Ok, thanks Fish for the reminder about Hunter Erickson. I just went back and watched his highlights from HS and AAU. He gets WAY up, has a smooth handle, looks like a great and confident shooter, and–drumroll please–can finish in traffic at the rim against guys who are bigger than he is. He looks like he could be a real player for us. With so many defenses using running closeouts to defend the 3, I think it’s important for a guard to be able to not only beat that first guy (which should be easy), but to be able to finish against the help man. Barcello, Harding, and Haws were all great at that last year. Toolson wasn’t that good at it, but he made up for it with his outstanding back to the basket post up ability.
Back to this team: Erickson looks like the real deal, with 4 years to prove it.
high school highlights don’t tend to reflect mission changes very well.
But the video and reports from summer and practice this fall all indicate Erickson’s mission will affect him no more than it affected the Haws brothers…
His sealing is high and hope he comes close to hitting it before he decides that really getting paid for the game is better for him and his future.
Erickson also has a high motor and the attitude of a mercenary. Having worked with TJ Haws, he was more of a cobra, most opponents way underestimated TJ by just looking at him. One look at Erickson, if you look him in the eye, you’ll know he’s there to do damage.
The link had highlights from one game and the other team looked disinterested. I have seen lots of highlights from high level high school games and have noticed that there is very little defense played. It’s like they are just trying to showcase their offense for scouts or something.
I remember back a few years ago, there was this really good high school team that was beating all these other top high school teams in the country. Everyone thought the players on that team would come to BYU and take them to the final four. There was a lot of hype about it, mostly because those players lived a few miles from BYU…
Every time I visit the area I see this bubble, almost invisible really, that hovers over the campus and surrounding area at BYU. It keeps a lot of the hypesters from being able to see how good all of the other teams and players in the rest of the world are. For whatever reason they only see how good (or how good they think) the players in the big bubble are.
That bubble effect usually keeps BYU from doing as well as they could… without the bubble.
Ericson is 6’3. Hopper is his usual self, never let facts get in the way.
I think you can place the blame on Coach Rose, not the kids. Rose was retired, he just didn’t know it at the time. Pope took the same group and blew up #1 ranked Gonzaga in the Marriott and was on his way to a possible final 4 before Covid ended the story.
At the time of your post, EVERYONE was talking about Hunter Erickson. If you want people to know who you are talking about when you abruptly change the conversation about the specific player, you should probably mention that players name.
So you should have mentioned that YOU were talking about this guy because nobody else was. I have to concur with Chris in that your comments led everyone to believe you were talking about Erickson. That is why I said what I did…
Nope… but now BYU has two players from Timpview so here we go again.
I am really positive on Mark Pope. I think he is a really good coach. I don’t know what it is but it just seems like BYU is really plagued by lazy recruiting. I know Pope will get the most out of any player he is coaching, I really believe that. I just wish the Cougars could recruit a little more outside of the Utah Valley up into Southern Idaho area. The power basketball schools go all over the place to get their players. Gonzaga is a religious school and I know they are getting players from places outside of Eastern Washington…
Wahlin is a 6-foot-7 SF/PF who does a lot of his damage off the bounce and moves well for a guy his size. He has nice handles and is a good finisher around the basket who can finish above the rim or at different angles. Wahlin likely projects as a wing player at BYU who adds length on the perimeter. Wahlin will need to put on a little more weight to consistently compete at the Division One level, but he has the size and skill set to eventually be a starter for BYU.(KSL sports).
at no time in his season long video does Wahlin run the team at point. I have watched the kid in several local games. again, Hopper just makes up stuff as he goes.
I come to this board to hear not just opinions but insider’s, like Tom, and I share the tidbits I know freely. Then you have Hopper, who just wants to pick a fight, never brings anything to the table and wonders why I would never engage him.
JCoug: Not knocking your POST at all, and your point is well taken. But let me add this: it’s true the LP3 didn’t materialize the way we wished they had, but I don’t believe the talent itself was overrated:
Mika: Absolutely dominant at BYU and playing professionally.
TJ: Great career and playing professionally
Emery: Emotional/personal problems that no one could predict and had nothing to do with basketball
Even without Emery, if Mika hadn’t gone pro so early, and had played his senior year last year with TJ and the rest of that team: we would have had a top 5 ranked team and a NC contender. Imagine Mika and Yoeli playing together as seniors last year…oh heavens…
“Rose was retired, he just didn’t know it at the time.”
I’d been telling anyone who would listen for 2-3 years that if Holmoe doesn’t hire Pope NOW, we could lose him forever. It was soooooo obvious that Coach Rose–a wonderful guy and a wonderful coach–was DONE. Do you really think Mika left because he was excited to play in Europe? Do you think there would have been a 95% chance Mika STAYED if Pope had been hired earlier?
