Pepperdine is well coached and played the exact defense that BYU has trouble with - strong all along the perimeter, knowing that nothing will hurt them inside, forcing BYU into tougher shots and a poor shooting performance. Without some inside presence, I believe we will see more and more of this for the rest of the season. Not every team has the players to do this well, but the good ones likely will and for BYU to win those games, Rose must adapt plays to beat that type of defense. So far, I donât believe he has accomplished that.
I stated in my prior post that I was concerned about how we played defense the second half of last weeks games. I only saw the first half last night and from that have two things to point out. First, I think Rose made a tactical mistake (which he didnât recognize or address for 13 minutes) of playing a tight man to man, which Pepperdine destroyed because we played it very poorly. Had he continued with this, they would have easily scored 100 on us. The zone worked much, much better - but why wait until youâre down 15 to make the change. It was apparent after 5 minutes that it was a problem and he should have switched much sooner.
Having said that, the effort during that time was also lacking (and maybe Rose was hoping it would improve and thatâs why he continued with it, not sensing that his guys werenât ready to make the effort to play a tough man to man last night). I tired of watching our perimeter guys glued with their feet to the floor, simply allowing guys to drive by them with that âthe guy behind me can pick him upâ mentality. They MUST work harder to stay in front of their guy, period. The effort during those first 13 minutes last night to do that wasnât there at all, and that was disappointing and really put us in a bad spot quickly.
Yes Frank, that was a big hole to get into early on. When you win back to back road games by 30 points, a team can tend to get a little over confident about how they will do at home against any team in the conference not named Gonzaga.
I was amazed as the man defense continued off and on through the rest of the game but even more confused when I watched Worthington and Kaufusi fail miserably to guard Davis and wondered why they would try to guard him 25 ft. from the basket and never got help.
Other teams will see what Pepperdine did and try to copy it, with success I might add, if nothing changes.
Watch the last 5 minutes and you will see what they can do when the want to with the man defense. The two preceding games showed they can lock down and play tough inspired defense. Last night, they showed nothing for 35 minutes. And, their rebounding effort was pathetic. Had we held them to one shot going down the stretch, we would have won. Had we made the layups and short 2 ft shots, we would have won. Effort is the key whether the players are sick or not.
is this your own post or are you replying to somebody? I donât understand why the âlack of effortâ took so long to rectify during this game and then why they didnât sustain it.
They have a nasty habit of starting slow and getting behind.
Just another thing that doesnât bode well and needs to change.
You guys are all amazing. Did you not listen to Coach Rose before the game. Just about the entire team had the flu. Perhaps that should not have affected their play? It explains a lot to me, but of course, I never played college ball, so what do I know.
So Rose was providing the excuse for losing before the game?
I wonder what will happen to Gonzaga if or when they get the team flu bugâŚ
Itâs always something Kay⌠some reason why BYU didnât perform up to their expectations, etc. If it was truly a major issue, they probably should have lost by more.
I played sick when I was in high school, you just suck it up and give 100%. I didnât see that effort in the game except near the end when it was too late. Regardless⌠they still were close, the officiating was marginal and the rotations for substituting and playing time were awful on Roseâ part. If those things had been better we wouldnât even be talking about âfluââŚ
From what I saw, the team looked very lethargic so I would agree with the Flu conspiracy but as Jim points out that is no excuse for poor defenses and substitutions when the game is on the line.
Case in pointâŚKuafusi defending 40 feet from the basket, it is not as if Stacey was going to take that 40 footer. Cheap fouls,easy points. 2 guys on their go to player!
You can bet they were not going to leave one guy to guard Haws at any point in the last 5 minutes.
I noticed that you said you played âsickâ. Does that mean âfluâ or not?
I donât get the flu very often, but I do get a couple of colds every year. I would say that when some one gets the âfluâ they will have a very difficult time giving even 80% of their healthy effort. Some some reason, depending on the type of cold, colds may not affect your performance as bad.
Russ, if anyone had the full blown flu at the peak of itâs nastiness they probably wouldnât have been playing. I find it really hard to believe that every guy fit that category.
Iâm just not going to throw my hands up and say âoh well, some of our guys have been battling the fluâ and give up the game. That seems to be what happened.
Letâs see what happens tonight against LMU. Iâm going to guess that they all make miraculous recoveries (itâs only been 2 days) from this flu thing and they put a beat down on the Lions. Yes, LMU is not good, but letâs see if there isnât more effort and watch how many of the players look like their normal selves. Will Rose comment about the flu being a possible problem in this game?
agree chris⌠you can play with the flu and maybe your shot is off or you lack some energy but if you are really sick, you just donât play.
I donât think flu is a good excuse for poor defenses and substitutions when the game was on the line. Also, I am assuming that Nielson was VERY sick because he only played 2 minutes. Worthington and Kaufusi did nothing to stop Davis⌠In fact, when BYU went to a man, Pepperdine made a real effort to get Davis the ball because they knew it was a big advantage for them.
Put weak or inexperienced big guys on a good player and put him out on an island with no help and thatâs the ball game. Not sure what the coaching strategy was thereâŚ
