From one of my best friends who is very, VERY close to the BYU program:
“I think this is the best Gonzaga team yet. They make the game look effortless. They smother teams on D and run whatever offense they want. We (BYU) are a good team but Gonzaga is on a whole different level.”
I’d say that is a pretty solid summary, huh? 
You can buy anything in this world with money… we went away from the offense we had been running to the weave. They were ready for it. We need a better motion offense that gets us to the basket easier like GU was doing.
I think people always equate Mark Few with offense, but in the last 5 years, I believe the strength of Gonzaga has been defense. Of course lately he has had the talent to pull that off. The way they blitzed BYU the first ten minutes was incredible, but frustrating as well. I believe Coach Pope is of the same mindset-he just needs the athletes to pull it off and Lohner and George are a good start, but the guards next year are a real question mark. Not sure what’s in the cupboard, but I thought Erickson would play more and I really don’t see much else unless you have RM coming in or transfers. Probably Chris has an idea or two
Hmmm… I wonder what he said?
Might as well give Erickson a shot. What do we have to lose? Can’t be worse than what we saw against the 3 losses we have.
I think Pope is in “ride or die” mode with AB and BA. They are his seniors and he has made major commitments to both. Both are very good one on one perimeter defenders, and both will excel against weak stuff in the Rec League. I’m trying not to be too hard on them, because they were just overmatched last night. As my buddy told me, GU is just on another level. Our guards all got just demolished by those guys. Chris made the good point that we miss TJ in moments like that, because he could create his own shot against even the best one on one defenders.
I love watching GU play, I love what Coach Few does and what he represents, and I can’t wait to watch them in the tournament.
Nothing worth wondering about Grasshopper
This is really the 2nd off game I’ve seen AB have-BA another story. Just like SC, BSU, and GU-BYU will struggle against athletic, quick teams, especially the ones that shoot well and play good team defense
It is what it is. Harding is going to play some games and disappear in other games. That is just reality.
My real concern is Howard to point guards and how the rest of the team can help them start their offense. Neither guy is gonna blow by a big fast card so you have to get the rest of the team to come up, set pics. One thing my NBA coach harps on all the time. I can’t believe college teams don’t disrupt the other teams first play, once you make them do something they don’t want to do it slows down their offense. The coach says this all the time. Gonzaga does it very well!
Now we will find out just how good Pope is
Agreed. Barcello looked overwhelmed. Knew it would happen. Sadly there are no more Haws brothers to rely on, stepping up to take leadership roles. BYU is not at all good right now. No leaders… No front court presence. No confidence.
But…Byu actually came out of the game not looking all that bad. They lost by 17, but easily could have, and probably should have, lost by 40. Byu turned it up in the last 5 minutes…albeit to the backups.
Until byu gets an alpha, dominant point guard, we will continue to be disappointed with the results.
Too bad Marty couldn’t have produced just 1 more son. 
After the poor start of 10 minutes, we outscored GU the rest of the way. The big reason for the play was no games for 2 weeks.
You are dead on-BYU never quit even after the first 10 minutes when the game was over and Few experimented with different combinations, much as he did against Portland last night. It’s not a disgrace to lose to Gonzaga, one of the best in the country. It’s only good for BYU to compete against better teams, so they can compete on a higher level next time. We may not make the tournament this year, but players are getting valuable experience for the next three years. I like the observation on Haws being able to create his own shot-he was an expert at that
As AB goes, so goes this team. 6 turnovers because Gonzaga’s taller guards were cutting off passing lanes. Not only was that a disaster but he rushed his shots. Barcello is normally very controlled, collected but in this game, he was a mess.
BTW, Ericson sits because Coach only has so many minutes for his rotation. Pope loves him, loves his game but he has two seniors in front of him and a transfer Jr, Johnson ahead. Ericson will run this team at some point, just not this year.
I think this is the year Few finally gets it done. I hope covid does not derail his train.
Good to know about Erickson-hopefully we can get a couple of transfer guards next year also as it’s a rarity to get freshman guards that are college ready in BYU’s recruiting parameters
Wasn’t this the knock on Rose that he sat players who need floor time for the future? After watching St. Mary’s and Santa Clara, AB and BA will match up nicely. With GU and SF, it would be better to have more size and athleticism now. If Erickson is as good as you all say he is, he should have played more early on.
so true
on a sad note, It appears that the “News” Pope as hoping to avoid is that Wyatt Lowell did blow out his Achilles. So sad
It was pretty evident that he blew the Achilles. They tried to bring him back from his mission slowly. But it happened anyways. We are back having problems with injuries. Whose handling the strength and conditioning with our athletes?
Last week Pope was discussing Few and the replacements he always has waiting in the wings to become the next all american. He then specified Erickson as one of those he expects to be a star next year.
I love it when you post comments like this one… so pointless and with no meaning at all. Exactly what is your intention for writing it? BYU was NEVER in this game, not in the first 2 minutes, not in the first half, not in the second half, not ever. If you read the comments others make you will understand that better. “Outscoring Gonzaga for the last 30 minutes of the game” did nothing to change the lopsided result. Do you understand that? Are you claiming moral victory? Are you saying that BYU was as good as Gonzaga for the last 30 min? What is it that you are trying to say? Regardless, none of it has any significance or meaning with regards to the game that was played. BYU was dominated, end of story.