Only because I am a fan and hate to see it, I hope the team can get their act together at some point and make it a game.
It’s hard when they keep playing the jumping ninja defense…
If the Cougs end up losing by 20 I don’t want to hear how they played Gonzaga even in the second half…
Clearly BYU isn’t even in the same league, oops I guess the wcc is considered the same league, as Gonzaga is.
What a great opportunity… the only possibility here is if the Zags starting 5 goes out with injuries early in the half. Even then I don’t know if BYU could come back.
Interesting how BYU always seems to get the same officials all the time. The pool that they pull officials from is pretty small. I’ve seen all 3 of these guys doing BYU games multiple times.
The zebras seem to be calling breathing fouls on BYU. As usual Czarnaski is pushing folks around and getting away with it. I noticed that Few took him out when Kaufusi came into the game… Oh well, so far the statistics are telling the tape as expected
Emery hits the top of the backboard on a wild 3 from deep in the corner and then Haws follows that up with a drive to the basket and shot that goes off the bottom of the backboard… no accountability.
Haws redeems himself with a 3 to get BYU to within 12…
We have something to cheer about finally. Hopefully the momentum continues.
Another woulda, coulda, shoulda… but not so extreme as I will stop at shoulda.
I guess losing by only 10 is a sort of moral victory but there were plenty of opportunities. I kind of feel bad for Gonzaga being undefeated. If they go into the ncaa tournament like this it will be tough for them in the second round when they play a really good team with nothing to lose.
Mika - disappeared in the second half
Haws - wanted to hug him and punch him at the same time
Childs - tentative at first but he sure stepped up in the second half
Bryant - hard to say, mostly disappointing
Emery - still not a lot of improvement in my opinion, he did nothing
Rose - didn’t see much from him at all
Guinn - had a couple good plays
Kaufusi - looked like he has been playing football most of the season
Beo - he really stepped up, when the water bottles needed filling
Dastrup - great to see him leading the cheers on the sideline
Aytes - did a good job getting towels for the LP3
Shaw - saw him jump at 3 point shooters a couple times
Leifson - kept his seat warm for sure
Frampton - I wonder if “he feels like we do”?
Had to watch it late tonight. 2nd half shows me what the potential is. What has to change is everyone of them has to get in the weight room and really work hard.
Now, to the players:
Haws: he works the hardest on the floor. 29 points and kept us in the game. Played defense too.
Emery: he had the flu. It showed.
Bryant: played well. His shooting will improve and with a lot more strength has great potential.
Rose: no confidence. Okay on defense.
Childs: good 2nd half. Learned a lot from this game.
Mika: worse game at the wrong time. He will be back next year.
Guinn: did okay.
Beo: looked lost when he got a chance. Too big of a game.
The Bench: Best cheerleaders in college.
Yeah, it pretty much went just like thawk has said it would go…
If you don’t develop any sort of bench, how can you expect them to step up in a game like this?
Stop making excuses for Emery… he was a major liability in this game. If he had the flu, why did he play so many minutes? Haws did very well, but his immaturity showed at times. He is getting better with it though so props to him for “improving”. I thought Childs played well in the second half, after his deer in the headlights start. Mika was good but somewhat disappointing. It is hilarious how everyone thinks he is a lottery pick and might leave. Bryant played in slow motion too often… hopefully he keeps getting better too.
No development of a bench leaves a team with nobody who can help. We talked about this issue months ago and warned about it. The result is losing games like this one… games that had the potential to be a win instead.
Interesting to note that we do have the ability to hustle on defense. What does it say about our team and coaches that this may have been the first half all year that players actually went all out to play D. If it hadn’t been for Gross playing like he belongs in the NBA right now, the defense played like that may have well carried the day. I still don’t like the D we play, but with the hustle shown in the second half, it at least got disruptive and that was good to see.
Hope they watch this in the film room and realize that playing like this on D can change the entire team and that they will commit themselves to that type of effort right out of the gate going forward and push it for 40 minutes. Sub if you have to but play hard defense every minute on the court.
Player observations:
Rose - useless for us as he plays slow, methodical ball which doesn’t fit with our team and his really poor shooting doesn’t bring anything to our game. Should not be starting and only play to rest others.
Emery - no opinion tonight as he played sick (I hope that was it).
Haws - have to admire his tenacity. Fearless, all in player - and that makes for some mistakes. But his will to fight is worth a ton to this team.
Mika - had the worst night tonight. Fumbled plays, didn’t rebound well, had difficulty doing anything on offense. Yes, he played against big boys but if he wants to go pro, he better learn to overcome that type of defense because ALL pro guys play power ball inside. I like him but he has much to learn. I can’t see any team even remotely looking at him at this time, but will be watching him to see how he fights through this.
Childs - good second half because he realized it was tough inside and decided to play tough as well. May be a great kick in the butt for him and encouragement to play tough going forward.
Bryant - good skills but a learning curve to overcome in good decision making and needs to improve outside shot. Getting better, though.
Kafusi - a bull in a china store. No basketball skills, outside of size, left at all. Fills the roll of a body when needed but it would be better to develop Dahlstrup to get him game time to improve.
Others - role players to be used to rest the above and if they happen to have a good game, give them some extra time.
Most desperate need - good 6-7 to 6-9 wing that can play both ways, shoot the ball and guard someone like Gross. Mika and Childs can’t do that as neither has the footspeed and the rest are to small. Top recruiting need by far.
Did appreciate the second half hustle tonight, but poor execution on offense left a ton of points on the floor. But if they decide to defend more like the second half of tonights game, they will improve big time. So I have hope - at least until the next game.
The bench wasn’t the reason for the loss. Shooting 35%, most of it in the 1st half. We have that slow start problem.
Emery was sick. He didn’t play that many minutes.
Bryant played under control and didn’t turn the ball over. He should start the next game. Rose had some open looks and froze.
Mika had 5 turnovers and 5-15 shooting missing some easy shots. He shoots his normal percentage we have a ■■■■ at winning. He rebounded well but he needed to be the scorer. Haws picked up and created havoc.
The bench could play 40 minutes a game and they won’t be any better. Disappointing. Those players really need to work hard in the off season.
Nonsense…
Your evaluation of who improves and who isn’t capable of improving is off the mark. In fact, much of what you say makes little to no sense so it is hard to know what you really know and don’t know.
You still think Emery is improving. The excuse for this game was that he was “sick”. Nobody else had this supposed flu, hard to know how severe it was. I know he will go off in one of the next few games and you will say he is improving again.
The overall evaluation of his game to this point has to be “weak”. I wish it was different, but it isn’t. Hopefully he starts to improve soon and looks to next season to have an impact.
Starters ran out of GAS
Players:
Haws: Good spurt in 2nd half but pushed too hard and missed too soon/quick during his spurt.
Emery: Shoulda stayed home - FLU
Bryant: Getting better - just stay healthy
Rose: We didn’t need him
Childs: He’s young and will improve
Mika: I didn’t say he was a Lottery Pick - he’ll play all his 4 years
Guinn: Getting better
Beo: Hang in there kid
The Bench: Cheerleaders??? Get Destrup to play more
Kaufusi: No NFL/CFL future
8’s: He needs to play more
And GU:
Jacob Hartsock: Will he come back? He is enroll at BYU I think.
Przemek Karnowski: A lot of pushing/shoving? Glad he will be gone.
7 Footers: 3 Players + 6’11"/6’10" - BYU ZERO + 3 6’10"
Maybe it just me… but I really do not see any rhythm or reason to the Offense/Defense Rose is using…
It looks like Chaos to me… Helter Skelter
I think until there is a clear system in place, BYU basketball will be a roller coaster ride.
I didn’t have concerns with the defense. GU has destroyed most teams much worse. We actually had a chance if we had made a couple of short shots and put backs we missed. Mika and Emery underperformed on offense. Emery had a reason and Mika didn’t. He’s young.
Yes Emery has improved.
The bench is weak. Not ready for prime time. If they can’t get it done in practice no reason to play them. Any experienced coach understands this and puts the best in to play. It makes the others work harder or not. That’s their choice. I assure you Pope is doing the same thing and so does Few.
We all have our opinions on Mika but BYU would win few games without him. do we all agree? When we talk about his chances being drafted, I will tell you all a tweet from several scouts goes like this:
“Has to play as a forward, to small to be a center, active, strong, powers through fouls, needs work on passing”
If I compare Mika to Sabonis, who is starting now for OKC, Sabonis is more active outside but Mika would destroy him near the basket. Sabonis a much better passer but Mika far better scorer/defender. In my book Mika is a lock for a future NBA career but with at the very least one more year. I can not fathom him staying for 4.
He has underperformed on offense frequently, particularly as of late, even though you say he has improved.
Sorry, the facts don’t back up your assertion.
You try to play at the D1 level with a thigh and knee contusion and the flu. Of course the past few games he under performed. Makes sense to me.
Well at least we don’t have to hear about the record for consecutive games with a 3 pointer anymore. He tried to keep that going with 4 ill advised bricks. Seriously though, why is he even out there if he is injured and has the flu? Oh yeah, it’s because nobody has had the opportunity to develop enough to give the team solid minutes in his place.
If I was Beo or Dastrup, I would stay in Utah county and go play at Lone Peak for a year. That would likely give them more chances in the future. It is also sort of an insurance policy against erratic play, being injured or sick or both and being held accountable for your decisions on the court.
One more year is all I hope to see Mika in a BYU uni.