Defense, defense. Hand it to Rose, he had the boys prepared. We were amazing when it counted.
Our 3 seniors played out of their heads. Austin AKA, Swat City…Fischer played smart all game long…and Collinsworth proved to the nation that he should be considered POY. Gonzaga did not have an answer for KC all night then to top it off, He makes a 3 jumper when we needed it most and he kept Wiljer, a NBA lock from going for 50, and he would have if Kyle had not been defending hard.
How about Emery, shooting from SLC to give BYU its first lead in the game. Emery was ready for the spot light while Saljaas was over his head. Our other Fr, Chatman shows us why he needs more playing time. This kid has big upside. As big of shot Emery’s 3 was, his rebound that got Sabonis for his 4th foul was even bigger.
Davis was the man inside, he constantly made shots when our offense was dead. He is a true work horse. Kaufusi had some nice minutes. Aytes just has got to work on his game, he could be a force but he has a bunch of bad habits.
The WCC refs gave Gonzaga every chance to win the game with home cooking calls against BYU all game long. Wiljer always uses his arm to clear space and the calls just kept on going his way. Collinsworth would drive in and get knocked, whacked on every drive and he could not get a call. Sabonis, the grabbing, shove king got his due but our boys cane to play and BYU was just plain better.
Besides our amazing defense (can’t believe I’m saying this) BYU played the most unselfish game I have seen in forever. Fischer and Collinsworth both found the open guys when they were in a bind. But you have to give the game ball to Austin for his big swats as well as his unexpected baskets.
only time the team has played a top 25 team
only time the team has beat a team with a winning record on the road
only top 50 rpi win…if the zags can win out except for byu at home then they might get to a top 25…
now the team needs to take care of business…for the first time in the WCC BYU is in the drivers seat…in the MWC Rose was good at having his team drive the situation…
I couldn’t tell on my tv on that last rebound KC was called travel. Really? I remember many years ago when grabbing rebound while on the ground would be called traveling but more often today they don’t call that. What a stupid called!
My understanding is that if you rebound, establish position with control, then fall down, you have moved both feet, thus including your pivot foot, and thus a travel. KC “established” position with his BUTT on the ground and didn’t move, thus NO travel. The refs blew that call and refs with more courage would have huddled and corrected the call.
On the KC travel call, ESPN’s female announcer (name?) and Brad Daugherty both thought it was a bad call. Also, keep in mind that had KC not bumped against the Gonzaga guy after KC got the ball, on his way down, KC would have landed on his feet. Basically, KC got sort of undercut. In the NBA or in a big-time college game like Duke-NC, a foul is called on Gonzaga 95% of the time.
I agree with Fish about the officiating. In the first half, Gonzaga was getting all the calls. The second half was officiated better. I don’t think the refs wanted to call #4 on Sabonis, but they had to because Emery clearly had the rebound while Sabonis was reaching and grabbing for the ball. Fabulous play by Emery.
Now I’ll be Harold aka “Debbie Downer.” This Gonzaga team is not elite. I think they’ll win the WCC but will probably be a 7 seed and lose in the first round. Or if Karnoski (sp?) comes back, maybe they’ll win an NCAA game.
I like the way Rose summarized it:
“Our effort was good and consistent. I told them they didn’t have to play a perfect game but we had to have a consistent effort,” Rose said. “This is how the games go here. We have a hard time being consistent offensively. If we could stay close, when the spurts come, we could be successful. We hit free throws in the first half that kept us in it. In the second half, our defense won it for us.”
Defense did it in the end…
Fischer is finally not the up and down head case…even when he’s not on he’s still worth having on the floor.
KC shaping up in leadership
Austin…the game turned when he came in with about 8 minutes left
Davis the difference in the game in the first half and the along with KC the rock steady portion of the team this year
Emery continues road problems
Seljaas appears to have caught Emery’s problem
Kaufusi–in a major conference in which most teams having bigs he’d have improved more and earned a name for himself. Played as well as I’ve seen him this year…what a team next year CK, Mika, Dastrup, Davis. Can Aytes step it up?
Chatman–played well enough to earn more minutes but he’s done that before…his defense is better than Seljaas but who has a better stroke than ZS?
Braiden Shaw continues to get his crumbs while Hartsock isn’t even getting that…how will either fit in with the future?
Overall the team seems to have finally found itself…last year I never got that feeling perhaps because the defense was so inconsistent. This year the offense and defense have their ups and downs but they have a clear upward arch. Of course, the fact that the WCC is made up of a bunch of patsies while Pepperdine, and Gonzaga are down a bit this year and St. Mary’s has spent too much time at home, certainly helps.
Portland is the trap game in the schedule…they usually provide a better game than the final score indicates and this time they come after the supreme effort that finally won the game in the Kennel.
The bottom line is that this is the kind of result you can get when you play team basketball. Wiltjer almost singlehandedly won the game but ultimately a team beats a superstar player every time and that is what happened. I know I have harped on the selfish play of certain guys but everyone (except SG) can see how much better this team is when everyone is involved and understands their role. Is this the same Fischer that hucked up bricks incessantly vs. LBSU, CO and Harvard? (all losses). He is finally getting it and realizing that he is a much better player when he plays within himself and concedes to his teammates regularly. Same with KC… he doesn’t need a triple double for the team to win. He did what was best for the team. Emery tried to do a little too much but he is still a freshman… and Davis and Austin did their jobs, Austin was a beast so there you have it.
It’s all about team play. There is no “I” in team…
It is traveling when a player falls to the playing court while holding the ball without maintaining a pivot foot. That is the rule; however, I believe it assumes that the player had control of the ball and had established a pivot foot in some way. I believe it was in incorrect call as KC never established any kind of pivot foot position as he went from the air basically right to the ground. I do not believe just because a foot may have contacted the floor first as he was falling is considered establishing a pivot foot.
Would love to get a clarification on that. In my day, that would not have been a travel (but likely a foul call on a GU player) and the time out call would have been granted since he never established any pivot foot, which would mean he couldn’t possibly have violated the rule by just falling down. Now, had he tried to advance the ball by rolling or some motion like that before calling for a time out, that would have led me to call a travel. But he didn’t. He went flat on his back without establishing any position and called a time out.
But I can’t say the refs where against BYU in those last few minutes. Austin’s catch of the ball after he had just been out of bounds was really, really close and could have been called either way. I think Austin’s final block was great but some officials would have called a lower body foul on that play even though the swat on top was clean.
So all in all, it was okay. I’m sure I would feel different if that travel cost us the game at the end.
There are just people that have decided everyone is against BYU and the Church. Therefore, the officials will always be viewed by these people as biased and attempting to direct the bidings of the league officials. Why these people even watch sports is puzzling. It’s as puzzling as their conspiracy theories.
While I believe errors by officials are due to the WCC having poorly trained officials. The referee that called the traveling doesn’t know the rule and the other officials didn’t come together and correct the call. On top of that, they couldn’t see the undercut foul. Not because they were trying to help GA win.
Now, are there bigot refs? Yes. Do the league officials want as many teams in the NCAAs as possible? Yes. Does that make them guilty of manipulating the games? No.
BYU and GA played solid defense. Both struggles with shooting. BYU won.
I don’t see KC or Fischer playing any differently now than back then. What they are doing is simply developed their skills and performing better. It had nothing to do with being selfish.
I also don’t agree that Gonzaga is an average team and we beat an average team. What we did is play much better defense and so did they. That’s why the shots weren’t falling.
From the NCAA rule book, Rule 9, Section 6, Article 7.
“Art. 7. It is traveling when a player falls to the playing court while holding the
ball without maintaining a pivot foot.”
It was traveling. It wasn’t a bad call. There may have been a foul. However, it was traveling.
The reason you don’t “believe” either of those things is because your analytical skills are rudimentary and basic.
Both of these things are common knowledge actually.
In fact, I’ll bet if you ask Fischer or Rose or anybody close to the program they would concur that Fischer has developed into more of a team player. I can almost guarantee that Fischer would say the same thing.
As far as how good Gonzaga is this year, tell us which of their wins are marquee? How about beating Santa Clara by two or USF in overtime? I guess that is because the wcc is such a strong conference this year… LOL. If not for Wiltjer, where would BU have been last night? or this season for that matter? They really have nothing although Sabonis shows up once in awhile. I said Gonzaga is not near the team they were last year or typically are. That is one reason the officiating isn’t making a difference in some of their games… because they aren’t able to take advantage of it.
They simply aren’t that good this year… but neither is BYU. Why is that so hard to understand or recognize?
Maintaining a pivot foot is only possible if you have established one in the first place. The issue is more related to the fact that at the point KC went to the floor he did not have a pivot foot established. Had he come down on his feet after gathering the rebound and then gone to the floor that might have been more believable.
I think there is definitely some room for interpretation. I wonder what Gavenman would say… he is probably waiting for some consensus among the rest of us before he disagrees.
Great post fish. The WCC refs ALWAYS give Gonzaga every advantage to win the game, that is called WCGonzagaConference. Only this time the ZAGS were missing several cogs in their playing machine.
BYU was able to overcome the five on eight situation vs. GU and three stooges. Rose did have his boys ready to play, as he has since their last loss. Hopefully they won’t let it go to their heads and they can be Portland tonight.
The objection I have is that this particular call is not evidence of bias. The rule is that he cannot fall to the floor with the ball. If he had gotten control of the ball while on the floor, it would not have been traveling unless he moved (changed his spot) on the floor with the ball. It is not always called this way. It is the rule.
For the sake of discussion, what if he had obtained control of the ball while diving for it… as in diving for a loose ball? Is that traveling as well? It would seem to be based on this interpretation of “not falling to the floor with the ball”. I think it is a strange rule that is open to a lot of subjective interpretation. I don’t think there was intent to bias on the part of the official but I do think he may have ben caught up in the heat of the moment hoping that Gonzaga would get a chance at a last shot… so much so that I originally thought the officials had called Austin out of bounds after he ran to retrieve his blocked shot. I think after consulting with each other they concluded that Gonzaga had been afforded numerous opportunities to win the game and it would have appeared bad if they had given them the ball again for another.
That is why they called the foul instead of calling him out of bounds.
BYU was very fortunate to win the game… as is every team who is able to pull one out vs. the darlings of the wcc.
If he dives for the ball, gets control and slides across the floor, he is traveling. If he dives for the ball, gets control and does not slide across the floor, he would not be traveling…for the sake of discussion.
Refs are human. They are prone to be caught up in the moment. I think it is good practice by an officiating crew to discuss close calls late in the game.
