ISU, Keys to the win

Basketball
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Did anyone see Spenc Johnson mouthing in the huddle, “Play Tough” throughout the game. So before I get into the keys of the game, My NBA fishin bud, Coach Hecker, calls me up and says, “I have a over seas coach wanting to give Johnson a tryout”. Coach Hecker has worked out Johnson many times, does NOT watch BYU games but he always asks me how Johnson did in games. He is a coach that cares.

Key to the Win

1 Before the game I said, “BYU hits 3s and no way they lose” How does 13 big ones sound?

2 I also said, Waterman and Robinson have to have big games. Waterman has a monster game 18 pts, 4 rebs, 3 as…Robinson had 15 and 2 very big bombs. But his defense was late and he was TOed 3 times.

3 Pope is learning how to defend Big 12 style, BYU actually out defended the defenders

4 BYU couldn’t keep ISU out of the middle in the 1st half but shut them down in the second.

5 True to nature, ISU could not hit a 3. but bless them, they kept on clankin.

6 Richie Saunders is one tough Hombre. The entire game changed in BYU’s favor after Saunders took that elbow to the throat. If you did not see the game. It was typical Iowa St thuggery, cheap shot, elbows when the ref was not lookin… Then boom on a shooting foul, their center hits Saunders in the throat, sends him sprawling into Lipsey and they call the foul on Saunders…until Pope got them to review…Flagerant 1, ejection ISU. BYU went on a tear, getting up by 20 and a blowout. Teach them to screw with angry RMs!

7 Hall is growin up. BYU started the game turning everything over and it looked like Hall was headed for a long sit on the bench, Pope takes him aside, says, “We talked about this, play in control”. for the next 30 minutes, Hall played inspired ball. 8 assists and perfect 3/3 from 3land.

8 Pope ended up playing with 7 tonight, Foos and Knell were nursing injuries. really 6 as Atiki was useless.

9 Khalifa, where would we be without his assists?? Dudes’ worth watching and his D was special tonight.

10 Spenc Johnson was unstoppable tonight, killed from inside and from long range, plus 5 assists. He is the glue and captain of this team.

11 Did may heart good to see BYU kick ISU’s butt. None of us will forget the “Eye Stab” to Mika about 7 years ago when we had them beat. They are such dirty players, I was hoping we would hang 100 on them.

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  1. Richie got his extra minutes with Knell out and was awesome.
  2. ISU super frosh Momcilovic came in shooting 42% from deep. SJ and Richie traded off on him all game. He hit his first 3 then didn’t make another the entire game. He was NO match for our Our two fast, long, smart, super wing defenders.
  3. Hall completely outplayed ISU’s star PG. Well done Dallin after a slow start.
  4. We need Noah to beat good teams and he sure showed up tonight.
  5. Amazing how good we can be in a game that is fairly and evenly officiated.
  6. Coach Pope made all the right moves and had Al the right answers.
  7. SJ said “hey guys, I could be all B12 but I’m too unselfish. But we are short handed tonight so I’ll just drop 28 (on a wildly efficient 16 shot attempts) on the country’s #2 defense.”

The second half is the best half of basketball I’ve seen BYU play in a long time.

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I didn’t realize they had called a foul on Saunders. How in the world can they do that? Maybe a no call if they didn’t see the elbow to the throat but a foul? You are right, the game turned at that point. Horrible play by the ISU big man. He let his team down because he couldn’t control his hatred for Saunders. The dude gets under opponents skin because he’s scrappy and aggressive. I love it.

I thought a big difference between this game and the first 3 league contests was the officiating. I felt from the beginning that BYU was going to get the calls they deserved in the first 3 games but never got. Maybe Pope is adjusting the defense and tweaking the offense a little for BYU to be more physical too, I don’t know for sure yet. It was just nice to see calls that hadn’t gone BYU’s way to suddenly be there. The calls were balanced and fair, the free throws ended up being as well. The biggest difference was the 3 point shooting, BYU made theirs and ISU didn’t. Johnson was excellent in this game, steady and smart.

Maybe Hopper will back off on him a little now.

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BYU became the aggressor especially when Johnson/Saunders were in there. We got all kinds of calls in our run, I was a little disappointed in one of the refs. called some cheap stuff toward the end but overall, happy with the reffing.

Can I get an Amen!

We have got to get Foos back, Khalifa can’t do this all by himself.

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Important key to the win that wasn’t a part of the first 3 league games.

Agree, they kept playing hard. There were a couple times where I was nervous because it looked like they were going to do the head case thing but they stayed focused and key players came through when they needed to. Waterman started hot and then got lost again but he resurfaced and kept at it. Good for him. Hall played his best when it mattered. Johnson had his best game ever I thought. No dumb passes, no dumb shots, steady as a rock and reliable. You don’t blow out a team like that very often. They got flustered, committed the flagrant 2 and allowed BYU to take control.

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I would say the later, Waterman was a Dog out there tonight. he was on Fuego and defended as well as his skinny body could. Robinson for some reason was tenetive, just not his confident self. BYU drove to the hoop plenty and got most of the calls they don’t on the road

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For the first time in league play I felt like the officials were willing to be consistent and objective in the way they called the game. Both teams were getting called for the same types of fouls. It was refreshing to see.

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The game had already turned before the T. We were up double digits. No problem. Hey, it was one game. Now, we travel again to the leaders TTU. No time to rest.

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PMac said this: “ Next game a super challenge
But they just about all will be in this league.”

Isn’t this great? Every game against a real team in a legit college gym filled with wild fans? What I’m seeing in this league is making the Rec League with its half empty high school gyms look even more stupid than it always felt.

I love the B12. In 4 games tonight. 3 ranked teams lost on the road. EVERY W in this league—ESPECIALLY on the road—is a giant W.

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I watched a little of the game, right when Waterman took a nasty hit by Iowa State and fell to the ground. They took him back to the locker room, so I am assuming he was okay.

The announcer said something I will have to look up in the rule book. They said, “under the basket the defensive player can go straight up and make contact, it is not a foul.”

From the replay, that is exactly what the Iowa State player did, my concern was not that the body contact was made with the defensive player going straight up, it was the contact of the arms as they were coming down. The Iowa State player smacked Waterman straight in the face as they were coming down.

I know that would be called in the NBA and High school, but I will have to look at the rule in the NCAA.

Glad Waterman was able to come back and play.

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Now you see what I have posted about Big 12 games, they are battles, bodies all over the place and yet no calls… BYU got the calls last night because they went hard to the hoop.
BTW, Just how did Johnson know that Waterman would miss his LH layup? Johnson got there for the tip in just before 2 I St defenders boxed out.

This BYU D has never been so tight in 40 years

I was going to say that I would rather lose every game in the Big 12 and have the nation laud about how tough a leage it is then play in that Jealous Rec. League. My only remorse is that we did not play This year when BYU would be like 16-2 and champs.

Waterman was a beast out there. Without him and Jax big shots, we don’t win.

Pope saved his highest praise for Hall, the point guard who has looked overmatched at times through the first three league contests. He had eight assists to three turnovers, and was 4 of 4 from the floor.

“Dallin Hall’s numbers might not leap out at you on the page, but that dude took a massive step forward as a point guard today. Massive,” Pope said. “What you just saw out there tonight, it has probably been a while since we had a point guard put a performance like that on the board. That was really incredible. Wow.”

Hall grew up!!!

One last thing, BYU hit all of their front ends of FTs. little things…ISU failed on their front ends
BYU 83% vs. 64 % ISU. little things

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In real time I thought the TV analyst got it completely wrong. He was saying the guy went straight up. Then they showed the slow motion replay and the guy jumped straight up but then while still in the air his right arm came straight down with clear and forcible contact into Waterman’s face and head. 100% foul in any universe.

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That is why I want to read the rulebook, because NCAA does “tweak” their rules in some pretty strange ways.

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Something i thought I’d never live to see, and a sign of the changes in status from being in the Big 12. On The Athletic today, an article listing the top ten college bball games in the nation to watch in the next week has BYU at TTU #7 and Houston at BYU #1!!!

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Here are some of my observations.

  1. Happy for Noah that he had a productive game. Hope he can continue.

  2. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to rush Foos back into the lineup. We probably needed the height for some other games, but did well this game without him. Hope he can continue to heal. Imagine a healthy foos with our current lineup, wow!

  3. Loved popes comments about Hall. He is growing into a floor general. I hope the trend continues.

  4. In garbage time no Stewart or Adams. Pope was asked about Stewart if he had an injury. His response was that they are working on finding an optimal rotation. Something’s going on there, don’t know what. I wonder if he’s still in the doghouse for four turnovers in 4 minutes for the first Big 12 game. I also wonder if Adams is injured or out of shape still.

  5. In the KSL post interview, Pope mentioned that they are spending a lot of effort “learning the whistle”. I think their efforts are paying off.

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I’m sure words were said after the 4 turnovers from Stewart and Pope is making a point. We really need more bodies to play as injuries are starting to really mount.

I have no idea about Adams. No one will ask Pope about it.

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BYU vs. ISU was the #1 ranked game to see last night.

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Adams not fully recovered. He was in a boot for two months and got out of shape. They are being very careful with his rehab and recovery. Originally I thought if he couldn’t play this year—for any reason—he’d bail on BYU, go play in Europe and enter the draft next year. But he is loving BYU and his teammates and I now have fingers crossed he’ll be able to get in100% game shape down the home stretch. He could redshirt but that doesn’t matter because he’s projected as an NBA player in 1-2 years anyway.

We saw in real time it didn’t make sense to bring Fouss back at 80%c much less Dawson who pushed it and is done for the season I think.

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Pope said after the game Baker will have another surgery. Knell has to get well quickly. Don’t know what his foot injury is. Haven’t a clue about Adams. If he’s healthy, play him.