Seems like ages since we talked basketball. BYU opens its official camp this week with a live stream of the 1st practice.
Also announced the Legends Classic to be played on Dec 2-3 with 3 teams that BYU has never done well against and a true test of where BYU stands.
UConn
USC
Vandy.
can’t wait. And when was the last time BYU had great football/basketball programs at the same time?
Did not realize that we had 12 new people on the team…
For some reason, I thought we had more returning…
Excited to see what they can do.
2 big questions about the team…With last year’s unit, they had played for decades together, just how will newbies play in a Pope system?
Last year, BYU was guard centric, we lead the nation in 3 point shooting and makes. This season, BYU is BIG, as in, may be the tallest team in college and the ball has to go inside. BYU has not had this kind of size since the Ainge years. So we will see an entirely different type of ball.
I expect to see a lot of growth pains to begin the season.
We will go inside but some of the big men can shoot the 3 too. Should be interesting.
Jesse Wade may be the best shotmaker on the roster. Wade hit five or six threes in a row spanning 20 minutes of team portion. If healthy, I think Wade can be a difference maker for this team. I was surprised, however, to see him running with the scout team at the end of practice. I expect him to find a role this season. https://www.si.com/college/byu/news/takeaways-from-byu-basketball-practice
Coach Burgess also mentioned him along with AB as great shooters.
Gonzaga doesn’t play BYU, the only other obvious NCAA Tournament caliber team in the conference this year, until after both of the Zags’ bye dates.
https://www.krem.com/article/sports/gonzaga/what-we-know-about-gonzagas-schedule-so-far/293-10026d52-35fb-4dae-a01b-97149dcf1235
Lots of Zag alums here, many who do not much care for BYU, so it was nice to see a commentator has upgraded BYU to an expected NCAA Dance Team.
Not likely, Wade is to BYU basketball as Jimmer was to the NBA. Offenses will go right through, over around him. Too slow, too small.
I like Wade and if we get the right team to play, I could see him getting good minutes but really, Wade defending big guards is not going to happen. AB and BA are both elite defenders for BYU, Wade is challenged. That kinda sums things up.
What does that say about the WCC? Homers for Bulldogs…won’t save them in the Marriott.
What do you mean Gonzaga doesn’t play BYU. In league they do.
as for pg this year clearly AB and BA will be getting most of the minutes. I suspect slightly less than TJ and AB last year for two reasons. First, neither of them is TJ and second Wade and Erickson are the future, Wade is a sophomore and Erickson is a frosh, they will be the pg’s for the next two or three years barring further injury or a better talent.
I expect that Erickson and Wade will together get just over 20 minutes or so between them, and as you indicated most of their time will be against weaker teams.
Looking at how Few used the Freshman PG Wade on a Sweet 16 team, that pretty much lines up.
The quote is from KREM Spokane, a homer station, they know more about Gonzaga bball than most places, kind of like KSL or Deseret News.
So yes truly homers…but they do know the WCC better than most of the national pontificators…and they have changed their tune re BYU Cougars.
The thing that will be REALLY crazy about BYU hoops this year??? We all know the NCAA recently officially announced an extra year of eligibility for all winter sport athletes. I don’t think it was at all necessary, and at least very premature, but BYU may benefit more than almost any other D1 program.
The truly elite programs won’t benefit as much because their top guys are not sticking around 4 years anyway, much less an extra year. But Pope has a lot of very, very good players but guys who are not NBA ready, and thus very motivated to stay. BIG QUESTION: does that mean we get Haarms for two years if he is continuously enrolled? BIG ANSWER: we don’t know yet; BYU still waiting to hear whether grad transfers also get the extra year. BIG QUESTION #2: Does that mean we get AB and BA playing together for TWO years? ANSWER: YES!!! Indeed it does (if AB chooses to stay and if BA is allowed and choosed to stay). How about Connor Harding with an extra year of weightlifting and conditioning? Gavin Baxter with an extra year being fully healthy? Of all these guys, I’m happy for Bax, who very selflessly gave up an entire year just to play in a few games last year, only to get screwed out of the NCAA tourney. Look at this roster and imagine what Pope can do with an extra year…woweeee
AB & BA = ABBA ABBA DOOO…
that sounds pretty cool
Go Cougar!!!
still moving parts…sounds like the california schools are driving this…a bubble in Nevada avoids the insanity/unpredicatability of the California state government decisions…
It may work for the NBA but I don’t know how it would be feasible for the WCCNS Bank roll. It sure would run the advantage of HomeCourt
There’s a football game going on. Later 
Looks like Coach Few thinks BYU will be the Zags biggest competition this next year.
AB is the only preseason all conference though I suspect that Haarms will be on the season ending version and Wyatt or perhaps one of the other bigs will be the “Newcomer of the Year.”
just thought I would throw this out there
Great game, and then…Covid hit.
What an outstanding team that was. I know we are bringing in some new talent, but I just don’t think we can match what that group did. Toolson, Haws, and Childs were so dependable with so much experience. Hoping coach can work more miracles.
BYU will be completely different to watch this year. No living by 3 point bombs and worrying if we can handle the inside if one of our bigs got into foul trouble. BYU is going to live inside and just man handle smaller teams this year.
My big concern was having Barcellos run the point and ask him as our best defender to carry the load as well as run the point. With the addition of BA and Ericson, BYU solved ALL those problems. Barcellos shoots a 50% three as well as Harding. No way is anyone equipped to handle BYU unless you are Gonzaga, who BTW is ranked #1 for the first time in pre-season history.
Only covid to the BYU team will unrail this train. I feel so good about the talent Pope has, that I would pit them against last year’s to 10 team, sure they will stumble early on, all young teams do that but BYU is geared to go long into the NCAAs this year. Mark it
Heres to Giant killers.