I would have liked to have seen the game. We shot a lot of free throws 25-27, 93%!
Their shooting was 37% but they got a lot of offensive rebounds. Our assists were low but we still won. This was a big road win!!!
It was a low scoring game. BYU needs to just keep playing smart, disciplined ball and keep improving game by game. Another good game for Bryant and Haws making key free throws down the stretch.
Princeton plays slow down. Worthington needs to make the layups and short shots. They got too many offensive rebounds too. But, it was a key road win…
Glad for the win but the stats show the weaknesses I feared. Rebounding on both ends is a bust at this point. Worthington and every other big not named Childs are not only weak rebounders but equally bad scorers.
As I said last week, this team will not excel if this doesn’t change. Tonight fantastic free throw shooting bailed them out. I like the hustle and defense, but again BYU failed to block out on rebounds, giving up 14 offensive boards to an average team to getting one themselves, which is a horrific stat and will prove very hard to overcome against good teams if not fixed.
So I’m not dicing the team, but the coaches really need to teach better rebounding positioning, particularly with the 3 other bigs, who just don’t show good footwork to get to the offensive boards, and do not show adequate blackout skills on defense.
In the other 4 games played we did have good blocking out and footwork. Princeton was able to do some things that got us out of position. We will learn from this and make the corrections.
Remember, this was not anhome game. So, we did what needed to be done and won.
Two wins two near perfect games. If not for the fantastic free throws, the fan base would be sorrowing about a loss. Without the near perfection of Bryant against the MVSU it would have been a competitive game. Can the team continue to excel at just enough on one stat line to win…?
UTA put them in their place three games ago. Can the team do better this time around?
The new offense/defense has dropped BYU from one of the fastest playing teams in the country, for virtually all of the Dave Rose era, to one of the slowest. Admittedly just a two game sample.
But a startling transformation in any event. Last year there were two games the entire year in which BYU played at such a slow pace.
I would also say that only 6 assists is not a consistently winning formula. I didn’t see the game, and maybe I should be happy for a road win, but it’s against an 0-2 team. The next game should give us a better feel for how this team is in comparison to last year’s. They need to win convincingly.
And, who did they lose to? Butler, a very good team. Princeton is supposed to win the Ivy League I believe and go dancing again. They are well coached as well with talent on their team. They are also very deep. So, don’t let the 0-2 make it sound as though they are weak. Maybe we are better than thought.
The assists are also because of Princeton fouling us while we were shooting. That’s what 27 foul shot attempts indicate. If we weren’t fouled then perhaps the shots would have been made and more assists accounted for.
Worthington missed a lot of layups according to the box feed. So did Childs. Something they will not always do but being the first away game, it happened. But, we still won 
It’s funny how some want a fast pace ball hogging offense while others want more passing and team ball. What I’ve seen is a team playing as a team so far. The assists and offensive rebounds are going to be low when we shoot 27 free throws. And, Worthington missing layups will lower the assists.
Hitting the technical fouls made a big difference as that sequence made 7 points. The big thing is winning the first 2 games gives the players confidence.
beating the worst div 1 team that exists this year doesn’t boost confidence…or it shouldn’t anyway.
The rebounding problem is that Princeton is recognized for having a weak upfront game. BYU should have dominated the rebounding.
Instead BYU got outrebounded 23-36.
59 rebounds were available and BYU couldn’t manage to get a majority?
How will that work against the teams with talented bigs? probably not too well…
fast paced does not equal ball hogging.
12 years of Rose’s teams playing fast…a majority of those teams did not ball hog…many of those years BYU was amongst the national leaders in assists…which just doesn’t add up to ball hogging…
This team was slow and despite your excuses for a lack of assists had 17 shots go in. 6 of 17 shots having assists is well below average for a dave rose team.
The team won…good…the way it won gutting it out with defense was good. The way it won with such a high free throw percentage good. The way it won with such horrible rebounding and offensive play…not good…
Winning always boosts confidence. Does losing build confidence? Of course not.
Princeton has a big front line. Did you watch the game? Jim used to slam me for using stats to explain wins and losses. And, I’ll do the same here
We were not supposed to win that game. We did. Should tell you something. Saturday will also tell us some things.
Except they did a lot of fouling. Which means there would have been more assists if they didn’t foul so much. Are there areas that need work? There always is at the beginning. The point you miss is that while we are working on those areas, we are winning.
Obviously assuming the same rate of assists to shots more shots would have meant more assists. However. only 6 shots of the 17 attempted were assists, worse than normal for a BYU team under Coach Rose. If their is a foul on the shot, the attempt doesn’t go into the books as an attempt. All of those fouls subtracted from number of attempts. Not from the assist to shot ratio.
As to my missing the fact that the team is winning.
Yes in an exhibition game against a NM team with a massive turnover in personnel including a coach the team won…pulling away in the end as they did in the win against Princeton.
They beat a division 2 team by the exact same score as they beat Princeton. That the team beat a solid Division 1 team by the same score as the div2 team shows progress.
They blew out a division three team and one of the worst teams in Division 1.
So yes they are winning…optimism is building but dark blue glasses? at this point? given the way they’ve played? not yet.
This team plays better defense than last years team. This team actually plays like a team so far. This team is not deep by any stretch of the imagination. Last year’s team had more talent by far. Losing Mika and Emery equates to a lot of talent. We will see how playing as a team and playing defense can make a difference. My guess-Probably a wash but the caveat here is Bryant-terrific start
Bryant and Childs are going to be as dynamic or even more so than Mika and Emery. With Seljaas and Haws outside, teams will have to think long and hard about doubling Childs like Princeton did. If Hardnett pans out and develops, we will be a better team and score more and be better at defense too.
Well nobody can say you aren’t optimistic 
Things are looking up for BYU basketball, they signed two new players, one from Provo and another from Woods Cross, Utah. This is fantastic news… if you live in the bubble, because you can believe, once again, that the team will be awesome next season and then make more excuses when they finish third or lower in the wcc and lose in the first round of the NIT.
I’m giving up on the athletic department until I see a marked effort and commitment to being great and winning games again.
This is getting ridiculous… there are more members of the church every year and nobody outside the state of Utah gets any interest or when they do, the culture chases them away.
Or maybe they don’t come here because they can’t live up to the rules including remaining chase and sober. I don’t think anything keeps them away from playing at BYU. They made their choices by not preparing themselves to live the gospel and respect the rules of BYU.
Total miss of the mark… try again.