BYU "Soft As Pillows Inside"

Commentary by Jay Drew of the SLC Tribune on St. Mary Game

"Again, the Cougars had no inside presence, as the main rotation of Luke Worthington, Isaac Neilson and Corbin Kaufusi combined to get two rebounds and score two points in 39 combined minutes.

A staggering statistic: BYU’s three main bigs have scored just 40 points and grabbed just 50 rebounds in eight league games, while committing 71 fouls.

The Cougars are soft as a pillow inside . . . "

These statistics alone are sufficient to tamper any hope of NCAA post season play. Can’t win against strong teams with that type of ineptness on the front line, regardless of what the guards do. Maybe a little push in the NIT, but even there a medium strong inside team with a decent perimeter defense may put us out real quickly. It is what it is for now and unless Austin returns soon and plays extremely well, this season will be over relatively quickly in March.

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Wow, the points I get, but 50 boards vs 71 fouls is frankly pretty embarrassing…

who’s fault is it? I get that you don’t run plays through Worthington, He just does not have any inside game but Kuafusi and Nielson have got to be included when we are ahead or playing weaker teams. These guys have got to get used to seeing the ball come their way.

To me its all coaching. Its all repetition and getting game speed experience. I am particularly worried about Kaufusi and that his confidence has been shaken.

Then play 5 guards team or put Bartley in in the paint to test this out which he does have long arem & quickness. I know, we need the bigs in the middle. I don’t care how wcc play out the rest the way. BYU going to play in the nit if they are lucky. I would love to see utah play Kentucky in the 2nd game of the ncaa. That would be fun to see them get clobbered.

same here chris, I have some concerns for Kaufusi and his confidence. I don’t want him to think he isn’t capable or anything. I worry that he is modeling his play after Worthington or something… and that wouldn’t be good. He often looks confused or worried and that isn’t good.

He did have a blocked shot last game and that was nice but he needs to learn to keep his feet on the ground and work on his timing. It would be nice if they ran a play or two for him so he could develop a post up move and I think Scott mentioned that it would be nice if one of the bigs tried an up and under as well… they are all an afterthought in this offense.

I would love to see UTah play KU as you say. My money would not be against Utah. KU looks unstoppable at times but very beatable in the last few games.

As for a 5 guard offense or using Bartley at the 5, If I was a WCC team, I would love to see that…even LMU would have a good chance of beating us.

Jim, I think you just came up with a name for our Inside game…Afterthought.

The Afterthoughts just scored 2 points, yay