If you remember back to when we played the Zags and beat them at their place, Sabonis got into foul trouble and that sealed the deal. He averages 17 and 12 per game. If he would have stayed out of foul trouble, BYU would have lost. But BYU only shot 3-17 from 3 in that game but the crazy stat of the game was BYU shot 85% from the stripe @ 12-14.
My thoughts. Gonzaga has had a odd year and it has been blamed on big Polock’s injury, but the real reason behind Gu’s loses is guard play. They are starting 2 freshman guards that have had turnover problems.
All in all, I think if BYU can hit outside shots, they are going to win. Gonzaga just cannot generate enough fire power. Wiltjer has been off lately and BYU will not let him go off for 30 as in the past. We are going to make Sabonis earn his shots and make their guards beat us (since we are sooooooo bad at contesting 3s) and I just don’t think that their shots are going to fall on the road.
SMC plays at 9 PM @ SF and if they lose, we could all share the crown.
compared to the rest of the conference the Cougs are actually worse at defending the 2 than the 3. Gonzaga strength is actually shooting the 2 so unless CK can stay out of foul trouble or the Zags bigs get into foul trouble it might be a dicey day.
That said I think the team has finally figured out how to keep their offense in sync so it will be interesting to see it against a legit defense instead of the porous defenses they’ve face the last few weeks.
Last time we played GU, we shot poorly as a team. We were 3-15 from 3 pt range. In that game, Wiltjer scored 35 pts. I think Kaufusi and Davis will be key in slowing down Sabonis and Wiljer. I’d like to see Collinsworth on Wiltjer at times if he starts to heat up. If BYU can shoot well at home, I like our chances.
If BYU is going to insist on shooting threes the entire game this isn’t going to end well. So is the GU defense controlling the game or is it just poor BYU play that has the Zags up by 10?
Someone besides KC and Fischer have got to contribute. No Kaufusi… no Davis… no Emery. Who is going to step up?
Any comments on the officiating? Seems like another “me first” crew that likes the theater and excitement of being the center of attention.
Well, we couldn’t hit our shots. The thing is we had plenty of open shots. And at the end, Fisher needed to take a chance with his 3. He can’t get shots off going to the lane.
Why was Seljass taking the ball out on the last play? A better pass and we had a chance but got no shot off.
32% shooting. Can’t win like that. And only 70% on FT
Kaufusi picked tonight for the worst game of the year. Sabonis completely schooled him all night. Davis and KC took turns missing the front end of one and ones (as usual). Emery just could not get his game going. The way we were creating Turnovers in the 1st half, I thought we would have a good chance of winning this one but GU settled down and played their game. If BYU could hit a stinking 3, KC would have easily gotten his 12th TDouble.
And yes, BYU hurried their 3s early in the game and when they got behind, BYU tensed up and just shot poorly. You have to credit Few and the Zags for running a great game plan and keeping Sabonis out of foul trouble. They played solid defense and made BYU earn every shot.
Gonzaga wins the WCC crown for the 15th time in 16 years, You have to hand it to them.
Gonzaga gets to dance, SMC get to dance and BYU plays at home in the NIT.
I didn’t see any rushed shots. They mostly were off passes and wide open. Emery and others simply missed wide open 3’s. The way our defense was playing we should have broken out into a big lead in the first half. Instead, we get out to a 6 point lead and then GU goes on a 0-14 run and we were fighting to get back in the game the rest of the way. Lots of open shots.
KC and Emery shot poorly.
I don’t understand why BYU tries to run a designed play for the guy who is having a terrible shooting night every time. Earlier in the season, Fischer was having a bad shooting game (Harvard) yet Rose ran a designed play for him at the end of regulation and he bricked up the final shot. The result was BYU losing in OT. So fast forward to last night and they ran not one, but two designed plays for Emery to take a 3 pointer in an attempt to win the game. Of course he misses them both and BYU loses the game. Emery was having a poor shooting night. Why not run the play for Fischer, who had made a couple of 3’s down the stretch?
There have been several occasions this season where I haven’t understood the logic for some of the plays BYU runs and some of the decisions they make when finishing games. Their record in close games has to be a losing one…
Disappointing finish when they had numerous opportunities to win the game…
You live by the three and you die by the three. The frustrating thing for me is that the whole team is either on or they are all off. Hartsock, Chatman, Emery, Fisher, Seljiaas all knocked down shots on Thursday. Yesterday, Hartsock was 0-2, Chatman was 0-2, Seljaas was 2-6, Emery was 3-10, Fisher wasn’t too bad (3-8). Surprisingly, KC was 2-3 so go figure. I really don’t fault Rose for setting a play for Emery who was 3-8 at the time. That’s not great but Fisher was 3-8 at the time and the defense was keying i on Fisher. Emery was probably the best option at the time. The last in-bounds play to KC was a good idea but bad execution. I think the most telling stat was where the scoring was made. Gonzaga front court got 36 pts while BYU’s front court scored 15 pts. Gonzaga gets balanced scoring. When our guards are missing, we can’t go inside and score. KC can do that to some degree and be a small forward. He tried to attack the rim but Sabonis was great at protecting the rim. We really needed Kaufusi to match up with Sabonis but he just looked tentative, nervous and over-matched. We also really miss KDavis and his normal double-double. He was better at the beginning of the season and has faded as the season progressed. Davis ended up with 2 rebounds and four points in 15 minutes. Kaufusi had 5 rebounds and 5 points in 17 minutes. KC played 34 minutes and had 15 rebounds, 15 points, 8 assists. He should have had a triple double but guys were just not hitting shots. Rose took KC out at the 8 min mark of the first half because he picked up his second foul. We were ahead when KC left the game and Gonzaga went on a run to pull ahead. Rose put KC back in before the half ended but that was a critical period that hurt BYU. KC ended the game with only 2 fouls. Why is it that you automatically pull a player with two fouls? KC doesn’t have a history of fouling out. I think that was a coaching error, But, on a more positive note, BYU had a chance to win. It was a well fought game. I think the weakness of the BYU front court is the issue now. Few’s strategy was to have a rim protector (Sabonis) and then focus on defending the parameter to disrupt the BYU shooters.
One time Jimmer had this very rare early fouls and sometime mid 2nd half he had his 4th foul. And some reason Dave Rose or was it Dave Rice got to Jimmer, “you realized you got your 4th”. Dave Rose didn’t benched him and trusted in him. Anyone remember that one game? I missed the fist half last night but I agreed KC should of stayed in and keep the lead where they were or more. I don’t remember he ever fouled out. I like to see Dave Rice come back next season along with Dave Rose.
I went back during the first half and didn’t see hurried 3 shots. They were mostly within range and plenty of time to get their legs under them. We just didn’t hit the shots. However, I would have liked to see some more drives to the lane like we did at the end of the game to get close to winning.
Years ago, Al McGuire in the BYU Notre Dame game observed give ball to the senior and he’ll give you the game.Which is exactly what D Ainge did, even if the play would have been called another way. If Rose would have rellied on his senior(Fisher) we would have won the game.
Okay, so my follow up question is why were they running a play to shoot the 3 point shot for the win instead of getting closer and playing for a tie and/or drawing a foul? They are at home, they had some momentum, nobody was really in foul trouble (except Sabonis who fouled out and Emery, but I don’t think we miss him as much as they miss Sabonis) and I think BYU could have done it in OT. I agree with SG, BYU should have tried going to the basket more.
Not much more to say… sort of defined the season in this game.
What bothered me was Seljass took the ball out and not a more experienced player. It was a bad pass to KC in my opinion. The play was also doomed from the beginning. KC was completely guarded and no shot. The only chance would have been to pass it out to Fischer for a 3.
Absolutely, Collinsworth generally inbounds the ball. I was surprised when Rose had a freshman inbound the ball. I thought to myself this might be a mistake. Since Collinsworth wasn’t inbounding the ball Gonzaga keyed on him in the expectation that a play was set up for him. I would have rather seen Emery or Fischer shoot a 3 with Collinsworth cleaning up in the event of a miss.
It turns out the loss is really irrelevant since St. Mary’s won and wrapped up the number one seed. We will be in the same bracket with Gonzaga which would have happened even if we had won. I would not have liked our chances of beating Gonzaga 3 times in the same season. I think if BYU beats Gonzaga in the semi-final they would beat St. Mary’s. If Pepperdine upset them I mighty be more worried about that matchup. We don’t seen to match up well with Pepperdine for some reason.
