My favorite part: “Coach Young called me and said, ‘Talk to me about your game,’” Knell said. “I told him this is what I was really good at — I’m a leader, I have a competitive attitude and I shoot the ball really well. And he said, ‘Alright, what else?’”
Knell froze. He hadn’t had to put himself out there like that since high school at Woods Cross, when coaches called to recruit him.
“I was like, ‘Coach, have you watched some of our games?’” Knell asked. “He said, ‘I know who you are. I just want you to tell me who you are.’”.
Okay Knell, your first job as a leader is to tell coach Young you are fine with coming off the bench and playing 10 minutes or so to give the better players more minutes to help the team win games.
With Young, Knell’s 3 point shooting will improve a lot. He will point out how he constantly doesn’t have his feet under him causing him to lean in too much. He will also get coaching on how to play defense. He will be the new Johnson but way better shooting from distance.
Uuhhhh no.
Knell does not have Johnson’s athleticism to even come close to Johnson on defense. Knell will always be minus 10 points on defense. Can’t teach it.
JCoug - exactly what I was thinking.
I said a hundred times Knell would have to shoot 44+% on threes to deserve the starters minutes.
HopChop - stop with the “lean this way more” and get his feet under him more”. He can’t be a “Shot Doctor “ now is because in the Big 12 the defenses are WAY quicker than High School a in the Gonzaga plus stooges league and the teams we play in non conference. He is not athletic enough to get his shot off without rushing and can’t creat his own shot.
The ONLY thing Young and his offensive mind can help Knell with is creating plays that give him a bit more time to be a pure shooter. If he can, Knell can be a contributing role player. Good for 5 points a game and about 9 minutes a game.
Did I mention he needs to hit 44+% of his 3’s?
I thought this was interesting reading an article about coach young.
“Young personally took a four-star guard on a campus visit a week ago. The player, JJ Mandaquit, is the No. 49-rated player in the class of 2025. He played for the Utah Prospects with four-star commit Kozlowski. Young and Dunson made offers to five-star 2025 guard Brayden Burries from Roosevelt High in San Bernardino, California; four-star guard Jalin Holland at Los Lunas, New Mexico; five-star guard Isiah Harwell at Wasatch Academy via Idaho, a 2025 guy; and four-star forward Nikolas Khamenia, who is a 2025 top-49 player out of Harvard Westlake High in Studio City, California.”
Have to be impressed that Coach Young is hitting for the fences, like you said “time will tell” with how much success he will have.
That was weird. On my phone I’m logged in. But, on the computer it said I wasn’t at the same time. Technology… Yes, I would not expect anything less. I didn’t see any big men on that list. It’s important to get another great guard because we are known for our prone to injuries. But, we need a couple of big men even more. Maybe the coach is going to make sure Waterman puts on 30-40 more pounds of muscle and get him to jump another 12" or more upward. That would be a positive move to have Waterman a 5 man and take his defender outside with Fouss or Saunders and the freshman to the basket.
I saw 3 games of Baker and said, “this dude can play”.
Baker got into the ears of Saunders and Hall…a voice of reason:
When Baker heard that teammates Dallin Hall, Richie Saunders and Aly Khalifa had entered the portal, he immediately went into action. Khalifa eventually signed with Louisville, while Hall and Saunders returned to BYU.
“I tried to get in their ears,” Baker said. “Obviously I am someone that has been through the portal. I have already done this. And a lot of the guys on our team haven’t really had that experience, so I tried to let them know what it would be like.”
At this point, we really have to look at Tom Holmoe’s leadership. BYU somehow gets better with the addition of Kevin Young, Burgess and Brandon Dunson, who by the way, offered not one but 4 very highly rated players this past week as Floyd pointed out.
Saunders and Hall were a key. Best defender and our Point along with Baker and Foos (who by the way will have a break out year, I predict it! As T Larimer and I have pointed out in the past, Kalifa taking starter minutes from Foos was ruinous for Foos’s production. Khalifa lost his MO because of injury but really robbed Foos in his growth.)
While we are not going to replace Johnson’s D and leadership or Robinson’s scoring (both will be playing pro ball), I do think BYU will compete in the Big 12 and get another invite to the dance.
I think Young finds us a great backup point (may have one in Bahr)
and I think he finds a true center, Then we BALL
