The Baylor game is HUGE.
Looking at the remaining schedule:
Baylor
at Kstate
at Kansas
TCU
at Iowa St
OSU
If we don’t beat Baylor we are at serious risk of pulling a Sitakarod. Sitakarod is a new term meaning losing your last 5 plus in ignominious fashion
Yes, that is true. So, to beat Baylor, hit 15 if 35 three point shots and limit turnovers. Then, make sure Fouss plays more minutes and scores 20+.
Looking at the remaining games Iowa St and Kansas are very likely to be losses. All of the other games are winnable but every one of those games could be losses. There are no sure things in the Big 12. Even the bottom teams can beat the better teams as evidenced by what happened to BYU Saturday.
Sitakrod is a great new word Pmac came up with. We have to avoid this and win at least 2 games to get to 20 wins to make the NCAA Tournament. 3 out of the 5 would be best. Then, there is the Big12 Tournament. If we can win enough to get a good seeding for this, that will help with our odds to make another good showing. A couple of wins in the Big12 Tournament will definitely help too.
Can we just call BYU basketball team “Jekyll and Hyde”?
Do we ever know which team will show up?
Agree. only 1 or 2 wins rest of season and conf. tourney will be disastrous unfortunately
I think they’ll beat Baylor, Kstate and OSU and one in tourney.
After Saturday’s debacle every game looks dicey. There are 6 left. Baylor, TCU & Ok St at home and KSU, Kansas, and ISU on the road. As well
as Ok St has been playing lately there isn’t a breather left on the schedule. There are 4 likely, or near locks for the NCAA left to play.
One thing that concerns me is that Khalifa hasn’t been very effective since coming back after missing the 2 games being ill. He must have got a doozy of a virus to miss 2 games, and per Pope, spend 8 days in bed and lose 10 pounds or so.
Baylor and TCU being at home are the best chances at padding the dance profile until the conference tournament.
I like what Jay Bilas had to say the other day, BYU is capable of beating most any team in the nation…just the list of teams that can beat BYU is slightly larger…
Win out a home is a must.
Picking up some road/neutral wins are also a must.
BYU is currently only 1 game in the loss column from a bottom 4 seed in the conference tournament.
Conversely, they are 2 wins in the win column away from a top 4 seed.
The top four seed is slightly less valuable I think for BYU than avoiding the bottom 4 seeds.
The bottom 4 seed path to a championship is ugly. Bottom 4 seeds basically means playing a team that is not even on the dance bubble, and assuming a neutral court win, then a team that is in the bubble or just above the bubble range, and then assuming a second win playing a team that is at least a current lock, and then in the finals and on the fourth straight day, playing a team that is currently in contention for a number 1 seed.
Top four seeds mean games that are likely against teams that are in the tournament. Picking up wins in those games while the committee is meeting is key to getting great seeding in the dance.
Pope has to get his boys focus, and I think confidence back in a hurry. Kansas hasn’t lost at home since the first week in January…but like BYU they haven’t been able to put a string of wins together in conference. If they didn’t have a proven HoF coach and the name Kansas, ok and a full starting squad of NBA draftees, they would be in the 15-25 ranks the way Pope’s boys have been most of the season.
Iowa State with their defence, and a loss already against BYU, is I think the most guaranteed loss left. Nothing suggests BYU can beat a legit top 10 team on the home floor, especially when the reason they are top 10 is thast they play defence…
We also have to remember that the middle of the road teams are also losing as well. We may lose too but so will others around us. It’s the way things have been going. A win tonight would be huge!
It’s a big logjam in the middle so just win a couple a couple of games makes a big difference
I take it as a given that BYU will not be catching Iowa State or Houston…BYU could potentially steal one at Iowa State but that would be a huge get…sweeping a top ten team in regular season would be supercalifragilistic…and likely keep them from challenging Houston for the regular season title.
The teams that BYU needs to keep up with or beat are: Baylor, Kansas, and Texas Tech.
Beating Kansas would be almost as huge as beating Iowa State, and as for conference tournament seeding would be more important, adding a win to BYU and a loss to Kansas. otherwise Kansas has a more difficult schedule so making this a win would be a seed changer…ceteris paribus of course.
Baylor has a more difficult road the rest of the schedule so if BYU takes care of business BYU could catch them or at least tie…the head to head tie breaker wouldn’t come into play and I don’t know the tie breaking rules that the conference uses.
Texas Tech like Baylor is one game ahead in both the win column and the loss column. But they have an easier schedule than BYU does. BYU needs to win an unexpected game maybe two to keep up with the Red Raiders.
BYU is currently tied with TCU, BYU has two advantages here…TCU is coming to town and BYU is slightly favored. so this could be the game that cements TCU behind BYU in the standings. TCU also has an otherwise more difficult schedule than Pope’s boys.
So assuming BYU takes care of business…I would put it at about 50-50 for BYU getting a top four seed in the conference tourneament…as ever in all things bracketology related the answer is always win…win and everything takes care of itself.
BYU has got to start playing defense. 12th best defense in conference is just unacceptable…and the better the team improves the better it will be for tournament play.
I loved what Pope said about Knell taking over a part of practice for some better defensive play…I was pleased that Coach Fennel is spending so much extra time trying to get things turned around…
I am as ever annoyed that it was Knell instead of Coach Pope himself upholding standards…yes I am aware that the players upholding standards is better long term…but long term…Pope has to create the culture that upholds the higher standard…five years in now he needs to improve the culture of the team on the defensive side of things…
Atiki has played in only 5 of the last 10 games. Evan Miya’s stats seems to indicate that more playing time might be in order…he is a fouling machine…but the most athletic of the bigs…keep hoping he turns it around.
Atiki may come in against some of the bigs for defense. But, as someone said, the best defense can be a great offense. We saw that last night. Scoring can slow down a team. Atiki isn’t a scorer.
KSU is Saturday and it’s a winnable game. That would be huge for two in a row going into KU. Keep shooting 36% plus from 3’s and keep turnovers under 10 and we can win every game left. This opens up open cuts to the basket and some low post with Fouss.
I’m concerned with some of the layups being missed. That can really be a big thing to make all your easy layups like other teams do against us.
What a great post, almost prophetic. Don’t see a ISU win, they are gunning for us. After thought on Kansas, They were hiding from this loss, it was going to happen. Do I trust BYU to make 3s in road games??? Nope so this win would go down as a *.
Tx did BYU a BIG FAVOR last night.
It is funny to me that you bring up Knell as having a Defensive intervention in practice. Knell is precisely why BYU loses road games. His hand defense is embarrassing. Saunders all day.
Keep Atiki on the bench, he brings nothing but trouble. Khalifa and Foos for 40 mins.
With the health of Khalifa and Fouss, better to get him some minutes when possible. He does do some good things too.