for years byu has been painstakingly implementing the wrong philosophy concerning their power forwards. I’m tired of the 4 position being manned by 3 point shooters who run the floor well, but cannot do jack squat in the post. its a serious flaw imo. a prime example was coach’s choice in recruiting J.T. over Tai Wesley. doh! thing is, there’s a lot of good bigs who have wanted byu badly but Coach snubbs them time and time again for the next new over valued jump shooter. I wonder, is it because coach Rose was a guard himself? personally, I’d trade his fast paced transition game for a solid post game in a utah county hearbeat.
imo it’s high time for a change. a team full of jump shooters gets you beat in the ncaa tourney every time. byu has always had one decent big on the floor at any particular time…but they need 2. Davies was a legit power forward, but not really a great center. byu could have been great had Davies not been the only good big on a guard heavy team.
I hope and pray that when Mika returns from his mission byu sees fit to start Kaufusi right along side of him.
I think we will have plenty of bigs in the next few years. Next year we should have Jakob Hartsock 6-8, Braiden Shaw 6-8, Nate Austin 6-11, Kyle Davis 6-8, Corbin Kaufusi 6-10 and Isaac Neilson 6-11. The next year, we lose Nate Austin. We have Dastrup 6-9 and Mika 6-10 coming off missions. The year after that, we lose Davis but we get back Andrus and Worthington. I really don’t think big men will be our problem over the next few years.
rb: No the problem is not the lack of big men but the lack of coaching up big men and using them in the right and productive way. Our HC insn’t oriented to using bigs very well.
I disagree.
Leading scorers for BYU.
2005 6-11 Trent Plaisted
2006 6-6 Keena Young
2007 6-7 Lee Cummard
2008 6-7 Lee Cummard
2009 Jimmer Fredette
2010 Jimmer Fredette
2011 6-8 Noah Hartsock
2012 Tyler Haws
2013 Tyler Haws
2014 Tyler Haws
In every year except 2008, 2009, 2014, there was a big man, who was not the leading scorer, getting at least 10 points per game. Rose excels at building a team around his strengths. Unfortunately, he had no big men to build around this year so, he built the team around 4 guards because he had 4 good guards. The team struggled in several games because they had too many injuries. He has done impressively without having all of the pieces in multiple years. Now that he is starting to put together the pieces, I look forward to what he can do.
Worthington? Really? LOL! I think he will transfer when he sees all the competition. Other than that, next year, we will have some bigs to step in and play much better from the start. However, I see no problem is a 4 or a 5 could step out and make 3’s. KC needs to be able to post up and take smaller guards and slower guards on.
Do you really? Are you sure? Maybe he isn’t being compassionate enough
We will have good shooting guards for years to come. And, good post men too. I just hope we can run something besides the weave outside. Mix it up with some better motion offenses and Post options.
What exactly is your point? Granted, Worthington is not the solution at 4 or 5. However, I was addressing the fact that BYU will not lack in big men for the next several years, not whether or not Worthington will start, contribute, transfer or become a football player.
In reference to your second post, do I really what? I am always sure, always correct and extremely humble. Who isn’t being compassionate enough? As I stated previously, Rose changes his offense to match his players. The last two years have seen the highest points per game in the Rose era. The offense has changed every year. The focus on big men has also changed every year. The reason that Dave Rose teams won 25 or more games 7 out of 10 years and 20 or more 10 out of 10 years is because he is able to match the offense with the talent. Whining that Rose never has post plays ignores the fact that he almost never has teams where there are not one or two post players scoring 10 plus per game. Mika was 0-0 from 3 point range last year and somehow averaged over 10 points per game on a team that “never” uses post players.
problem is, those names you mention, [and no Mekeli Wesley?] great players no doubt, however, they had nobody else who was truly great playing along side them. throughout the decades byu has always had 1 good big on the team and he has almost always played center. if only coach could have just mustered up 2 effective bigs at any given time, it would have made ALL the difference.
imagine a random 7 footer, and yes they are out there, playing the 5, freeing up Davies to play his natural position, the 4. then add a Jimmer to the mix and…holy beansauce batman, byu is legit.
I do like coach Rose and what he’s done for byu basketball, but his one major flaw, imo, and i’ve said it for years, is his continued misuse of the 4 position. remember when a power forward was as advertised? i do, and byu’s over-emphasized, rarely utilized transition game along with their mental lapses. obsessive, compulsive jump shot disorder has become byu’s undoing in the big time games. hmmmm, like that last one.
Good post c_hamp. Coach Rose has peaked and not put together a championship team in a conference in quite some time. As several posters above have said that the BYU teams do not usually have two bigs (6-8 in my estimation) lately and I cannot remember when Rose had three real bigs playing all at the same time.
