OK, this is for all the marbles. BYU is 10-3, San Fran is 9-4 in league. Winner is the 2 seed and 3rd gets to play Gonzaga in the toughest bracket.
BYU will lose 1 more, @ GU. SF gets by BYU and they are favored in all their games with only SDU on the road to SF.
Remember last game, BYU let McCarthy go off for 14, he is a .423% at 3land. Do not let skinny, 6’9 McCarthy get open looks. He shoots very poorly at the FT line, under 50%…knock knee caps.
Ferrari…I love that name…KILLED BYU. He is small, quick and smart. make someone else beat you. Point guard who shoots 3)% from 3land and 86% from the strip. we played everyone else pretty solid.
Minland is their athlete, very average on stats but can score in bunches.
Just don’t let them shoot open 3s (they hit 47% in our 1st game) and contain Ferrari. On our end, Penetrate and kick to open 3s, Cannon is shooting close to 50% lately and Seljaas is having a good run as well. Get their bigs in foul trouble with penetration.
This should be a perfect storm for BYU to come out strong tomorrow night and win. Yes, SF is good. Yes, they beat us before. But we are firing on all cylinders now and we have the momentum of the two big road wins last week to fuel us at home. We are like the 1951 Hickory Hoosiers who just got Jimmy Chipwood back on the team and we are now rolling. Or as Austin Powers would say, we got our mojo back.
On to Thursday. If we can contain McCarthy and Ferrari we should win. But SF is solid and have good depth. I think we want to go up tempo and get quick good shots. If Baxter and Childs play well and our shooters shoot 40%+ from 3, we win. But even if that all doesn’t happen, I still like our chances.
John: This one does scare the heck out of me. As did LM and SD. But there is something different about the Cougs now. We are rolling. The rotation is finally solid and working. Guys are learning their roles. Emery is so good on defense and if he or Seljaas or Harding gets hot, we can be great.
With all this said, I still see a 20 pt+ beatdown at Gonzaga this Saturday. Somewhat unrelated, last year, a bunch of Gonzaga students wanted to dress up as missionaries to mock us. But a student advisor lady encouraged them not to and there was a big article she wrote about religious tolerance and all that. I was impressed by her comments.
Craig… like Neil said it is Chitwood, not Chipwood. I think you are talking about woodchucks or something. How much wood could a woodchuck chip if a woodchuck could chip wood? or is it chuck?
Anyhow, back to Chris’ original post. The #3 seed does not get Gonzaga in the tournament, they get the #2 seed. The team that would play Gonzaga in the semifinal would likely be the #4 seed, if they don’t lose to a lower seed. At least that is how I think tournaments work.
Regardless, the wcc is a one bid league this year because Gonzaga is so dominant and the rest of the teams haven’t stepped up. BYU will likely end the league play with at least 4 losses, which demonstrates to the selection committee that they are average in spite of a 2nd place spot, to go along with a poor non conference showing. I just don’t see how BYU makes it into the ncaa tournament unless they take Gonzaga to the wire or beat them in the possibly two chances they have remaining.
Even if we win at Gonzaga this Saturday then get blown out by the Zags in the tournament, I don’t see us in the big dance. Our only chance is to somehow beat the Zags in the tourney…very unlikely.
This bugs me because the WCC is stronger then the Pac 12 this year and better then the Mtn. From where I stand the WCC should be a 2 invite league this year. If SF beats BYU at home, they would get an invite if they make it to the finals with Gonzaga. Same with SMC. BYU just has too many losses…back when Baxter was sitting on the bench.
agreed, BYU is not a bubble team no matter what they do from here on out…too many bad loses. Would have to come out on top in Vegas. But they can improve their NIT resume… I love playing for 2nd best…
meanwhile, Emery and Worthington did absolutely nothing…0 for everything on the night but fouls and turnovers. But you should defend them, no one else will.
I’m not defending them. They were playing fine up until the 8 minute mark. It was 63 - 50. From that point on we had 4 turnovers in a row and 6 total. It wasn’t Emery and Worthington only. Haws and and Childs made the 6 turnovers. We simply quit playing hard. Haws tried to dribble between 2 defenders. Lazy passes.
Then, missing free throws while SF makes theirs even though they are a horrible FT shooting team. We missed a lot of shots too down the stretch. Don’t hang this on Worthington or Emery. That was a complete team loss.
I’m watching the second half and Haws hit a 3, after a cross court pass from Emery, with 8 minutes to go in the game. That made the score 63 to 49. With 7 and a half minutes to go BYU was up 14 points.
Also, USF started playing aggressive defense and BYU didn’t respond well to it. They didn’t score during a 4 and a half minute stretch after taking that 14 point lead. They bombed up wild 3’s and played putrid to finish the game. That should never happen at home.
Also, Worthington is not to blame but he did nothing to help and the hopper never acknowledges that fact. Yoeli was awesome most of the game and totally sucked when it mattered. He complains way too much about EVERY call against him. The other important player, Haws, sucked when it mattered too. Wild 3 pointers, stupid fancy move scoop shots, etc. and USF took the lead with 2 and a half inutes to go.
That game never should have gotten to that point.
I wish our team leaders would play with the passion that a guy like Ferrari plays with. He was fantastic, led the team, showed good sportsmanship (something Haws, Childs, Emery, etc. never do) and shows class out there. I think some of the blame should be on Rose, but hopper won’t acknowledge that either. He let the game get away because he got lazy, just like the recruiting efforts.
7 turnovers in 8 minutes. 4 in a row by Haws and Childs. Really bad for the best players to lose control and make those bad plays. SF defense wasn’t that great. We were at home with 2 Apostles present and laid an 8 minute egg.
TJ was making so much progress this season but his attitude hurts him. He shows no sportsmanship, he’s cocky again, that 3 at the end of the half puffed his head up. HIs best buddy Emery is more concerned about his hairstyle than his playstyle.
It’s becoming a train wreck again, just when it looked like BYU had turned the corner and made tons of progress they take 10 steps back and look horrible.
USF deserved the win. They played hard, they kept their composure, they overcame some bad officiating against them and they gave it everything they had. I wish BYU had won but they totally blew it in so many ways.
BYU didn’t look horrible for 32 minutes. We got tentative and lost composer. That can be regained. And, Emery shot poorly but for most of the game he played under control. Haws makes some really gray plays and gets caught trying to do too much like dribbling between two defenders. 4 straight turnovers. We always win games when up 14 with 8 minutes to go.
