USU, a pivotal game and much more

USU showed us both worlds of BYU basketball. To start with, USU is a very good basketball team that left at least 16 points on the floor from the FT line. How many were front ends of 1and1’s? Maybe even 20 points.
After getting ahead by 20 points, USU kicked it into hyperdrive to stop BYU’s Barcello and Lucas, BYU went 10 possessions without a point. and squandered an easy lead. Had USU not missed a million FT’s, they would of closed out our game with a win at our home and BYU would go on to lose a lot of games going forward!!!

BYU is elite at guard, probably not a better starting pair in college then Barcello/Lucas but we are weak weak weak down low. The Lohner experiment is OVER. I said it before the USU game and stats don’t lie. We cannot use him at the 5. Lohner would not defend the long shots of Harvath (4-5) and Bean would of had Lohner fouled out by halftime. The thoughts of Lohner scoring double doubles are gone but thats OK because Foos just made the claim at the 5. Foos only had 17 minutes of play time and scored 14 points. He will start at center from here on out, mark it down.

Did anyone catch that George lost 12 lbs over past week??? One day he is sitting on the pot losing his guts, the next, he is playing 24 minutes and filling up stat sheets-wowzah!!!.
By committee, George and Knight did an OK job on Bean, holding to under his averages but Bean slipped behind George 3 times on backdoors, good learning experience.

Man o man, the 3s were falling last night. Barcello rushed some or it would of been even betta!
Knell came out of his slump and was leading the team at halftime. huge game for him

Foos was perfect on the night and begs the question of, Why not start him and play him 25 minutes a night going forward. I like not having to depend on Lohner scoring, let him instead be the rebounding freak he is and his scoring game mature like it did last year.

Now for the good news…With George back and a surging Foos, BYU looks good going forward.

You want Fousse to play 25 minutes. Who plays the other 15 minutes? Atiki or Lohner.
Yes, poor FT by USU. But great FT shooting by BYU. That isn’t the reason we got the big lead or lost the lead. We lost it because we get sloppy when we get leads. Lazy ball handling, 3 players in a five foot circle. One on one play and no assists. Coaches, players and Haws were saying this.

More,
Coaching substitutions have a lot to do with the lead being squandered. Erickson played 14 minutes in the M. St game and was fairly effective at guarding …guards.

Erickson for some crazy reason was asked to guard 6’4 240lb Eythle-Rock, then 6’8 Bairstow…they both promptly backed Erickson into the circle, scoring and/or getting fouls plus the score.

I like seeing Erickson finally get minutes because I know his game and he will be solid at BYU with experience but "come on, man! Johnson, Knell are proven on bigger players.

I still don’t see that as the problem. When we have big leads, the offense slows down, gets lazy, doesn’t spread out creating turnovers. It’s the same in many sports at BYU. Women’s volleyball had a 14-10 lead in the 5th set and could not return a server that was lobbing slow serves easy to return as they had been doing. Blew the lead and the match. Soccer couldn’t score enough to win. Last two games they had 0 points. UVU had mental turnovers. Last night the same in basketball. Jim talks about this all the time. What is the answer to mental mistakes?

I think it’s just Pope trying different things because he has to dig deep and find out not only each guy’s strengths but also his weaknesses–and practice doesn’t count. Personally I think Erickson will be fantastic BTW, but that matchup didn’t work at all last night.

Pope now knows what he has in Johnson: boy he’s a skinny kid but he is just good at both ends and super reliable. His fast break was just beautiful when he switched ball hands in the air to eliminate the chance of his shot being blocked. That was full speed, at the rim, and he made it look really easy. Respect.

I could be a MAJOR USU fan. Boy they are fun to watch! Bean is like a better version of Lohner–but what Lohner can become (and Lohner is bigger, stronger, and jumps a little better). Bean did nothing as a freshman, then for two years was a fantastic rebounder who scored 11ppg as a garbage man. Sound familiar? Another freak athlete but it took 3 years for him to break out.

USU has a lot of work to do on defense but they have the pieces to be a really good team. I’m wishing them the best.

One more thing: hope everyone noticed that barnstorming Texas Southern just slaughtered #20 Florida AT Florida. I was at that game and thought Texas Southern would become a good team. I’m happy for them–it has to be just brutal to play 13 money games in a row.

You need to tell me that 10 more times cause I was thinking today that Pope should give Lohner bean’s game film and tell him to emulate that dude.

I am also a big fan of USU. Interesting that Miller hit his first 3 then was benched, played few minutes. Jones makes them a worst team, never have liked him much (reminds me of Emery). dirty. That other local kid, Ashworth, would be a much better choice.
Bean and Harvath, can you imagine those playing with a Lucas or Barcello :boom:

Everyone is talking about the TS-Florida game, or how about UVU going down to SUU and losing

First we need to eliminate the term “dude”. Next Lohner needs to cut his hair or style it differently. This whole surf rat look might be affecting his persona. Surfers don’t always come across as the most intelligent guys though I’m sure many are. Lohner will continue to improve his game if he learns to listen and execute what Pope has him doing. He will get better, he just needs to find the path that makes him the most effective and play within himself.

None of this totally gnarly, surfer dude look and nonsense… :sweat_smile:

Yeh I say start Foos at the 5. He has the most upside potential at this point and let him grow into it. BYU has no leeway with the front court, especially when it comes to foul trouble. I hope Harward gets back by January , but there is absolutely no hint of that happening. BYU has actually been in contact with Lee earlier in the year but nothing lately. Atiki is at least a year away. Notice how since Baxter went down Lucas and Barcello are getting doubled every possession? Very little inside presence-time for Lohner to figure things out on the offensive side. It’s badly needed

Alright dude, what’s wrong with surfing? He’s got curly hair. Hair this hair that… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I get it, you live in Caly…I live in Utah, raised in Idaho, we still use words like Dude and Partner. Not happenin, Pard.

i say bring it. BYU has plenty of weapons. Foos is only going to get better.