ASU at their place

While it is super tough to beat teams twice and late in the season, BYU seems to be poised to do just that.

ASU lost their best scorer in Freeman, booted off the team for his one too many head butts and actions detrimental to the team.
They also lost their Fr. big man, Quaintance to a knee injury.
They have two highly rated guards, but then they run 6’2 Sr. Mason and 6’3 Sr. Miller. both great outside shooters.
Mason is the point and Miller is over 44% from 3land.
BYU has the advantage in every stat except the fact that ASU is at home and playing with house money, nothing to lose.
BYU has got to stop the long shot, force ASU to drive inside. I watched our game vs. Cinn at the marriott and towards the 2nd half, BYU guarded so tight that Cinn was shooting from 30’ out, that is what 6’7 and 6’9 can do for you at guard. That is what I want to see. **ASU is a quad 1 game,**very much a resume builder, and even if they are shorthanded, they are very capable of taking down BYU.

BYU gets to 70 and ASU can’t keep up with our firepower.

Great insight. This game has trap game written all over it. Coming down from the high of beating UofA. They are missing two of their players. Could be an easy game to come in with lower intensity. I think BYU stays focused, but worried about a let down.

BYU will shoot 42% from field. 36% 3pt, will be plus 11 rebounds (with 11 off rebounds) but only 72% FT
Foous will get 17 points, Saunders 14. Demon 2 of five 3pters
Mag and Stewart on their guards for much of the game.
BYU 83 ASU 67. pulling away at 5 minutes to go
Book it!

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Or Demin not demon

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I would love to see him go all Demon on ASU
BYU vs Arizona State Preview: BYU Goes for Fourth Quad One Win in Five Games

Per Robby McCombs
ASU is is 4-12 in Big 12 play, and just one of those wins have come on their home court. After winning their conference home opener versus last-place Colorado on January 4, ASU has lost their last 7 home games.

One thing you can expect in this game is a lot of three-point attempts. BYU attempts the most threes in the Big 12 and Arizona State is #2. ASU has struggled with turnovers, doesn’t get many offensive rebounds, and their 50% two-point percentage is #12 in Big 12 play, but the three ball is the one thing they do well. They are 5th in the Big 12 in three-point percentage, shooting 34%. Guards Alston Mason, Adam Miller, and Joson Sanon all shoot over 38% from distance.

ASU’s defensive metrics aren’t great, but they are #3 in Big 12 in three-point defense, allowing opponents to shoot 30.7%. This has come to the detriment in other areas, as they are towards the bottom of the league in allowing offensive rebounds and opponent two-point percentage.

Prediction

Both of these teams are trending different directions. Bobby Hurley is on the hot seat and Arizona State is not anywhere close to the tournament bubble. They did show some life in their win at Kansas State, so maybe they give a spirited effort again.

I think BYU wins this comfortably and could win in blowout fashion. BYU has to guard the three-point line well, something they did not do well versus Arizona, but their offense is so potent right now and I don’t think Arizona State has the discipline or number of bodies to give BYU enough trouble. If Quaintance is out, I think BYU dominates the glass and runs away with this game.

I expect LOTS of BYU fans in an arena that will have a ton of tickets available.

Prediction: BYU 87, Arizona State 73

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I’d like BYU to really work hard on the defensive side and try to limit ASU to under 60 points. As we wind down, defense will be the key as it usually is. We got lucky that a good referee didn’t swallow his whistle against Arizona. That won’t happen often in hostile gyms. And, defense will be a key in the Big12 Tournament too.

That would be really nice…I thought the Kansas game potentially showed a turning of the corner on the defense…the Arizona games shows it still offence that is winning still no appreciable defensive strength to speak of…other than of course both games were away.

A 10 point win is nice…much better than Vegas or the number crunchers, but of course number crunchers don’t do well with the dynamics of injuries on a team’s play…the game never felt comfortable to me even though it was a solid lead most of the way it was never a knockout level for the blowout I was hoping for…well back to the big MAC to see if the home court can improve the defence.

I was hoping the defense was better. Offense was great except for free throws. Embarrassing. 40% while shooting 50% from threes

BYU was in control the entire game. Looked like they were cruising. D wasn’t very good and free throw shooting abysmal. Hitting even 70% this game would have been a real blowout. Last 3 FT misses were front end of one and one. The game really wasn’t as close as the score indicates, BYU had a seventeen point lead with about a minute left and ASU scored the final 7 points with the game safely tucked away.

The team psychologist has to do their work and figure out why we are missing free throws. Many were not even close to going in. If we are going to have the best seeding in the Big12 tournament, we have to straighten out free throw shooting. And some of the lazy passes also is a mental thing with this team.

They certainly can’t win close games shooting 40% at the FT line. Some of the problem could have been a little lack of focus since BYU had a comfortable lead almost the entire 2nd half. Lead got down to 9 once and then immediately back to 12 and ranging between 12 and 17 points until the final minute of the game.

It is hard to understand how a team with so many good 3 point shooters can’t consistently hit in the mid 70s at the FT line.

I recently read that when Roger Reid coached BYU he ran some intense drills on FT shooting where a player had to hit at least ten in a row before he could leave the court and if he missed before making 10 he had to start over. It was to build some pressure into practicing Fits. It may have been even more than 10 in a row. It seemed to work because Reid’s teams were always among the nation’s leaders in FT percentage. He felt like he didn’t have the level of talent most teams had so they needed to be fundamentally sound and excellent FT shooting was something that could be done with intense practice. When I read the article I thought coach Young should adopt that. Almost anybody can master FT shooting with practice.

I expected a let down from the wins over Kansas and Arizona. However, there was some when we saw some really lazy passes. But, when we shoot 50% from the three point line out of 34 shots, there is no excuse for missing 9 free throws and at least 3 were front ends down the stretch.

[quote=“Harold, post:7, topic:10536”]
…the game never felt comfortable to me even though it was a solid lead most of the way it was never a knockout level for the blowout I was hoping for…well back to the big MAC to see if the home court can improve the defence.
[/quot

As for defense, two observations:
KY is substituting so much, it is hard to get into the flow of stopping the other team. Case in point. If it is crunch time and you need your best FT makers out there, why on god’s green earth would you keep Keba in the game? Not when you have TEAM BEST FT maker Foos- don’t ask me, ask him!

2 When you are shooting 60% from the field and over 50%, defense becomes a side hustle, not the main gig, it just does.

as for the game
1 Richie for President! need I say more

2 Demin was a CARELESS uninterested point, 3 of the worse, no need passes that kept ASU thinking they had a chance. Keep that up and you will be watching Hall run the team in tight games…and those shot selections… Junk. Until Demin figures out his offense, he is no 1st rounder. OK, chill, I just looked at his asists numbers, wow-10! thats a first, welcome back to the "why, yes, I am a 1st rounder

3 Love Trey Stuwart’s infectious joy for everything in his life. he sits pine, never complains, could of gone to a lesser team and played big minutes but stayed and finally got KY’s attention, he is our 3rd best defender. KY trusts him in big moments. love it

4 In crunch time, Hall is more efficient at getting buckets over Demin, not even close. At 6’4 and a solid frame, guys bounce off him when he decides to go to the hoop, you can’t stop it and if you double, he will find Foos or Keba for a flush. The dude can get up, watched him go over 3 ASU guys including their 7’ center to get a rebound.

5 I knew we would out rebound ASU, they were depleted. We should have had more, a lot to work on

6 FTs- EL STINKO. It you want to win in post season play, BYU has to get that above 70%.
Knell, why not walk out to the 3 point line? you could do no worse. Foos is the only guy on this entire team that gets a pass, everyone else need to do the dreaded "Miss it and ya got to do bleacher drills…as a team!!!

7 BYU comes in as #58 on defense, some of that has to do with our high scoring offense (teams that are challenged on O tend to be defensive minded, BYU is not challeneged) But I would submit that KY’s Catchings experiment failed so Mag got the obvious nod and we have never looked back. So…disreguard the 58 ranking, with Richie and Mag out there, BYU is more like #25.

8 I sympathize with Bobby Hurley, he has sooo many players hurt, I am surprised he didn’t suit up himself. But these Hurley boys (Yes, I include his brother Dan over there at UCONN) need to take some stress classes or anger management. They will not make it to 60 if they don’t. Can’t be fun playing for guys that look like they are going to kill you any second.

9 People called this a trap game. I called it “a game where BYU just wanted to get out of there with a win” Never in question, but as games getting infinitely tougher, KY has got to tighten the rotations. We can’t be having Keba out there when the other team is fouling to stay in the game.
Or Knell when we need a defensive stop.

10 BYU’s 3 point shooting is elite! and on the road!
17-34 has to be a road record?

11 The refs were loosy goosy with the whistles, I suppose they get the Hall closelining (Best) or the Knell right hand shot to the face by Miller. Both are ejections. period. I’m OK with it in this case just because the game was never in question but HURLEY has nothing he can complain about, and why it is OK to bag on BYU (referring to the Az game) that the last foul was controversial when their best player, Love get’s a cheap call the play before and Saunder’s call was supposed to be a whistle swallow???
Does feel good to go down to Az and beat both teams, now we just have to beat UTAH with a total blowpout to keep them thinking about how much they hate the bluebloods in Provo.

Run some team stair drills if anyone misses a FT in practice…don’t work on a single other thing all practice long…

how many times did the announcers start with a, " now ASU needs a stop" and BYU came down a calmly hit a big 3". You have to give them credit, they kept a boring game exciting

Mostly agree. I do know that our offense turnaround came because of KY’s new rotation of playing 11. I agree that Keba needs to sit when a defense is futile foul. I was texting Jim that while the at the end of the game. Also, why go away from Foos when ASU could not stop him? Agree with free throw practice!

Exactly, makes no sense

This team is humming, they really are the hot team nationally right now but Demin has to take care of the rock and we have got to make FTs or our run ends in a tight game…and as far a FTs go, there is not a lot you can do over a wk or two. it is what it is

The ASU game should of been a 30 point blowout!

What I see a lot of with missed free throws is elbows flinging out, chest moving to one side or the other and stepping off the line while shooting. Short and long is just enough repetition. The other stuff is concentration.

Since Mag started getting his time, BYU defense rose from 9th in conference to 4th in conference, per Bart Torvik anyway…but still the last two games in Arizona have not helped the defensive numbers.

per Wrubell KY has the best offensive numbers of any BYU team in the KenPom era…I checked and it seems a reasonable conclusion…but then I checked the defensive numbers…Rose’s teams used to drive me nuts being so strong on offensive and weak on defense; but Rose regularly had better defences than KY has gotten so far this year.

Houston’s defense dominated us. But, we played them early on in league before our offense came together. Defense takes longer. I hope we play them in the Big 12 tournament and see if their defense can still handle us. I don’t think so.
I’ll take Knell hitting 3’s and playing so-so defense.

The thing is, the 11 man rotation is working. Players are happy. AJ was on BYUSN today and could see that the players are spending more time off the court together too. Young kid with great insight.