Yesterday my wife and I drove to Idaho to see our new grandson. We found that it’s actually easier and better to drive than fly, for reasons I don’t need to bore you with.
Anyhoo, I listened to the Women’s game on BYU radio on xm. The girls were being outplayed, outclassed, outhussled, out-everythinged. The 10 point deficit at halftime was not a fluke.
The second half starts, and so does our O. The ladies pecked, pecked, pecked (I’m aware that some ladies are particularly skilled at this). They established momentum, the players who’d played terribly in the first half did a 180. We hit key shots, we made stops, and win the game by a comfy margin.
The guys are surging too, and not just in an in-game mode. The sub rotation has been brilliant. Having been scratching his head for most of the year as to who shd be on the floor, when and with what combos, Rose has now “deciphered the enigma” (hat tip to the movie----worth seeing) and has several teams of 5 who can score and apply pressure in various ways. overarching this is Haws’ shooting and the breadth and intelligence of KC’s game.
You can talk Winder, Sharp, Halford, Fischer, Bartley, Andrus and others, but much of this upswing comes from the big Kahuna. Back in August I reported to the (old) board that I’d seen a pickup game when visiting campus and was pleasantly surprised to see and learn a bit about Corbon Kaufusi. I sat next to an assistant coach (Lacombe) and learned a bit about him. The pick up was full court, of course. I could see Kaufusi had a real good court sense, had good timing, knew how to use his new-found size and was obviously a coordinated athlete who cd bring all this to hoops.
We are now seeing this young man progress every game. The huge carom block against Sabonis in the Gonzaga game was a play he wdn’t have made 6 weeks ago. The thunderous put back dunk last night likewise. He is long, he is strong, he anticipates well. He can draw a foul for you and hit net on his free throws. His free throw ability could be absolutely huge.