When I looked at the murder’s row of SMC, @GU, @SF. These kind of games would of been 1 win back in the Rose years.
What is it with the WCC anyway? No other team in the league has to face the 3 toughest teams back to back?
Win at home over SMC was likely but road games against the 2 best WCC teams in just 48 hrs. had LOSS written all over it. That SF win is BYU’s biggest win of the year, by far.
BYU jumped from a 8-9 seed to a 6-7 seed with that one win.
Our next 4 games are all winnable with only @SCU as moderately tough. I have not paid much attention to Santa Clara but they started the year beating Sanford and TCU. They have some very good athletes with a great offense, but vanilla defense (think Rose BYU teams) So, Let’s say BYU does win the next 4, couple that with loses by teams ahead of them in the top 25, BYU could be ranked again before WCC play ends.
BYU is now #27 in T rank #21 in Pommeroy #30 Massey composite
If BYU could land a 6 seed in the dance, which is their upside, They could win 1 Dance game for certain then possibly make it to week two.
BYU ranked may come quicker than the 4 game stint, BYU may be ranked by tomorrow.
Sant Clara on the road will be no pushover.
Now for the latest on teams that CAN help BYU.
SDSU and USU have fallen on hard times. USU lost 4 on a row, BAD. SDSU just lost to a good BSU team at home, BAD
Missouri St just got upgraded to a Tier 1 team, GOOD
Oregon has won 5 straight, GOOD, went on the road and beat ranked UCLA and USC this week, REALLY GOOD!
As of last week, BYU was the only team in America to have 6 tier 2 wins. Now that we are in the WCC, that advantage evaporates BUT…more good news…the WCC has 4 teams Dancing as of today, by far the strongest the WCC has ever been, the WCC is ranked the 6th best conference today, VERY GOOD.
Pope was a GENIUS scheduling several top shelf mid majors to start the year–many of the top teams won’t play us (won’t give us home and homes), and it ruins our SOS to play too many garbage games. But the top mid major teams provide great competition as the team was finding its identity, and those teams are willing to play BYU with reasonable terms because it’s a chance for them to have early season games on national TV, which is great for their fans and their recruiting.
I have worried about SDSU because they seem to lack a go-to guy who can score without being selfish. I was at the SDSU game and we won in part because their ballhog guards took too many bad shots. Mizzou State on the other hand appeared to me to be a team with a real high ceiling.
This game is a trap game, SCU has been playing well, remember when I said that SDU would beat some teams, they are way underrated. They took SCU to OT last night. more in my write up to come
Necessity is the mother of invention…and three years now he does seem to have discovered something.
How it will translate to B12 scheduling is a bit iffy. Though I think that especially for the transition years such a schedule will be useful to get him and his team ready for the slaughters that will surely be coming their way.
There are several Gonzaga quality programs in the B12 and though Rose and Pope beat the Zags more regularly than any other program, playing such games more regularly will likely regularly hand the team blowouts like the Kennel was this year.
not a misprint, have to read to the bottom of the article, talks about Dancing chances and Q1 wins, which BYU has 4 now. BYU needs this road game at Santa Clara in the worse way.
St. Mary’s is a Quad 1 team. So, not to much loss for SF. And, we did not fall at all. Too bad for the loss. It was one that should have been a win. Not sure what coaches were thinking with the bad out of bounds play when we got up by 4 and Lucas threw a ridiculous pass to George way over his hands. First of all, he should have had both hands on the ball with an overhead pass. Then, there was the last play of the game where we had no pressure on the ball allowing their star to dribble at ease to the paint. I don’t understand that at all.
Well, perhaps we peaked and other teams are getting more healthy and better. I wouldn’t put this on Lohner. Where are the screens and cuts? Too much off-ball standing around. We only had 9 assists. 14 turnovers. PU had 10 turnovers and a few at the end.
I’m putting this game on the coaches as well. Why do we wait to put pressure on an inferior team? We were flat and should have pressed more during the game to get out of our funk.
As the season goes on the loss of Baxter and Harward continues to become a harbinger of tough times. On the road, BYU is capable of losing to anyone. At home BYU is capable of beating everyone except, probably Gonzaga. Despite the losses, my opinion is, that BYU still finishes 3rd in the conference with an outside shot at 2nd. They are going to have to ramp it up on defense and play like they did in the late stages against Pacific. I’m not going to mention player’s names, but if you know anything about basketball, you know who they are, they need to suck it up and play like we all know they are capable of. Barcello is a great player, but it’s a team game and you can’t run him in the ground expecting him to make every play. There are no automatic wins in the WCC this year unless your name is Gonzaga. Even the perennial doormat Portland-can take it to you if you don’t show up to play hard
Last week, BYU basketball coaches made huge mistakes costing BYU 2 games and possibly sending them to the NIT. Now, a former football player from BYU, makes huge coaching errors that probably cost the Chiefs a Super Bowl game
Unless BYU beats GU, I don’t think the tournament committee can put BYU in the Dance. There are bad losses, then there are losses like we saw this week. Both are inexcusable in their own way—the final minute collapse vs a very average team, then a loss including 38 minutes of frankly being dominated by literally one of the worst teams in the country. Those are losses that are just beyond the pale and I predict keep us out of March Madness. Sadly.
The next three games are crucial or it’s NIT. I don’t think we have to beat Gonzaga. But we do have to now beat SF and SM. Then, get to the finals in the WCC Tournament.
I had that premonition, once BYU choked the SCU game, I thought we would lose the SMC game as well, but to lose to Pacific? BYU is toast.
Why Lohner and Knell get starter minutes at this point is beyond me. Goerge/Knight can score, defend better but turnover at a higher rate, I just think these guys should get a chance to turn this ship around. To be here with 2/3s of the season over is total disaster. Feel bad for Pope,