that statement would not be made if you looked at a different set of stats or viewed the game.
The big swing in the game about 5 minutes into the second half when the Cougs had just taken their biggest lead. Then the team went ice cold, turned the ball over, and despite ok defense, the Dons couldn’t miss, for just over the next 5 minutes. The last ten minutes was basically equal.
If the Dons won because the Cougs were tired, the differential would likely have been opening up over the course of the second half.
I did see the game. In the second half SF started being more physical on defense and slapping at the ball while committing small ticky-tac fouls which the refs let go but which frustrated the byu players and at the same time the byu defense fell into the old habit of being a step slow especially on 3 pointers. But I think the byu coaches will see this and work on corrections .
After that napalm we took in SF, BYU went to work on defending the 3. SMC showed us that there was still work but that Portland beatdown and last night, SF did not get many open looks.
BYU now leads the entire nation on % makes as well as % from 3. BYU is ranked #2 nationally in efficiency per 100 possessions, only behind Gonzaga. Anyone see Gonzaga destroy SMC last night. it was ugly.
Keys to the SF win:
Home Sweet Home 3fall, get it?
Dons could not hit a 3, we knocked knees
Childs pilfering the dons with 32
Nixon hustle
Barcello lock down D
Toolson and TJ looong bombs
Baxtor is back!!!
lastly, BYU sucks at FTs. sucks.
According to Coach Golden, USF, this was actually by design.
in the pick your poison that is the offensive prowess of Coach Pope’s offense, the Dons specifically chose to let Yoeli be the one to try to beat them.
He cited the fact that with a short time left it was a real game because Yoeli was not beating them. He got back on his game just in time to save the game.
I am still puzzled at Coach Pope’s decided anger at his boys.
you do not put Blaze Nield in when he did if you are happy with your team.
After the game he specifically said that his team was glad that the NCAA was protecting them because he was so unhappy with them.
On a slightly different note, despite playing some incredibly strong teams in pre-conference, and mostly playing without Yoeli, the team was doing better defensively before conference. Why cannot the team get it together now? defensively speaking?
Gavin Baxter got his first taste of game time this year. Red shirt, injury shirt, season wasted.
What does Pope think is going on with this? Will Baxter improve the defense enough to upset the amazing offensive team he has put together? six maybe eight games is with four weeks of practice is hardly time to work him into the team, to actually improve the team without some kind of major defensive upside.
I think Baxter and his parents have decided that he will have graduated in two more years and will be moving on to either playing in Europe or grad school somewhere else. Just a little rumor. Defensively, I agree they played better overall defense earlier-maybe after 25 plus games they are wearing down a bit. They only play 7 or 8 consistently. Yeh and it made me nervous when I saw those 3 on the bench
Pope said on a Sports Nation Baxter will play only 2 more seasons at BYU. So, bring him in when possible. He should be able to get in the next 2 games after we get big leads.
46 points in 15 minutes.
No team can have a special season in the end of the year tournaments, where every team is better than USF, if they do what the cougs did against USF period. 46 points in 15 minutes will add up to an end of the season loss no matter which team the opponent is.
In the 2nd half, SF scored 51 points and about 46 points in 15 minutes.
The 3 stars weren’t playing defense and got pulled. I don’t know what this “anger” thing is and where it’s coming from. Pope wasn’t angry. He just wasn’t pleased with defensive effort after a great defense the 1st half (25 points).
just to run a bit of math.
46 points divided by 15 minutes times a 40 minute game means that over the course of a full game USF a team that does not stand a chance at dancing because neither its offense nor defense is good enough would have scored 122 points if the cougs had played so abysmally the entire game…
Yeah the Cougs need to figure out how to play defense before the Zags do a 30 point blowout of them and knock them out of the tourney, or at least single digit invitation.
This article shows the dramatic room for improvement the team has to make.
The explanation for the SF turnaround is simple. BYU got a 25 point lead with about 15 minutes left and they started coasting and didn’t put their foot to the metal and it was exacerbated by the 3 stars sitting at the same time for too long. Nothing to panic over. The stars came back in and they took control the last few minutes. This happens to a lot of teams that get a big lead.