Jet lag is real. Sleeping in a strange bed, shooting in a gym where you are not used to the lighting is very real. Standing around while you are trying to figure out who wants the ball happens on the road. I see nothing in the loss that raises any red flags. A young player is very susceptible to their doubts, Khalifa has been so solid, his not traveling with the team has some players doubting that they will win before the ball is even tossed up. That is a fact
I caught this today, when Pope was asked about Robinson struggling lately…, "Robinson “is a vet,” Pope said. “He is a terrific basketball player and he means so much to our team.
“We are putting him in a lot of tough positions. I am having him play the one, the two, the three and the four right now, and so we are asking a lot of him. He’s done a great job this season figuring it out.”
This could not be further from the truth, it hit me as the very reason why Robinson has struggled. Before the season even started, I pointed out that Robinson is a catch and shoot kind of a player, a finisher. To try and make him into a point has Robinson completely out of his element. Sure, this could help him in the long run but for now, it is an absolute train wreak.
Pope is no dummy, he knows that BYU plays in the Big 12 tourney on a neutral field We can be super tough. With a healthy Foos and Khalifa, no one wants to deal with BYU’s fire power. Neutral court games tend to be a great leveler.
now we get to play at home for the next 2 games hopefully with a healthy team. The wins will happen, watch as see.
Someone with time can look up the top echelon of Big 12 teams is tell us who has the toughest schedules, I would bet BYU has one of the easiest final 8 games of anybody out there. I still think we can be slightly above .500 in league, get a great seed for post league play and do some moving up in the big dance seeding.
The guys on BYUSN today said the same thing I’ve been saying, make layups the includes the tear drops. We missed 20+ of those last night. Inexcusable. Just 5 more and we are in with them to the end of the game. 10 more and we win. OK made theirs.
Also, if Johnson and Knell aren’t going to score, no reason not to give Steward another chance.
I had this game as a L for us. When I saw Aly was not playing, I knew it was over. Our offense was just awful, we quit defending down the stretch, and the most deserving team won that game.
We beat West Virginia without Aly. That wasn’t the reason. We lost because of 20+ missed layups and floaters. Fouss is a better defender as well. Now, maybe with Aly the change the offense makes while he is playing could have changed the outcome. We still have to make layups and floaters. That was going on the entire game and even more down the stretch. I think all the team has a touch of the flu bug to cause that.
I didn’t think it was a sure loss…but yep…I had it for a loss after the WV game when I heard Khalifa would not be making it…one game without a key component is something a solid team can overcome…two in a row on the road…and against a team of essentially equal quality (meaning both in the legit top 15-25 teams in the land) likely a loss.
But the schedule is easier…now…and at home…with the crowd…licking my chops to see how high the victory margins can be…
ranked from easist to hardest remaining schedule
BYU
TCU
Texas Tech
Texas
Cincinnati
UCF
Iowa St.
Oklahoma
West Virginia
Kansas St.
Baylor
Oklahoma St.
Houston
Kansas
Our blue Cougs should have a solid shot at improving to the top 4 seeds in the conference tournament…which I think is a bit of a stretch but reasonably possible…
Win in the semi’s make the conference tourney final and get a boost for the dance…
OK…a bit of a blue gogglish post…but not unreasonable I am thinking…
most of the return to the mean games have already occurred…Pope’s boys have a ways to go…but so far so good.
OK was a very winnable game. 20+ missed layups and tear drops dropped BYU to a loss in the 2nd half. They were that tired? This was an inexcusable loss.
Did I just hear a echo? Before the game the point was, No Khalifa, have to hit an unreasonable amount of 3s against a team that is the stingiest defender of 3balls in all of Big 12. Recipe for a road loss.
As Hawks would say, Argumentative. It is the entire reason why Tom and I clearly said it before the game.
Exactly what I suspected. **
**, BYU should win more games then losses in our final games and…the Big 12 tourney is at a neutral venue…spells I like BYU to be seeded pretty well once they make the dance…much better then I hoped for before the season started.
All depends on injuries.
Hopper, 100% ageed, "If we would of made all our layups and tear drops:, BYU wins. There…now you can let it die
Look, just because I don’t agree that we would have won if Khalifa had played because of a fact that we beat WVU without him doesn’t mean I’m being argumentative. OK played really good defense against our 3point offense. And, they didn’t have to change anything because we missed out shots in the lane. Had we made those the 3 point shots would have opened up because OK would have been forced to do so.
