I would say Jeff Call covered what I saw last night
Foos and George will be BYU’s stars, no doubt
the transfers are going to be as good as our past additions. Barcellos and Lucas will be tough to replace but Rudi Williams, Noah Waterman and Jaxson Robinson are going to be really good for BYU.
Williams will be our Point, he is a fearless driver to the hoop and smooooth 44% from 3. undersized. Waterman at 6’11 can play the 3 or 4, also has a killer smooth 3. slow white guy but very smart, nose for the ball. Robinson could be another George type player, was a top 100 recruit, and parts of his game really show the talent. He’ll be perfect to come in for George and even play with him at times.
Of our RMs, Dallin Hall will most likely back up Williams. You have to be exceptional to play a lot as a true Fr. for Pope and this kid is the total package. Richie Saunders is a dead eye from 3 but really surprised me with his head up passes. he may get minutes til Knell gets back from his rotator surgery in a few months.
Today our starting 5 are:
Williams- Hall
Johnson
George- Robinson
Waterman
Foos- Atiki
The scrimmage is on the BYUTV basketball archives.
I really like BYUTV’s broadcast. That said, Blaine Fowler is quite the talker. I would love to have seen more commentary from he and Jordan about what is happening in the game and less about the peripherals, ex. George’s shoe drive. Peripheral discussion is great during time outs, but I find it exasperating when the stories take a couple of trips up and down the court to tell.
Speaking of being true to our school, the women play Westminster tonight. The game is on the BYUTV app. If we can’t be at the game in person, let’s support the team by watching this and every game that we can.
One thing that stands out to me is that BYU has soo many 6’4 white guards. Stewart, johnson, Saunders, Knell, Hayhurst, Moore, MacGregor, Webb. Johnson and Knell have been starters so they will eat a lot of time. I didn’t throw Hall in this group because as a true point guard, he will always be in high demand. What I’m getting at is there just isn’t playing time for all these guys. Saunders and Hall will get minutes. Williams will get major minutes so where does that leave time for Stewart and Toolson and they say Stewart is supposed to be really good, but I don’t think he sees the floor that well and if Saunders does and can shoot lights out, where does that leave time for two good players such as Toolson and Stewart?
Remember when I thought Erickson would get starter minutes? He finally had to transfer, most likely because he was a poor defender. Pope will pare down the roster to 8 or 9 guys by league play. I’ll go to a few practices and see.
McCann and Fowler mentioned last night that with BYU being somewhat small Pope wants BYU to play more up tempo offensively with more pressure defensively and that as many as 10 to 12 players will see significant time.
Knell is injured. Hayhurst, Webb, and MacGregor are walkons. Moore is a prime candidate to redshirt.
Based on what I’ve seen and heard, Williams, Hall, Stewart, and Johnson will get the majority of minutes. I’m interested to see how much Saunders and Toolson will play.
There are a lot of different combinations that could be played though the 5 is the thinnest part of the rotation.
You remember last year going in, we had all these combos we could play then lost our two best centers and it went all downhill from there. Then for some inexplicable reason baxter leaves for Utah, go figure.
I confess, I was at the Jazz game then watched the cougs on tape delay and thought to myself, gosh, we are slow, hahaha. We do have speed with Williams, Robinson and George. They have said a lot about Stewart and his hops but he just never gives me the feeling that he sees the floor…not like Saunders can and that kid is seasoned coming out of Wasatch Acadamy. They are not in a league and play maybe 2 games a year in Utah, the rest are against the likes of Bishop Gormon of Vegas and farm teams from Florida/Illinios.
From my point of view, the difference this year than last is that in 21-22 the offense was dependent on center play and that’s why Richard Harward’s medical condition coupled with Baxter’s re-injury were devastating.
Insofar as Baxter leaving this year, I think Pope gave him a gentle tap out the door and then failed to land the more athletic but less injury prone center that he was hoping for.
The emergence of Foos and to some extent, our foul prone Atiki also gave Pope the feeling that we are OK at center, but you a completely right in saying that Pope hoped for, not just a solid center, but also another high profile forward. We will be just fine in the WCC with this team but can you imagine facing Kansas with our BYU type teams?
