- Refs let both teams absolutely hack away in the paint. How many times did the ESPN announcers comment re missed shooting fouls? But that helped us because it kept Kaufusi in the game. Just sick athleticism and when he figures out how to play without fouling he can be a great one.
- Haws’ worst game of his career–easily. Missing the 2 FTs late was terrible to watch. Fortunately, Wiltjer also had his worst game of the year and Pangos was not much better.
- Speaking of Pangos, KC continues to play stellar perimeter D, whether in man or zone.
- FB4 again gave quality minutes.
- Halford is confident and riding high. What a great way for a local kid to end his career–playing his best ball.
- Winder made a couple of the dumbest drives ever in the last 2 minutes.
- Andrus made the 2 FT and good for him. Huge play under pressure.
- I continue to be amazed at Rose’s success with little to no inside game.
- KC is a beast, plain and simple.
- If KC improves on his midrange game this offseason like he did on his foul shooting this past year, he is an All American next year.
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PS This was Fischer’s best performance in a big game. And he even played nice D when he was matched up on Pangos.
Oh many games he scores down the stretch including foul shots. Yes, he normally scores better in beginning of games. But that is because he passes the ball to open players as a team player does. 3rd scorer in NCAA and he rarely takes more than 14-16 shots a game. Yet, he’s BYUs scoring champion.
I was referring to his shot in the NBA as far as time will tell. This is like arguing who the greatest guard ever, Magic, Jordan or koby. 
The reason that Haws missed the free throws late was because he was tired from getting beat up all game. Gonzaga’s game plan was to take Haws out of the game and make the rest of the team beat them. They did this by denying him the ball, holding him on screens and doubling him. The refs weren’t calling anything but blatant fouls until late. When their two guards were on the bench with four fouls each, that is when Haws started to score. Gonzaga put 4 guards in to better counteract the success that Haws was starting to have. That almost saved the game for them because they were able to keep BYU from running away with the game late. The thing this game proved is that BYU can win as a team.
Or said another way, they did to him what every good coach would do to any player who simply is a scorer.
Problem for Haws, is that he just doesn’t have the skillset to overcome this type of strategy, it’s why he is a good player but not a great one.
There have been over 600 players that have played at BYU. He has outscored them all. That equals a great player. Yes, this year’s Gonzaga team has the skill set to focus on Haws and limit his production in a game where the refs were allowing muggings to go on on both sides of the ball. However, every team he has played against has tried to limit him during his entire career. Most have failed. More have failed to limit him than any other player BYU has ever had. He is and will always be a great college basketball player. My previous comment was intended to indicate that the reason that the other players were able to do well against Gonzaga was because Tyler Haws was the threat that they were focused on stopping.
You actually were providing an excuse why he missed clutch FT’s and why he struggled against top competition. No other player in the history of the program benifited from a WCC schedule they way he did, others played against far more talented programs in a night in and night out basis. What he has done is very good, but he is not a great player. Very good player though, and hopefully he does more ahead for us. But somehow i suspect that if we make the tournament, we will be seeing more of this version of Tyler once we play non WCC teams. The local kids can compete to stay near the top in the WCC, but not enough for the next level of competition.
The only thing I can argue with is the point I tried to make in the first place. No doubt Haws is a great scorer, but to be a great player there are lots of other things that you need to do. The only issue I have is that he seems to struggle when the stage gets too big, as he did last night.
It wasn’t because GU was doing anything different than any other team has done.
The missed free throws had nothing to do with his being tired, he is in fantastic shape. The overall poor game and free throw misses were due to mental focus and big game performance issues. Things he seems to struggle with.
Those are the things that Ainge and Fredette seemed to thrive on. There aren’t a lot of players out there who can… no knock on Haws at all, just an observation.
It’s true and a very honest assessment of Haws. He’s a very good player, but not one of the all time greats.
But the good news for him, is there is a WCC tournament left and a shot at the ncaa tournament on the line. His book has one more chapter to be written, and it could change the way he is remembered.
Amazing-how can people see the same game so differently. I like T Larimer’s 10 points on the game. All valid-all correct. As for Haws-as Hawks said-a great scorer but imo not a great clutch performer and that’s based upon the body of work not one or two games Haws is a great foul shooter-one of the best in BYU history-but missing, and missing badly those critical two free throws tells me he has issues in high tension situations-merely an assessment and not trying to lessen his great career. Haws does get beat up, but a with a lot of scorers they just get better the more adverse the conditions are. Finally, KC-the things he does well, he does great, but I would like to see his mid-range game improve and his long-range game is abysmal. I believe he can improve both-look what he did with his FT percentage-I believe about 20%
better than last year. A great win and most likely another match-up with the Zags in Vegas.
Valid points all. I think it is significant for us to get that 2 seed. Portland is a good team with good bigs and quick guards who give us trouble. On a good night Portland could beat us. Santa Clara and LMU are both lousy and for either to beat us they would have to play outta their minds and we would have to play terribly, and that’s just not gonna happen. I’m hoping for a 20 pt shellacking so as to get our main guys on the bench and rested before what will likely be a very tough rematch with St Marys. And I agree with you about KC: he improved his FT shooting via hard work and technique, drilled to the extreme. If he does the same to develop a 12-15 foot jumper, he is WCC POY next year with nobody close.
Everyone is giving BYU the (in) in the tourney, but I’m not so sure. They most likely have another game coming up with SM and if they win that game, I see them even better than a play-in game. Lose and I’m not sure that the WCC gets more than Gonzaga in the tourney. Hope that isn’t the case, but it’s better to get to the finals and then I believe it’s a done deal. In my mind, Gonzaga drops to a 2 or 3 seed. They haven’t played well the lat 3 or 4 games and since his 45 point performance, Wiltjer has not been impressive and may have lost the MVP nod in the WCC. I believe KC actuallly has a shot at the MVP now.
LOL!!! 3rd scorer in the nation an he can’t over come physical play against him. LOL!!! No, he was simply off that game. There is no physicality at the free throw line. He just bricked 4 out of 8. Funny though…
Like Santa Clara did to St. Mary’s Saturday? It’s tournament time and we simply have to play better in all areas and blow out teams. I think we need to win 2 to get into the NCAA.
Happens every year. People saying the WCC will only get one in the tournament. Then, the WCC gets 2 or 3 in the tournament. But, we do need to win the next 2 games for sure to lock it up with 25 wins and a high RPI.
I go fishing and look what happens…Larimer, looks like BYU is dancing. Does anyone remember my bold predictions at the start of the year? It went something like this:
BYU loses to Gonzaga at home but our bigs get experience with playing time and BYU beats GU in Spokane. So are we as good as last year, better or worse?
I think we are ever so slightly better. I think Halford and Winder give us more in 30 mpg than Carlino did. On the other hand, our post play last year was a strength with Austin and Mika yet has largely been an embarrassment this year. Haws is the same, still great. The diff is that KC is so much better. His NCAA game vs Florida showed the world his incredible athleticism, toughness and heart, but we are now seeing much more of a complete game from him. If we gets snubbed we deserve it for not closing out SDSU and Purdue when we had them on the ropes.
Down the stretch I agree with Jim H. The Zags got almost all of the calls, or calls that should have been non calls. So it goes with WCC/Zags basketball. The refs did all they could to pull it out for Gonzaga with lots of fouls called against BYU down the stretch. But the zebras finally called one against Gonzaga and BYU pulled out a victory in the grasp of the jaws of defeat. Thanks to our freshman who sank two free throws with 1.8 seconds left and BYU survived the last well thrown Gonzaga thee point long shot to win by three.