Beat LMU.
The Lions are in a bit of a pickle. They don’t have a lot of fire power, They don’t shoot FTs very well, 61%. They have a below average inside game.
The good…LMU scratched out home wins of Pepperdine and SF and a road win at Pacific so they are defending well and running a good offense.
BYU should focus on the players…Brown, Tuach and Haney. Brown and Tuach do the driving while Haney is a shooter.
BYU just needs to play to its strengths if strong inside play and penetration to kick out to an open 3.
I don’t see BYU getting past SMC but I was wrong about Gonzaga.
Thanks for the analysis! My unbridled optimism gets the best of me sometimes but I think BYU is in a good mental state right now. The team believes that on a given night, they can beat anybody. I think St Marys will have a hard time beating BYU 3 times in the same season. I pick BYU to make a run to the championship game. I doubt that they can beat Gonzaga twice but I think they will give them a run for their money.
Any thoughts on the WCC honorees? Williams-Goss won player of the year. That’s really no surprise. Usually the most consistent player on the best team wins the award. It was no surprise that Mika was on the WCC first team. I was a little surprised that Haws made first team. One of the pre-season award favorites, Nick Emery, didn’t get any recognition. He didn’t make 2nd team or even honorable mention. That has to be a tough pill for him to swallow. Not surprisingly, Yoli and Haws made the all-freshman team.
That should motivate Emery! Obviously, the voters watched BYU vs GU both times on TV and gave the nod to Haws. He isn’t a 1st reamer this yr. Freshman team yes.
If Mika would play his natural position PF and have BK playing center, then Landale would likely be shut down better and feeding inside would work better offensively and defensively. Shem is not the only really good paint player that BK could free Mika from.
If you go to my face book page, Chris Bailey, you will see a picture I up loaded last week from the practice with BYU. Redirecting...
I have known Quincy Lewis for years and watched most of the LP games that year they made the NChamp HS run.
There is a reason why Rose offered Emery as a Soph and Haws as a Fr… But watching the last few minutes of the Gonzaga game showed us all what I knew all along…that these guys know each other’s game and trust each other. Haws drives in hard while Emery moves to open gap at 3 and sinks it, done it a million times. Seeing Mika come all the way out to set pics for guards is something I had always thought was a no brainer and yet we have not see it until the Gonzaga game. It may be that Rose was saving it for Gonzaga but that makes no sense to me.
As for Emery or Haws or Mika, they all have a fire to win and hate losing.
You can also see that the game has finally “slowed down” for Bryant. He played his best games these last 2 against Portland and and Gonzaga. We have everyone coming back next year…gonna be a beautiful thing. regardless of what happens the rest of the season.
We all said that it would take time and for most of us it took longer then we thought but I watched BYU impose its will on a Gonzaga team that took #7 Arizona to the woodshed, #12 Florida, # 22 ISU. This is historic! They are all coming back.
I’m probably the last person alive that doesn’t have a Facebook account so I can’t sign-in and see all of your pictures. But, what I was able to access looked very cool. I know I have said before that you must have a dream job for a living but, like you point out, there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. It takes a lot of other talent that most of us don’t have so congrats on a great career.
That must have been fun going to LP games during that magical year those guys had together. A buddy of mine and I used to go see Jason Kidd play at St Joseph’s high school here in the Bay Area. Kidd was one of the most dominant players I’ve ever seen in high school.
As far as this BYU team and the LP3, I’m as excited as you are to see these guys figure the game out at this level. Bryant and Childs are also going to be huge the next couple of years. I’m sure there will be setbacks from time to time but I’m looking forward to some fantastic games over the next few years and I’m glad we got a glimpse of what’s to come in last week’s games.
Agreed. I think Dastrup had a tough transition from his mission to basketball. His body changed a lot so he almost needs to shed about 50 lbs of mission weight or redefine and rediscover himself as a basketball player. He hasn’t shot particularly well but he has good form and will be a good shooter. The next question is how will Rose utilize his skills. Will he be a stretch four or will Rose want him to play Center and develop his post game? I guess it will all depend on the particular game plan and his match-up from game to game. Rose loves guys that are flexible and that can help create a mismatch.
