Utah on Wednesday

I saw some improvement in this last game but there are still major problems with taking care of the ball and sloppy passes. Don’t like the free throw shooting. Team defense is getting just a little bit better. The Offensive scheme is not being applied very well. Too mush of “here let me shoot it”, going on. Kyle put a good game on the court tonight. Nick played well, I like his defensive effort. He is going to be really good. The game rotation is starting to look good. I worry a little about the Utah game. Coach K has them playing well and disciplined. This will be a good judgement game for BYU. We will learn a lot in this game. All of the instate games need to be played at the Delta Center in round robin format and just for fun, you do not know who your opponent is until a lottery drawing the morning of the games. It would be a great food bank evening. Gee, I wish someone would come up with that idea!

What do you think?
Jeff

What I think is that Utah will beat us. That said, I love Emery’s game. As his confidence grows he can become one of the great ones. I love his speed and quickness and that he can finish at the rim besides just shooting bombs. Fischer got hot but then took about 3 or 4 selfish shots to prove he can’t stop himself. KC was very assertive going to the rim and that was great to see. By far his best game this year, and against a good team that will win 20+.

Good assessment tlarimer. From what I saw of the last ten plus minutes of the BYU-Belmont basketball game.
It is difficult to tell how BYU will fare during the conference season after the past three games. I think that the Utah game and the upcoming road tourney trip to Hawaii will be the more inclusive test for BYU before the WCC schedule in the New Year. Emery and and KC shoed how they can play well against such a quality outfit like Belmont. Fischer is Fischer, hot or cold, hardly anything ever different out of him. Perhaps the answer lies with the rest of the Cougars’ basketball team. For sure the upcoming YEWT and Hawaii schedule will tell us more about our basketball prowess this year.

Jeff, I agree with the FT shooting. That will hurt us in big games but I saw BYU completely dismantle a good Belmont team. I love our guards, KC is becoming legendary and we have some really good Bigs. Our bigs will wear down Poeltl so I like our chances.

I’m not predicting a win because BYU has to prove it can win on the road but we do have a veteran lead team so I would not be surprised if we won.

Don’t see byu winning against Utah but expect an improvement game by game and a much better team by season end

Actually, 12 turnovers is the max Rose wants to see. That’s what we had. What I saw is a team in the second half running very smooth except that Kaufusi must be in there. When Austin got his 3rd fouls Kaufusi should have been put in. He has to play as much as possible before league starts, period! Austin gives us nothing on the offense.

I expect Utah to win too. Sad.
But it looks like BYU this year will be much like BYU last year in that when Fischer is on his game so will the team.
And Fischer is rarely on his game for the big ones…so unless Fischer breaks form and plays well in a big game or Collinsworth and Emery can lift the team the way only Fischer has seemed to be able, the game is likely another loss to the old rival and one of the few teams on the schedule this year that could help build important wins for the dance.

Well then, perhaps even our goal shouldn’t be to win early games. Maybe we should follow Rose’s schedule to prepare to win league! Just a thought :slight_smile:

Glad you put the smile after your “thought”…

The goal should be to win every game.

If BYU can play the same kind of game style that Utah plays… disciplined, within themselves, following Rose’ game plan, etc. and not have individual players trying to run off and carry the team or be the difference maker or whatever then they have a good chance to win. I worry about their mental approach… the deer in the headlights disease that so often afflicts them (LBSU anyone?) and the lack of focus and determination. We will see.

I don’t think LBS was a deer in the headlight moment. We were simply not ready for prime time.
Yes, we should always want to win every game. But, that is unreasonable especially with so many new faces. Rose has more of a rotation going. Except he needs not to have Austin play more minutes than Kaufusi. Kaufusi must get the experience win or lose. Because he didn’t play much in the second half of the last 2 games, he won’t be as ready tonight for Utard.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL !!!

DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS MOMENT = NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME…

You just defined one of the clarifying moments for what it means to be a deer in the headlights. You are getting really good at helping to prove my points when you disagree with me… PERFECT! :smiley:

Ummm…no. Not being ready to play and having fear like a dear in the headlight has is completely different.

Deer in the headlights aren’t “fearful”… they just have no clue what is going on. If you have no clue what is going on then you aren’t ready for primetime.

Apparently that was BYU tonight… from everything I have read they were not really ever in this game and they embarrassed themselves as well.

How many time do we need to say that scheduling Utah, in any sport, at this time is a big mistake? Utah fans throwing stuff on the floor, Emery punching a ute player. The whole situation is a complete disaster.

And yeah SG… BYU has a serious issue with being the “deer in the headlights”.

We were within 8 with 4 minutes to go. We fought back into the game mostly on Fischer’s shooting. 26 points in 20 minutes is Jimmer-like effort. He needed that in the first half too.
Sure a deer is frozen and frightened that they freeze.

I had other plans and couldn’t watch the game tonight. Saves me cleaning the puke off my living room floor. After seeing the Emery video I have no idea at all what to say about him. He was not ready for LBSU, seemed to make big strides, but this is a major step backwards. A coach cannot tolerate an impetuous kid embarrassing his program in public. Not on an 8th grade football team, and certainly not on TV.

I’m looking at this video from the article. I don’t have other views of it. It looks to me Taylor hits Emery in the face with the back of his left hand and Emery simply reacted with a punch. From the angle, it looks like Emery didn’t hit his jaw but more his stomach or chest. Does anyone else see this or have other angles of this?

Halftime changes:
“Tonight the adjustment was let’s do what we were supposed
to do. We went through the scouting report again. We went on that big
run and closed it to single digits early. We went back and forth then we
went through a stretch where we shot the ball too early and missed. It
was just really difficult to come back from where we were.”
http://byucougars.com/m-basketball/byu-vs-utah-notes-quotes

So after the team stank it up in the first half. Coach Rose told them what he had told them before the game. Only in the second half they decided to do it…deer in the headlights or still just a young team … hard to say. But if they can start playing the first halves of games the way they play the second halves they will go a long way…for that matter they wouldn’t be 0-fer on the road right now either.

It is interesting that two of three of the toughest teams they’ve faced have been on the road as well. If they could face more tough teams at home earlier they would probably settle out a bit faster…Though the injuries preseason this year certainly didn’t help.