Pope is a very good coach, he was adamant all off season about how BYU needed to be defensively minded and change the culture at BYU. BYU kept LMU’s Scott to 15 points on the night and the rest of the team well under their averages. 38 points is unheard of in WCC play and for a BYU team to do that should leave all of you speechless.
Pope closeouts on 3 point shooting is also noteworthy. LMU shot 2-15 for the night from 3. LMU also got 2 assists for the entire game. BYU made a statement last night. Barcellos does not show up in the stats in this game but his timely 3 followed up by a layup, along with his pressure defense broke this thing open. TJ also played excellent D (a milestone)
Toolson and Childs lead in all the stats Seljaas got the assignment to guard Scott after Nixon and both guys really leaned on him all night. Barcello does not show in the stats but his timely 3 and layup broke the thing wide open, TJ also was excellent on D (milestone)
Agree about Pope-he makes on the fly adjustments and is not afraid to sit players if they need it. We will see-it’s just the first part of league play. I expect good teams to win at home-but the road will tell the story-Gonzaga will have at least two losses in league play-write it down!
Most of the predictions say we will have 4 losses in league play. If we don’t shoot better from 3’s that will happen. To win against the top 4 teams in the league we must shoot 42% from 3’s and limit turnovers to under 10. We had some ugly looking turnovers last night. And we can’t lose to bottom feeders like Pepperdine.
You mean the same Pepperdine that took Gonzaga to the wire on their home floor last night? Yeah, #1 ranked Gonzaga was a couple possessions away from losing to Pepperdine.
These are the kind of posts that motivate me to post something myself.
I am glad to be here, has been a long time, and read something from one of the more intelligent basketball posters in this forum. I agree with everything you are saying here. I watched the game and I love Pope. He is making players accountable and as a result making them better players and a better team.
This team has the potential to make some noise in the post season if they stay focused and do what their coach is coaching them to do.
What should they stay focused on? Haws is having a baby. Well, his wife is anyways. Will he be able to stay focused? Will he miss a game to be at the hospital when the baby is born? And if it’s when we play Gonzaga or SMC? Can we stay healthy?
I like the fact Pope wants them to take open shots. Childs is 8 out of 12 from 3’s. Pope said he wish they could get him open more to take more 3’s.
By the way, thanks for mentioning me as one of the more intelligent posters.
He’s alive! This board as been stuck on life support without your wit and daily rebuke of the Arthropoda Insecta. While I can’t blame you, having suffered through another football season.
This basketball team has me thinking just where would we be if the Commie NCAA hadn’t screwed with Childs. Most likely we would be sitting on a 1 loss and a top 15 ranking right now.
It turns out SDSU is really good but at home BYU probably would have won with Childs since it was a close game even without him. BSU and Utah would have been wins for sure. Sure Childs played against the U but he wasn’t quite in game shape yet and cramped up. Without the suspension BYU wins that game by 10 +. I am still doing a burn over BYU losing to them. Having grown up in Utah valley and graduated from the Y I tend to get a bit irrational over the rivalry with the U. I don’t think BYU alumni who grew up outside the state have quite the same intensity for the rivalry that people have who grew up in Salt Lake and Utah County. I am not saying it isn’t important to them but I don’t think it is quite the same for most.
It is also hard now in basketball losing to the U when you only get one crack at them a year. It used to be if you lost in SLC you could even the score in Provo.now you have to wait until next year like in football.
