This is a game that exposes BYU for the team that they are at this point. We shouldn’t be confused about comparing the talent of Mika and Emery with Childs and Seljaas. The game against TA was a legitimate test. The season is just beginning and there is room for improvement, but this game was an eye opener. Perhaps if Mika was still here and teaming with Childs and Emery had his head on straight from the beginning there might be room for optimism, but this was not a good day for BYU sports, with, frankly nothing to signify a lot to look forward to. Not trying to be negative- just looking at the state of the programs. This BYU team will be fortunate to make the NIT.
Disagree. Yes, it would have been nice to have Mika and Emery. But, I don’t think we will shoot this poorly many times this season. They didn’t stop BYU from having open 3’s. That 6 minutes stretch missing shot after shot is what lost us the game. I don’t see that happening a lot.
wow, that was really funny grasshopper. That is not what lost the game. There were many things that lost the game…
- Ineffective defense. They couldn’t stop anything. If I saw one pick and roll layup for UTA, I saw 15.
- Athleticism advantage was an obvious problem.
- Poor coaching decisions… we will spend another season watching Dastrup “develop” and not getting the minutes needed to do so.
- I’m tired of TJ’s insolence and unwarranted arrogance. That is what living in a bubble and being told you are awesome has done to him. He needs to be given an entire humble pie for Thanksgiving and forced to eat the whole thing.
- This team just isn’t very good and until they accept that and try to get better, nothing will change. Bubbleism is killing them…
Don’t agree with #s 4 and 5. Wild guesses and not what the team is saying. That just your prejudice showing against LP 
much to agree with though I think the tide is turning on dastrup as it had with Nixon.
If Worthington, Dastrup, and Nixon had been on the floor more the long term for the team would have been better. The score might not have been so abysmal in this game too.
Other than the scrimmage against the Princeton chemistry club, we have now been blown out three games in a row. This BYU team did not look even competitive to me. I mean, with 12 minutes left, UTA was doing hot dog passes and laughing at our guys.
Thank you…the exhibition season is now over…and the team has been exposed. UVU is looking like a tall hill to climb, let alone the WCC
Appreciate all comments. My posts from last week, when some were getting giddy seeing us beat a truly low quality team, was to hold off until this week and we’ll get a better feel for where we are. Now we know!
The Princeton team is okay, but didn’t really push us in the areas we are extremely week in, which is our inside presence and overall offensive skills under a pressure defense. I realize we did get good open looks last night and they didn’t fall, but some of that can be attributed to the pressure being felt with good man to man defense.
On offense, we run what I have always considered to be the “worthless” top of the key weave, which accomplishes very little except waste time because we have so few players that can actually penetrate off that weave, which is the only way that offense is worth running. Elijah can do it occasionally, but he generally is determined to get to the rim himself rather than look for the open man off his penetration, so he becomes ineffective. Haws can do it somewhat but he is relatively easy to defend even when he does get past his man, so that isn’t helping us either. If he learned to shoot that soft 15’ jumper that his brother got down pat, it would be different. But he’s a bomber or driver to the hoop with no apparent skills in between, so he isn’t nearly as effective as his brother was. No one else on the starting five can penetrate off the dribble, so when not hot from the outside (like last night), this offense can quickly lead to long stretches of non-scoring minutes, such as we saw last night going from a 13-10 lead to something like a 35-17 deficit. That stretch was an example of everything that is wrong with this team on offense - from ball handling, to shooting, to rebounding, to defense, to composure. It was a complete and total tear down and we never recovered.
And we have to face the fact that our young inside guys have neither the experience nor overall talent to compete with what we saw last night - maybe better in a year, but not now. Childs struggles big time inside for several reasons. He doesn’t work as hard as needed to get good position, lack of penetration by guards means he is easy to double team, and worst, he has no face the basket shot to speak of, so guarding him becomes an exercise in waiting for him to back down towards the basked and then simply double teaming him when he gets there. It’s not hard to do as he isn’t exactly the best passer in the world either, so leaving the off side a bit unattended is not really a big gamble. Notice that once our opponent figured out last night that all the perimeter shooters were shooting bricks, they laid back somewhat and immediately stopped the entire inside game of BYU and destroyed us.
Right now, this is not even a middle level team on a national scale. If we were in a big 5 league, it would be conceivable that this team would lose just about every game they played in the league. The WCC has other teams in our general talent level or even lower, so wins will come. Our schedule up to conference play is full of mid-level or worse teams, so putting that together with conference play almost assures 15 wins, and possibly even a few more. But these wins mean nothing as they do not indicate that the team is getting better or capable of beating better teams - they just mean we can play with mid-level and worse teams, that’s all. This has been our team ever since Fredette and that group graduated and I don’t see that changing with this group. I know we have gotten some good recruits but don’t really know if it’s an incorrect attitude, lack of coaching ability, lack of talent, etc. But certainly something has to change or we will become as insignificant in basketball as we are now in football.
Sad state of affairs…but so they are.
I haven’t figured out why the two or three games OOC that used to be available against really good to great teams disappeared. Even when they were losses they did two things in my mind.
They got the BYU name out there every time those great teams’ schedules were were mentioned.
They gave real confidence. UVU hung with Kentucky for 3/4s of a game. BYU used to be able to say that. It makes a difference for both the team’s confidence and when the committee is discussing invitations.
BYU this year doesn’t have anything on the schedule that remotely comes close to that potential.
So, you think anyone of those 3 are better than Childs, Haws or Bryant? They play different positions but there is no way any of those 3 are better than Childs. If you believe that you are really off the rail
The best thing Yoeli could do right now is transfer to Utah. He would have a shot at the nba if he did. There is no future, no development of talent, no opportunity and no improvement when you play for BYU.
The LP3 and their overhyped potential ruined BYU basketball for years to come.
Just nonsense.