Just curious what you base this part of your comment? Madsen had to rebuild UVU after Pope left and brought a lot of his better players with him. I believe this team, especially with their big man (who has some experts believing he could be a late 1st round draft choice ) could be a force to reckon with in the WAC and other teams they play. Later on they play Washington, so I will see how they do then before deciding if they are inferiror.
UVU is a good team. Basically, 2 players beat us scoring 48 points. They played the best defense against us so far. They will win their league. I think this will end up being a quad 2 away loss.
What hurts is how we do without Baxter. We are down to 2 bigs and Lohner. The bigs are new and it showed yesterday.
My concern is shooting and handling aggressive defenses. Yes, the refs sucked. We still should shoot better than 32%.
Free throw shooting has always been my place of
You keep harping on this but it is off base. You canāt look back on a game like this one and claim that the technical foul lost it for BYU. That is ridiculous.
Because UTEP bugged the headsets of the BYU coaches and knew what plays were being called before they ran them. When you know exactly what your opponent is doing it is easier to beat them. That is what happened, I thought everyone knew that.
Based on the fact that they have NEVER been a great team. They have had good teams in the past but they have never been great. Not that hard to understand.
Two points subtracted from UVU at the end of a tied score at the end of the game gives BYU the win. Simple arithmetic.
Simple minded thinking that doesnāt take into account the myriad other factors that affect the score and outcome of a game.
As I look back on the game, BYU, who is a 15pt. or so fav to beat UVU lost this game on 3 basic fronts.
Losing Baxter and having to play 2 inexperienced centers against Almeq was most likely the reason for the lossā¦He goes for 24pts. 22 rebs, 3 blocks and 4 assists. Baxter playing would of changed that by 10pts-10 rebs.
The refs were so badā¦ they allowed UVU to MAUL our guards to the point that it did not look much like a BBall game. Barcello was gassed and only Spencer and a little bit of Knight came to his rescue.
to piggy back on the 2nd point, Lohner takes up huge minutes but his head is not right. He has no confidence in his shot, so thereās no need to guard him. Couple that with a sick George (who will keep on shooting) and I would call that the perfect recipe for beating BYU.
Sat. BYU travels to play a Sr. laden Missouri St team, who by the way shoot volume 3s, it has to be close to half their shots, and they will kill you from outside, if you let them. All hands on board, this will be a very tough game.
I had forgotten about thatā¦ LOL
Wonder if that is why Belichek got the idea of doing it with the Patriots a few years ago? LOL
Pope last year, had them to point where they were one of the better WAC teams and I believe they did go to both the NIT and NCAA tournaments for the first time under Pope.
Madsen had to rebuild the program after Pope left, but I think he has them on the right track, and I think UVU is finally taking their sports teams a bit more seriously (up grading their facilities) than they have in the past.
Most of our games have been tough. Lohner wasnāt the only problem on offense. There was a lot of standing around and slow movement. Lots of hesitation on and off the ball. Much of that was the poor officiating. In the first half, they called nothing. Just the opposite for BYU in the 2nd half. That guy sitting on Barcello was ridiculous.
I will say that UVUs defense was perfect for the offense we were trying to run. The middle was always jammed up and our floater shots were always short. Our shooting has been off all year as well. Hesitant releases including Barcello. We missed Georgeās athletic ability.
Fouss has had some great moments this year. Fouss and Atiki are both GREAT athletes.
BUTā¦
Aimaq reminded us that Fouss and Atiki are not yet ready for prime time.
Our two bigs, both defended 1v1 by Aimaq, combined for 3 pts on 0-5 from the field and 6 boards.
We all saw Aimaq go for 24 and 22 and it could have been worse because he missed a few easy ones.
That may have been the single most one-sided domination Iāve ever seen in the paint.
I love Aimaqās game and understand heās a great kid. Rooting for him.
BUTā¦
I think BYU has serious, serious problems going forward without Harward and Baxter.
I have been SUPER high on this squad since Teājon and Seneca signed, but I donāt think I can overestimate the difficulty of playing 25 more games when our new starting center is 6ā6", his backup barely knows how to play and has essentially no offensive skill, and the only other guy on the team over 6ā6" is a 6ā8" forward who is shooting 29% against our D1 opponents, is tossing up airballs, and will barely look at the basket because he knows he is seriously messed up right now.
BYU may be one of the most undersized teams in the entire country now which is not ok if you shoot under 30% as a team from 3 pt land.
Huge props to Coach Pope if he can take this team to the dance.
Atiki is so raw that in the SDSU game a coach had to go get him at the scorerās table and point where he should be kneeling for a stop in play so that he could enter the game.
Yeah, I had high hopes for this team as well but you canāt lose a 6ā11 and a 7ā2 wingspan, who are both Srās. and expect to win all your games.
The next 3 will tell us a lot about where the team is. I wonder if Kobe Lee could be coaxed out of retirement.
The test will come soonā¦as in tomorrow.
Missouri Stateās star is 6ā9"/240 pound senior Gaige Prim, who has been an absolute stud for three years. He averages 20 and 10 while shooting 65% from the floor and 75% from the line. Last night in an OT loss to Illinois State, Prim went 27 and 12 and shot 13/15 from the field. Prim is second on the team in assists and averages almost 2 blocks per game. I will be impressed if Fouss and Atiki can keep Prim under control.
They also have 3 guards who are high volume, high % 3 point shooters (combined 42%).
Predictions:
- Prim will hurt us and BYU will have to use a guard to double him, opening up 3s on kickouts.
- BYU will have a hangover after maybe its worst game everāat least most painful loss everāunder Pope, and will be stinging from losing Bax.
- Three days ago I would have said BYU wins this game 85-70.
The last 4 minutes and OT of the UVU was as bad as any basketball I can remember seeing BYU play in many, many years. TeāJon was shooting 1 and 1 to put us up 9 with under 4 minutes to go. Instead he misses the front end, we blew a 7 point lead in 3 minutes then get BLOWN OUT allowing 17 points in a 5 minute OT. That is a complete and total meltdown. I hope Iām overreacting but I donāt think the team bounces right back after a long flight and being just sick about losing Bax for the year (all the guys love him).
Missouri State 78 BYU 72.
Another factor in the loss was the fact that several players were playing sick and that may have factored into the OT meltdown. Some of them had nothing left in the tank. Pope said the reason he didnāt allow postgame interviews was because several players needed to get rest and fluids right away. Pope didnāt make a big deal about it but it appears a virus may be afflicting the team. They probably had whatever George has or had. I would say that illness among several players probably contributed to the blown lead in regulation and the blowout in OT. In basketball fatigue leads to mistakes, missed free throws etc.
The loss to UVU is minor compared to losing Baxter if Harward was available it would be different but it appears he wonāt be for awhile if at all this season.
The huge number of injuries across all sports right nowā¦ professional and college, football and basketball is a fallout of the plandemic. Iām not sure if it is conditioning, being stuck at home all the time, being forced to wear masks everywhere you go or what but it is the only connection that seems to make sense. I think the emotional/mental toll is affecting the physical part of all of us in general. There are many athletes (as well as people in general) who canāt handle the mental aspect of everything and simply are not playing/working. The Saints were missing so many players in that game the other night that it was a team of backups and third stringers.
What we are experiencing is unprecedented and impossible to gage the enormous impact/effect it is having on society and the world overall.
To be honest, the panic is driven by the media. This Omicron variant is less dangerous but more contagious. More like the flue. Yet, thatās all you hear and the Democrats take advantage of it so they donāt have to deal with the poor economy they are causing. So, the fear sets in and paralyzes people.
I think the injury epidemics predated Covid. I attribute it to the emphasis on weight training over the last several decades. For linemen, it makes sense, but I think the emphasis on weights for skill players (to build explosiveness and power) leads to injuries. The clear advantage in power and explosiveness of modern players ā coupled with specialization and one-sport athletes and year-round club teams ā leads to a lot of injuries and burnout, in my opinion.
One of the temptations with anabolic steroids isnāt just bulking up, itās how it speeds up the bodyās timeline and effectiveness with healing and repair. I think a lot of arm injuries (including rotator cuff in pitchers) is due to both of these, but at the lower levels, emphasis on weight training to gain power, stamina, and speed also leads to blown arms. In the early days, pitchers frequently went the distance and sometimes pitched both games of a doubleheader, and they werenāt plagued with injuries like our modern āfaster, strongerā ones are.
I remember being made to max out in weights on game days (baseball). I hated the feeling of being wiped out and drained in the arms and legs when we had a game in an hour or two.
As far as Baxter and others, some peopleās frames and bodies just arenāt made to hold up to the demands. I have a seven foot brother-in-law, but he only weighs around 190 or 200. Iām sure he would be injured all the time if he played high-level basketball constantly.
Wearing masks causes ACL injuries??? The pandemic (I caught your āplandemicā) linked to the pandemic hasnāt stopped athletes from working out. Where they work out changed for awhile. But, they are back and have been for a long enough time to not being a part of the equation. Mentally? Older people and definitely over age 50. Are they thinking about whoās breathing on me and not concentrating and get hurt? Not at all. And, injuries were happening a lot before the pandemic. Hereās a good article on the subject: Are ACL Tears Really More Common in Women? > News > Yale Medicine
As I said, women have more ACL injuries due to hormones and their body shape in their pelvis and around their knees particularly.
Weāve been harping on strength and conditioning with BYU athletes a long time now. Seems like BYU has it down pretty good now. But, you are right that working out creates issues and perhaps injuries along the way. Done improperly can cause imbalances on the joints and back. Too much upper body workouts and not enough of lower body workouts is quite common. Creates stress on the back like happened to me.
Steroids is another issue. If there is a weakness in a muscle, tendon or ligament the pain or weakness is often not felt and missed. And, they can be easily overworked causing weakness in the fibers. And, who knows what is happening with the hormones during down time. Weaking the tissues. But, the pandemic isnāt causing injuries. Itās causing a lot of more harm in other ways. Or, I should say, our reactions to it hurt in other ways.