They did away with the 4 Utah teams playing at Jazz arena, they should certainly bring that back. It was a great Idea that just needed time to mature. Fans would of showed up had they continued.
BYU is the best in Utah by a mile
I am dangerously close to saying that Pope already has put together the best defense in BYU history. It was easy to predict Te’jon’s impact–some of us were posting before the season about how he was simply Mr. Clutch at Milwaukie, and a P5 recruit before that who got legit PT out of the gate in the Big10. His size, quickness, strength, effort and concentration make him a truly elite defender. But look what Pope has done with George, Lohner, AB, Johnson and Seneca. All of those guys guard the perimeter at an elite level, and Pope’s recruiting means we have the length and athleticism to shut down long wings–which has been an Achilles heel for BYU FOREVER. It’s a really big deal that Lohner, George and Seneca can also shut down mobile 3s and 4s. And both Fouss and Baxter are holding their own or flat out having their way with bigger guys every night. Credit Pope–and what’s insane is that Pope is literally still just getting started at BYU.
One more thing: I couldn’t watch the Utah game (Directv in Oregon doesn’t get the Crap12 network), but I’ve seen all the other games and I don’t think we have played one single minute of zone defense this year. Every guy we have can stay in front of his guy 1v1. I have never seen this before at BYU and I love it.
Another reason for not playing zone is we are very deep at all positions. So, we don’t have to be as concerned with fouls. Although, there is a drop off when AB is on the bench.
I used to work for DIRECTV 11 years ago and still no pack 12 network? That is crazy. Just be glad we are going to be in this big 12 conference
I would say to Holmoe, do what ever it takes to keep Pope and Sitake at BYU. They are winning at the recruiting game, it is not even close. Athletes come here, feel the love and that they are a part of a lifetime BYU family and for inner city kids, who have never had someone that is “100% got your back”, it is a game changer. Barcello talks about it. Sitake talks about it in the Piece I posted a few days ago…if you have not seen it, they showed it before the USC game, watch it. It will bring tears to your eyes.
Both of these coaches remind me of the ol “Orange Juice” squeezer that was part of the buffet breakfest at the old Circus Circus casino in Las Vegas. If you ever ate there and saw that thing, you should say something about it here because it was straight out of a Dr Zeiss story. The contraption was maybe 10’ long, 6’ tall and would cut the oranges, line then up and run them through a reamer/squeezer. it could do hundreds of oranges a minute and out the end would come fresh squeezed OJ. I would go there with my 3 sons, just to let them marvel…That is what Pope is getting out of his Transfers. And Sitake, can we talk about how he reached out to Cougar Nation, Came to basketball games as the biggest cheer leader, reconnected with our graduate players, developed NFL talent when Bronco was busy bagging on those kinds of metrics. Kalani really is Lavell in spirit.
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Bracketoloy has 4 WCC teams in the big dance
Zags still a 1
BYU is a 7 seed
SMC is a 10 seed
San Fram is a solid 11 seed
USU is Last one Out. They will be motivated to get a win over BYU, it would cement them as a Dance team. Watch out.
SFU is 9-0 but let’s cool our jets because their SOS so far has to be one of the worst of the 300+ D1 teams. Bouyea is great but they have played a bunch of bottom dwellers–teams full of guys without a single P5 offer.
San Fran has shot 255 three’s so far. The nearest team I could find that BYU has played…Miss. State with 184. BYU has put up 153 threes on the season. You can bet SFU has not seen a team guard them like BYU will against the 3.
BYU’s next three games will tell us where we stand
UVU
@Craighton
@ Weber St (this could be the closest game according to odds makers)
I did think that #12 was overrated for BYU, but to drop 12 spots after losing to UVU was a bit harsh to me. I thought we would land 18 or so. That is why this road trip is so important.
Oregon did us no favors by being so pathetic.