To go up to Portland and smack Oregon hard in front of their home crowd on National TV:
1 Granted, neutral court, brilliant! that BYU got them away from their home gym, negates Portland’s ridiculous forest ( I liken it to BSU’s smurt turf when they go all blue)…OU’s sizziling hot 3s were more of a fizzling dud. It’s not like they missed them, more like BYU locked down on D and they could’nt get an open look.
"BYU is the first unranked team with a 30-point win away from home — road or neutral site — over a top-15 opponent since Nov. 29, 1993, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
The 32-point margin of victory was BYU’s largest ever over a ranked team.
Williams was the lone player in double figures for the Ducks, who came into the game with five players averaging 10 or more points. It was Oregon’s biggest loss ever as a ranked team, and only the third loss of 30 or more points under coach Dana Altman." ESPN
2 Barcello shot a near perfect 25 points in from of many NBA scouts there to watch Oregon’s talent, no double…what this means, Although Barcello is undersized, he will rocket up the Naismith watch and be a solid NBA pick.
3 This win sets up BYU’s season in the same fashion of BYU’s blowout of Navy in football. National game, Check. Wilson becomes the 2nd pick, Barcello comes back for one last year, Check…sure feels that way.
4 So how did we do it? Getting our knees knocked off by Clev and SDSU made Oregon’s press seem tame. They only time BYU turned the ball over was when Lucas got impatient.
5 have been saying it all along…BYU has such great talent everywhere that it feels like we should be playing the NBA game and that is exactly what Pope is doing. Few teams out there have 5 good players, high pic with Lohner or George, lob for a dunk, or…Lucas/Barcello drive hard and when their D has to help or it is layup city, a kick out for an open 3…Repeat. I acutially believe that BYU can beat Gonzaga today. but it’s early and I may be barfing in my breakfast.
6 George is Jeky.l/Hyde with 2 bonehead passes then he just murders them with timely blocks, flying dunks and smooth shooting, it is what it is.
7 And then comes his replacement, Seneca Knight. I was totally wrong about this kid. early on, I thought he was over rated, duh…The last 2 games, Knight was been everywhere, tearing it up on D and 6 rebounds, several he just zipped in there and came out of the scrum with the ball. And I really think he will be our 3rd best scorer but WOW!
8 Baxter/Foos. There guys are making teams look before they shoot. Bax goes 7pts, 6 rebs, 2 blocks in 16 minutes…Foos goes 10 pts, 6 rebs and 2 blocks (feels more like 10) in 20 minutes. These dudes are ball hawks and the center is back at BYU baby.
9 Johnson is sooooo cool and confident out there, hits the NBA 3 then the no look to pass to Foos was ESPN stuff. Makes Knell’s disappearing act easy to swallow, and I do think Knell will shine but when you have athletes line George and Knight, it is hard to get minutes if you are a 3 point specialist.
10 Lucas tied Barcello for 30 minutes played…12 points and 2-3 from long range along with 3 assists. Could be best combo out there right now.
11 BYU’s outside shooting! I said we needed 30% to have a chance, we hit 40%, granted Barcello had 4-6 but seeing Lucas and Johnson both hit 2-4 was big. Both Lohner and Knell will settle in and hit their averages eventually, finger’s crossed
12 Now it might be that Oregon was grossly overrated or just unprepared but BYU is going to rocket up the rankings. Buckle up. BYU is for real. Lucas, Knight and Foos are only going to get better.