga stuggled on the inside, BYU could have had a game of it or if they were not hitting outside, we could double the big guys down low but the reason I say the refs had no effect on the game is because GU made baskets from everywhere. The ball still has to go in no matter how a game is called and they killed us. It did not help that Fischer could not find his shot early on, clanging away when the other games he was money.
Does anyone know how Halford’s leg is doing?
My BYU Basketball Fanatic wife just said she read a tweet from Halford and he said he is fine. Probably just a nice shin bone stinger.
While I was disappointed that Haws and Fisher lost their shot and the bigs struggled to play big and Bartley was horrible and Styler was so-so and the coaches struggled to adjust to the game, I am proud of our boys for really turning it on this last 1/3rd of the season. I had hoped for a magical finish like the women (big congrats to the ladies), it was perhaps too much to hope for. We have to be on our A game all game to beat top teams but then again that goes for pretty much anyone playing a top team.
I hope our guys can dig deep and make us proud with some good tournament wins, whichever tournament that is.
We still pulled off a 25 win season with a bunch of great kids genetically pre-disposed to jumping issues, too skinny, too short, and too nice.
What about KC’s season? This accomplishments, especially after the ACL, are nothing short of amazing. Nobody - Jordan, Bird, Durant, have matched the unique and elevated performance that triple doubles are. I am disappointed the talking head have not made more of his TD success and his tremendous stats overall. Loved his short jump shot game last night. Did not even know he had a jump shot game.
I want more though. There is always room for improvement.
this is way I go to cougarfan…thanks for the Halford updates. BYU is not done by a long shot.