Well, surprise, surprise. Everyone had BYU as a 4-6 seed in the NIT and we are rewarded with a 2 seed which means that we have at least 2 games at home.
Wait a minute, It looks like 1 game (Wednesday night) at the Marriott but the Saturday game will have to be moved for the Provo Temple dedication.
https://twitter.com/SInow/status/709182529425817600/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc^tfw
My first reactions in looking at UAB:
They shoot about the same as we do from the field and from deep.
They average about the same pts (79v84), asst (18v17) and TO (12v13) as we do.
6 of our 8 regular rotation guys are terrible FT shooters, but only 3 of UAB’s 9 are bad.
Neither team beat a P5 team (UAB 0-3, BYU 0-2).
To me it looks like two teams who deserve to be playing each other and should be very evenly matched.
The one are where we look to have an advantage is that UAB should be renamed Beanpole U, because they only give minutes to three bigs, and they are all really skinny:
Cokley: 6’8"/213
Lee 6’9"/210
Mehinti 6’9"/213
If Kaufusi can stay out of foul trouble he can have his way with these guys, Austin should be able to get consistent rebounding position, and Davis will be at least evenly matched physically, and none of their guys should be able to back us down and pin us under the basket the way good bigs seem to do far too often.
If we can win 2 games, we get to see BYU v St Bonny–two teams who believe the best D is to not play any, and that the best O comes fast and in bunches. That would be a fun game to watch.
the difference in this game will be the 3 bomb factor. BYU makes theirs at a higher % rate and…we are at home where they fall for us.
This game should be a 10 point win for BYU. I will say 85-75
Glad to see all of the pee wee conference playoff champs like Holy Cross 13-17 and others are in the NCAA and BYU goes to the Nothing Invite Tourney. So it goes in sports. BYU has a better record than half of the “at-large” or is it "at P-5 teams in the NCAA. So much for BYU being in the WCGC (West Coast Gonzaga Conference).
Well that’s the way it goes. How would you like to be St. Mary’s? They had a really good season, played their hardest and beat Gonzaga twice only to see it go down the drain in one game against “america’s team”. Bummer when you know it is coming and there is not much you can do to determine/change the outcome. The rest of the wcc has pretty much given up and are used to it while St. Mary’s and BYU hold on to a false sense of hope that they can change it.
But hey, at least they get to play in the NIT.
So you are saying that SMC deserved to play in the NCAA after they padded their stats with home games to patsies?
I think it is okay to have a discussion about the fact that there are several teams in the ncaa tourney, that St. Mary’s has a solid argument against being there, while they are not. This happens every year though. If you are talking about “patsies”, does that include “America’s team”? because they swept those patsies in the wcc season.
I didn’t see BYU playing the toughest schedule of home games either…
And while we’re at it, Gonzaga didn’t exactly play a barn burner of a schedule either. Had they not been riding in the fast lane of the wcc tournament (passengers on the wcc league bus) they probably wouldn’t have made it either and then it would have been St. Mary’s. But everyone (well almost) knows that the wcc and GU are in this together and the motto is “whatever it takes”… 17 years and counting.
The Gaels barely squeaked by New Mexico State last night…
They won it on foul shots with 2 seconds left.
It’s been an interesting season.
And that was on their home court. I suspect they don’t make it very far in the NIT once they start to travel.
See where I was going with this? SMC padded they stats by playing at home…to patsies. Here is who SMC is: A bunch of slow white guys, who play unselfish disciplined ball. That will win you a lot of ball games on its own merits but when SMC runs into better athletes, who are disciplined, or they play away from home where the lighting is different and shots don’t fall, they lose.
BTW, SMC returns their entire team next year (and I still have them at #3 behind Gonzaga and BYU)
You mean like… at Gonzaga? because I think that is what happened in this exact scenario. However, it was a different story in the wcc tournament. Why? because it mattered/was important in determining who was going to the ncaa tourney.
Keepin’ the streak alive is about all the wcc has to hold on to right now.
I agree with you… but what other options did the Gaels have? In spite of sweeping the Zags regular season, do you think they thought they had a chance in heck of beating them in the tournament when it mattered? It is always a forgone conclusion that Gonzaga is going to the ncaa tournament.
Gonzaga is the better team. Deal with it Jim and move on.
Until SMC and BYU schedule the 6 or so NCAA Dance teams that Gonzaga does year in and year out, I got nothin to say. SMC had Stanford and Cal. BYU had Utah and Colorado.
Gonzaga had Washington, Tx A&M, AZ, SMU, UCONN, WSU, Tenn, UCLA. They do that every year. The Zags weakness this year was at guard and by WCC tourney time, those dudes killed us. I’m marking GU as a WIN against SHU.
You speakin my lingo, Kemosabi?
You trying to make sure Few goes on another fishing trip?
Yeah, their guards improved some toward the end of the season, but they are not close to the team they usually are and you know it.
Why don’t you do a check of the teams that made it to the ncaa tourney by winning their conference tourney, you know, the one bid leagues like the wcc. See how many of those teams were swept in the regular season but beat the same team that swept them easily in the final of the conference tournament. I’d be surprised if anybody besides “america’s team” did it.
And why is the ncaa having first round ncaa tournament games in Spokane for crying out loud. Population 200k and nothing else within 250 miles? I guess that is just another reward for the many years of Gonzaga making it to the ncaa tournament.
Yeah, there is no conspiracy… no proof… LOL!
Personally I am, and have always been, a huge Gonzaga fan since they had a couple of runs in the NCAA when Dan Monson was the coach. They are not power. 5. They are like us in a lot of ways. I will always pull for the mid majors. They aren’t chock full of McDonald’s All Americans bought and paid for by under the table alumni money. They are a private faith based institution. The power 5 is irredeemably corrupt. I don’t get your apparent dislike for Gonzaga. Maybe Gonzaga gets the benefit of officiating. When you build a tradition that is one of the perks. I don’t think there is any conspiracy. For a conspiracy to exist it means there is an organized plan somewhere involving multiple parties to predetermine an outcome. I don’t think it exists. Does Gonzaga benefit from more close officiating calls than other WCC teams? It probably doesn’t matter 95% of the time because they are clearly better than everybody else in the conference most years. I would say they do get the benefit of a lot close calls, but Kentucky, Louisville, Duke etc. all do as well. Gonzaga won’t benefit from any close calls once they play a power 5 team in the tournament if get that far. What troubles me far more than Gonzaga getting favoritism from WCC officials are dirty programs like Kentucky and Louisville coached by guys with less than sterling reputations. I think Few is a truly good guy and it doesn’t bother me a speck that he wins big except when he beats BYU.
Having said all this I do believe BYU is the victim of biased officiating. I have felt that way for years going back to the old WAC years. I don’t believe there is any organized conspiracy to shaft BYU I just think a lot people really dislike BYU for a lot of reasons mostly related to religion. There will naturally be some officials who don’t like BYU and will never give them a close call.
The bias against BYU goes beyond sub-conscious officiating bias. I think when the Cougars make the NCAA BYU’s no Sunday play policy really gives the committee a pain and they often put them in a position to fail by giving them a seed in a location in close proximity to the other team and finding a team they don’t match up well with.
I will say BYU got a favorable seed this year in the NIT. Since the one seed in their bracket lost they are in a great position to get to New York with 3 possible home games.
The apparent dislike has been built over the last 5 years, since Jimmer put the beat down on the Zags in the ncaa tournament. I don’t think that was the way the wcc wanted BYU coming into the conference. I think it became imperative that BYU not waltz in and simply take over. I think the wcc felt like they needed to give BYU a message… “welcome to our conference, but… not so fast”. Then there are the every season reminders to BYU and the rest… “Gonzaga deserves this, they have carried us for years”. Why else would you say this?
Just because those other teams get that, does that make it right or okay? Of course not. Were they “clearly better than everybody else” this year? I don’t believe they were. I understand what you are saying but you aren’t saying anything a whole lot different than I am. I don’t think I am that far away from anyone not named grasshopper…
The way you define it here… I agree with you. I don’t think there is an “organized” plan involving “multiple parties” and “predetermining an outcome”. But is it necessary for the terms that define a conspiracy to be that strict or rigid? If you re-think the points you made, why isn’t that enough to show that there is some evidence to support what I have been saying? If you really believe that Gonzaga may get some calls or have the game called in a way that favors their play style or benefits their key players (Sabonis and Wiltjer this season) and if you really believe that BYU is the victim of biased officiating (organized conspiracy or not) and it goes beyond the sub-conscious level into seeding, pairing and location… if you really believe all of those things… Why are my comments so unbelievable?
The truth is they aren’t. Maybe it sounds like I have a dislike for Gonzaga, but in reality I don’t. It only surfaces when I believe, like you do perhaps, BYU is placed in a disadvantageous position when it matters. When I see it happen to other teams in the conference on occasion, it only adds to my “dislike”. Honestly, I like Gonzaga. I like their coach and I like the way they run their program. I hope they make a run to the sweet 16 this season, even though I don’t think they are as good as in past years. You have to admit that Few, in spite of the fact that he had no reason to be, was a bit surprised that this years’ team made it this far.
Lastly, the way college basketball works, and you described it well, bothers me a lot more than the wcc thing does. But I have no reason to discuss that here and would only get crap from grasshopper for doing so. He likes it that way and believes it is all clean. LOL!