Mika was getting posted before his first foul and before his 2nd. BYU’s defense was more aggressive creating more turnovers in the 2nd half. The officials were a non factor in this game and certainly not giving BYU the shaft. None of Mika’s fouls were blatant-they seldom are-more silly out of position fouls
Totally agree with your comments here. Usually we are pretty close, but I am 100% with you on this one. Some people keep saying that Dastrup is “out of shape” and I honestly don’t know why. He didn’t play one minute against Illinois and that is a joke. Haws is out of shape too, skinny and weak, but he still plays 30+ minutes every game.
I’m not sure exactly what is going on out there with BYU. There is no consistency in any way, shape or form. It all seems haphazard and desperate. The team has no direction or focus, as evidenced by their 3-4 record over the last 7 games.
No…we went to a Zone defense and shut down the inside game, IU just shifted gears and hit 3s. Abrams did all of his damage in the second half, he got so amped up that he started driving inside. That little fart even drew a cheap foul on Childs. When we did go back to man, the refs called a even game, in fact, Mika got tons of calls towards the end of the second.
Remember that IU had a stud inside guy named Black…he got 2 quick fouls and had to sit the 1st, 2 more in the second and finished as a non-factor with 4 total points. Rose did a very good job of managing Mika and Childs fouls (4 each) but in the end IU’s senior guards worked our much younger guards, pure and simple.
I don’t buy the fact that Dastrup is completely out of conditon. His rebounds per minutes played is best on the team. He is shooting 50%. So I hope he gets some minutes in the next two games-In fact I hope a lot of seldom used players get some confidence minutes (Beo, Leifson, Frampton if he isn’t still hurt)
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Yeh I know we went to a zone-allowed us to collapse and be more aggressive inside. We lost to Illinois in essentially a road game which probably translates into 8 points and won at home against Colorado who probably beats Illinois on a neutral site. Tough loss-time to move on
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I would love to be a fly on the wall in BYU’s practices. It may be that Rose is dealing with more guys with injuries then we know. It may be that Dastrup has some poor grades or another issue, keep in mind he is new to college and are a ton of distractions and to come on campus as some what of a celebrity can get you on the wrong side of the BYU gestapo. It sure seems he is out of favor with Rose at this time.
As for Leifson in crunch time when he has no gametime experience when you have Beo, the Colo. game heroe, Haws, Guinn sitting is a true head scratcher to me.
Besides the technical issues.
My impression is that the confidence factor is where Coach Rose would largely land. He planned a weaker than usual pre-conference record precisely so this inexperienced team would get the confidence on the court he has in their talent. It didn’t work out because of the explosion that rocked BYU’s bball world in the UVU game.
My singular hope is that with the transition to conference play, the inexperience will be set aside enough for the confidence to return by the time the WCC tournament comes.
If the team can win in the hs gyms, and not lose too badly in the SMC and Gonzaga gyms, then there might be hope of having enough confidence to finally get Rose his first conference tourney victory.
Wow… you are way more optimistic of the strides BYU can make at this point than I am. With last years team I felt like the gap between BYU and Gonzaga was small or non-existent. This year I feel like the gap is huge. I have watched both teams play, both in person and on tv. In my opinion they aren’t even close right now.
I guess I’m not sure where that confidence they need is going to come from. Beating LMU, SC or Pacific by 20 isn’t going to help and unless Gonzaga plays their worst game of the season at the MC, BYU isn’t going to beat them. Of course that is only based on what I have seen in the first 10 or 12 games. I guess it could change but time is running out.
agreed as to last year.
I wouldn’t say huge this year…Rose has consistently beat more talented Gonzaga teams. I would probably say large.
Gonzaga is a ten and BYU is maybe a 7. Can the team improve that extra thirty percent, or probably the extra 40% given that Few’s team will improve as well?
Hard to say, but I expect it will be much closer at the end of the year than it is right now. Few’s team simply has more experience. Even his underclassmen have more experience than BYU’s.
Can you expand on this comment? What kind of experience are you talking about? Playing basketball? Playing with each other? I only remember a couple of their players from last season. The rest of them seem new to me. Also, Gonzaga is off to their best start ever (or close to it) and they have played several very good teams and programs.
I really hope you are right about it being much closer at the end of the season. I still think it is huge right now. Have you seen Gonzaga play this season?
I may butt heads with you regularly, but I do value your perspective and opinion. 
I hope Rose isn’t looking for another Seljaas on this bench, because I don’t see any 6’7" guys over there who rebound against bigs and who can elevate and knock down threes at 40%+ even with a guy in their face.
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Here’s what I know:
I LOVED WATCHING THE IU GAME! I thought it was very well officiated, and was fun and exciting basketball. Here are a few of my thoughts in response to several comments on this thread:
- Nothing chronic with Elijah Bryant; he will be back. Just came back too soon from arthroscopy and looked terrible–he knows it and is determined not to come back again until he is 100%. The guys over there are telling me to be patient and that he is the Real Deal when healthy, and will finally give us a legitimate threat off of our bench.
- Davis’ knee condition can’t be fixed this year. Too late for medical RS. All Kyle can do is try to gut it out. For whatever faults he may have, he can score in the post, is very good at moving without the ball and the result is 3 or 4 easy buckets for him every game, and he is a good rim protector. Losing him is a big, big deal and Kaufusi better be good or we are in real trouble because Dastrup is fat and out of shape and Shaw is not the answer.
- I thought the officials were EXCELLENT in the IU game…I thought almost all the calls were good. When we watch Rec League games featuring 50 fouls and 60 free throws, we’ll be begging to have these guys (and the guys who did the SC game for that matter) back.
- MIKA IS THE MAN. NBA scouts are on him. Emery is a great athlete and can do it all out there. TJ makes some great plays but then throws up total bricks half the time, like he forgot how to shoot or something. I’ll give him the “mission rust” excuse for awhile, but still…ManChilds is really, really good. Love watching him and Mika defend the rim. I am SHOCKED to have to admit that I think we will not make the NCAA tournament unless we beat Gonzaga and STM a few times and make at least the final of the WCC tourney, but unless we get more from our bench I am not as hopeful as I was just weeks ago.
- Our bench looks pretty bad with Bryant and Davis inured. Aytes has impressed me this year and he and Kaufusi will be competent backups to Mika and ManChilds. But Guinn, Leifson, Beo all look like fringe players to me–occasionally do good things, but none poses any type of remote consistent threat.
Gonzaga’s players getting time include
Przemek Karnowski 7-1 Sr 22 minutes a game
Zach Collins 7-0 Fr 17 minutes a game–the only 5 star player on either team
Nigel Williams-Goss 6-3 Jr 32 minutes a game
Johnathan Williams 6-9 Jr 22 a game
Josh Perkins 6-3 So 31 minutes a game
Jordan Mathews 6-4 Sr 27 minutes a game
Killian Tillie 6-10 Fr 15 minutes a game
Bryan Alberts 6-5 So 25 minutes a game
Silas Melson 6-4 Jr 25 minutes a game
Josh Perkins and Alberts both got playing time last year
the two frosh are Collins and Tillie.Collins is the only five star player on either team Tillie being French wasn’t rated by the services.
In any case, Gonzaga has Juniors and Seniors 128 minutes a game.
BYU has juniors and seniors getting 60 minutes a game.
BYU’s sophomores with extensive game experience, Emery and Mika, get 57 minutes a game.
Gonzaga’s sophomores with extensive game experience are getting 56 minutes a game.
So essentially an extra 67 minutes a game of more experienced players getting on the floor.
BYU’s experience by definition then is building up at a faster rate. So BYU will, actually is catching up, reasonably rapidly. Not the fast start that many were counting on. But a definite upward curve.
Tillie was rated in the top 5 international players of high school age. I love his game and think he will be very, very good. This year Gonzaga also got 2 of the other top 5 ranked international HS players (6’8" Hachimura and 6’11" Larsen).
Nothing wrong with the comment. It’s what happened. Emery shot the ball at that moment to try and score twice to cut into the lead. That’s a smart play. If he could have got it to Mika to do the same thing that would have been great. Mika wasn’t in the game though. Glad to see they are learning the finer points of the game :slight_smile
Yea they will take a bit longer to gain their confident and eliminate the rust. But to think the other guards or big men could do any better is also not a five beta cappa statement either 
I agree with your analysis and so you are approved as a contributor to this site 
With what’s happened in the past at those cracker box gyms winning all of them would be a positive step up.
GU is good but not unbeatable. Anymore than last year 
Agree about the officials-Mika will be here next year
At the beginning of the year, Mika being here next year was not even a question. He stank the latter part of his frosh year.
Now…I don’t expect him back his senior year. Next year will be determined by how far the team can go. If it goes blue goggles. Better hope that Dastrup steps up his sophomore year the way Mika has. More realistically Mika would be wise to stick around for a solid first round draft status, which given more improvement should not be a problem after his jr year.
It would be a mistake for Mika to go next year. As good as he is, another year to work on his game only benefits him as far as the NBA is concerned. If he is going to use that Dirk Nowitsky fade away-that needs a lot of work. If all goes well-I’m like u in expecting him to jump his senior year.