BYU plays SMC Jan 14, then SF Jan 16. This is a season defining road trip. @ SMC after SMC had lost to Santa Clara. They are at home and rarely lose twice in a row. Randy Bennett usually gets his teams to value every single possession and win more then their fair share. They are not as talented as last year but are going to be a hand full at their house. they launch more 3s then any team we have faced this year. slow down the 3 production, win the game
SF has a pair of great guards, Bouyea and Shabazz. Shabazz has shot 103 three point shots on the year, they are soooooo 3 point crazy, they make SMC look like an inside team. Stop the 3, win the game.
Win these games, get back in the driver’s seat for Dancin
SF is tall and thin and like you say, like to shoot the three. This could be a problem because Lohner and other slower BYU bigs are sometimes slow on the switches. Pope has probably been really stressing defense and that will be key in both games as BYU should get their points against a lot weaker defense’s than Gonzaga
As you recall, last year Shabazz came off the bench to pitch an almost perfect game: 32 points in 25 minutes played, including 20 points in the second half, on 10/10 from the field, 6/6 from deep, and 6/7 from the line to help USF beat BYU 83-82. It was painful to watch but a performance for the ages. Bouyea also scored 23. Bouyea has scored in double figures in all 14 games this year and is shooting 54%. In our first game vs USF last year Shabazz and Bouyea combined for 55 points on 25 shots–quite astounding, actually–but in the second game a couple weeks later combined for only 24 points on 17 shots. Whatever adjustments Pope made were successful and Pope will be ready for those two and have a plan to slow them down.
OK, Buckle up. SMC tonight. This road trip has my full attention. Pope’s as well. Caught part of his show this week and he broke down both road games.
Keys to a SMC win.
On defense, BYU has to close out 3s and not let SMC get hot. If we do that, then they are a one horse pony (sorry Biden, had to reuse it, hahahaha) SMC has no Jorden or Fitts this year. They are really challenged at having a go to guy but if I had to chose it would be Johnson, you can recognize him by the only tatoo on the team. SMC has struggled getting points inside and should do so against BYU
Just so you know, BYU suffers from the same problem, we don’t have a go to guy, I would say Barcello but he is reluctant to take over a game and prefers to act as shooting guard
On offense, BYU needs to forget the 3 and just work inside. we have soo many better athletes down low. The trick is to get the ball inside. The old days we would just throw it in to the low post but then comes a double team and if the big is slow to find the open guy, we waste possessions. We need our bigs to be active in pics.
SMC is the world’s best at not wasting any possessions. They are at home and will fill comfey at shooting 3s. We would beat them by 10 at home but on the road, this game is a toss up and they just lost to SC and Bennett rarely loses twice in a row.
Buckle up, gonna be a fun game to watch.
Low 60s, first one there wins.
I think long term these two games are important for Pope and for BYU. I think it can do a lot for Pope’s recruiting if he can show that BYU will dominate the Rec League (except GU, of course, who even Pope admits is just on another level). SMC and USF are both good Rec League teams and a good chance for Pope to do just that.
Barcello got Johnson and shut him down, Bam
4 Bennett’s downfall is he plays his horses too many minutes. BYU has too deep of bench, SMC gassed out in the end.
5 Well, Hardy lost his starting job (for this game) to Knell, not going to say it made a big difference but Knell did hit our only 3.
6 I was freaking out most of the game over our lack of penetration, then George happened. Man among boys out there, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?
7 to see George out there to close out the game tells me that Pope is struggling to find the right rotation…Answer is, Pope has a DEEP bench and can change the lineup to fit any threat not named Gonzaga.
8 SMC was cold from 3 land because BYU defended the hell out of the deep ball. which leads me to…
9 BYU was going to control the paint. Win at the rim. Harrms sure altered some shots out there. Rebounds are the same as Turnovers in a SMC game, We won in both stats. Game.
10 Barcello is the MVP and this team is cheering for each other out there. Big win. SF is NOT going to miss 3s on Sat, just sayin.
They will miss 3’s if we play defense for 40 minutes.
The player of the game was George. He got things going and played lockdown defense on khuse or whatever his name is who no one else could stop. And his offense got us going down the stretch.
Haarms has to play 30 minutes if possible. Just saying.
SF shoots roughly 3 times as many 3s as any team we have faced this year. The MVPs of this game will be our Defense on 3 point attempts. Everyone on their team hucks it up. Numbers wise, BYU’s BA leads the team with 53 attempts, SF has 6 players that have shot more then BA and 2 players with over 110 three point attempts. At home they fire away. If they are hot, we lose.
Of offense, BYU needs to just beat them up at the rim. Just like we did at SMC
First team over 70 wins.