Hmmm, lets look at it from this perspective. BYU played in the lowly Rec League but could never win a title in 7 years. why? Gonzaga. Could we take this year’s team with additions of Baker, Ali Khalifa and Ques Glover and win the WCC title? We would be close. Gonzaga would be a contender in the Big 12 if it joined and scare Kansas over the past 7 years.
This will be a BYU team that has to score to compete in the Big 12. These three transfers will be better than any three Pope has ever recruited to BYU. That says a lot. Will BYU finish near the bottom as predicted about our Football team? I seriously doubt it. Just as BYU football will NOT be dead last in the league, we will see the basketball team surprise plenty of people including a lot of fans and here’s why:
BYU needed scoring, all three of these guys can score
BYU needed shot creators, Dawson and Glover are very good and Khalifa is a wizard at finding the open cutter. Best big man passer in college.
BYU needed defense. All three are an improvement over past transfers unless we compare to Haarms and Barcello.
Add these guys to a core of Hall, Saunders, Johnson and Foos. We will have scorers at every position.
Will BYU contend? no way, but I think it is realistic to think BYU as a possible March Madness team barring injuries.
I didn’t realize the impact of being in a power five conference. If you are a five-star player and have serious potential for the NBA, then I can understand going to a top basketball program. For everybody else I assumed there could be lots of factors one of which was the conference, but coaches and locations were probably more important in my mind.
With our first year in the Big 12 and seeing what we’re getting out of the transfer portal and looking at our potential recruits for next year it’s changing my opinion. Being in a power conference is a big deal. The next few years in basketball are going to be a lot of fun!
BYU is going to be fun to watch, these transfers can really score but BYU is still painfully slow and white. When we run into a Kansas, you will all see what NBA talent does to really good College talent. Can you say, " Blow BYE".
I will predict that BYU wins some games at the Marriott to some big time names and has a chance to Dance. Just depends on who steps up to be the go to man for BYU.
I still think that relying on mercenary transfers every year isn’t going to be as good as having recruits who want to come and stay from the outset. It’s going to be a hodge-podge of guys who aren’t happy in their former programs who just come for a year, maybe two if we’re lucky. We’ll get excited about what a “beast” they all are on paper, but they will pan out like Matt Haarms in reality.
Haarms was okay. The thing is that Gonzaga does the same thing only getting better talent. Hopefully, in the Big12 we can get some better talent too. Especially LDS talent. Winning this year would go a long ways.
Yeah I wish he would have stayed another year.BYU would have been an NCAA team in 2022 with Haarms. As you remember we lost Baxter & Harward and had no inside defensive presence. He would have made a huge difference.
Ah, Barcello. Just typing that name makes me smile. That kid was a BIG TIME GAMER. Showed up the most when it mattered the most–on both ends of the court. Too small to be an NBA player (we all knew that from day one) but what a great college player–and a great kid!
I’m curious if Dawson winds up getting minutes at point. I’m feeling like there will be games when Hall shines due primarily to his strength, but many nights when he is ineffective or just totally overwhelmed by future NBA talent because he’s not great at creating his own jumper off the dribble. He was best last year when he would take guys to the rack. I have high hopes for Dawson. He looks pretty smooth with his handle, and he can create his own mid range shots while being guarded.
Ali Whiz Khalifa looks smooth. Hopefully he makes an impact. He does really look like a great passer.