Many of you have addressed it. Some have gone into detail about Rose and his relationship to Guy and Pli Slamma Gamma and lamented, "How can we be in the top 10% in scoring nationally and yet dwell in the bottom 10% in defense…year after year. Harold even asked, “I thought Quincy Lewis was going to come in here and fix this”. that is the million $$ question. Why isn’t Quincy influencing the team more?
Here is my theory…
How can Rose be one of the winningest coaches % wise and yet we still are 1st round losers in the dance every year. It all boils down to recruiting and the type of player that we go after. BYU goes after these kids that are Mr basketball types from all these states (Emery-Utah, Saljaas-Utah, Chatman-Colo, the kid that is leaving-Colo, both Marty and TJ Haws -Utah). Typically in high school, these guys spend all of their time working on adding to their shot selection and they spend little time on defensive skills, that is what they have teammates for…to play defense. They come to the Y and now we have a team full of scorers who are poor at defending.
Elite teams in the country have teams comprised of:
1 a wicked fast point guard, who can always get by their defender if needed but plays with his head up looking to pass.
2) several pure shooters to spread the floor
3) a bruising power forward who love to bang and score
4) a towering glass cleaning, D loving center that keeps the middle honest
5) and a bunch of utility athletes who never look for a shot but can defend from 1-4 that will take fouls when needed, wear the other teams go-to guys down, get turnovers and just play for the team.
Elite coaches recruit athletes and turn them into defenders and shut down specialists. BYU does not EVER recruit that type of athlete…Yeolli Childs is that type of player so I have hope for the future.
