Craig and others,
Thought you might like to read this nice back story on Haarms. Talks about his background, his decision making on why BYU… Seems to be a nice young man with his head on straight.
He was interviewed on BYU Sports Nation a couple of days ago. You should watch the program and keep up to date better all things sports at BYU…
He seems to be making a good impression as he makes the rounds of the BYU media outlets.
If he can impress on the court as much as at the microphone he will have a great year.
The old saying is “You can’t teach 7’3.”
He looks pretty good. Purdue has another big that was good too that are into his time.
well said…I was amazed at how well TJ held up with his skinny frame. One Uber tough kid and I will miss him.
BYU could weather the storm with Childs out but BYU would of lost plenty of games without our Point Guard running the show. You have to have a general on the floor. he is the machine that makes everyone (including Childs) look good.
How many of you remember a year ago when I reported, after watching a practice session, the new kid, Barcellos? I said he was the 3rd best player in the gym and that he would be our best defender. I was half right when Toolson showed up and Toolson stayed “Showed UP”.
Now Pope has made him our Point. I don’t like it because Barcellos was our best defender and our best 3 point % maker. Those categories will suffer if he also has to run the show.
We will be solid at the all the other positions both on offense and I hope on defense but who is going to guard the other team’s best guard? (keeping in mind that the WCC ALWAYS has very good guard play). I just think it is too much for one guy to do and you always want to protect your best player from getting cheap fouls.
Don’t look past George. They say he can defend 1 through 5.
Fish is a big fan of George’s. Fish is just concerned about our leadership and guard play. He doesn’t think Barcello is ideal at the point. If we could get Kucur (sp?) the lefty Turkish guy, that would be awesome. Barcello is better as the 2 guard.
Related to all this, this coming team will be our best defensive squad in many years. Haarms and Baxter protecting the paint while Barcello and Harding are both plus defenders.
Harding and the 2 from USU like Harwood are defensive players too. George is too. Barcello is too. Defense will be strong. So will the offense.
The offense is not likely to be as good as it was last year. But not many teams compete for the best offense in the land on a regular basis.
The defense, which easily had more room for improvement, will be much better.
The question is will the defense improve enough to make up the the offensive degradation.
Listening to Shep and Pope, I suspect that the offense will not be as degraded as much as some think, and the defense will be dramatically improved.
That said, with only one PG and him a convert, the PG spot may be a killer of a situation.
Even if the Turkish frosh shows up, he will still be a frosh, and the reports of who the staff is recruiting from the transfer portal does not give much hope for a bonafide floor general this next year.
Harding and George will be able to start the offense. The question is who will play small forward. Baxter can play defense but can he be an offensive threat. If not, the two USU transfers will take up his time. Lee and Haarns will play the 5.
my questions re the offense are
who will be the backup pg, AB will be ok, maybe even better than ok, but more than one point is needed.
how fast will they play? Pope was the last of Coach Rose’s OC’s who ran a fast paced offence and he has stated that this next year will be a faster paced team.
how good will they be? The probably will not dominate the offensive stats the way the last team did, but how much will they recede?
how well will the bigs shoot the three? if they look like Kolby Lee shooting great but not much then the team will be in trouble. if they shoot like Haarms did at Purdue then the team will be in trouble. They need to shoot plenty of threes and shoot well. Plenty of room for improvement.
Pope has already said, and pretty much everybody knows, that the rebounding will improve. Size and new talent will take care of that, but how will the flow, the patterns of the game change for the team? Good rebounding especially on the defensive end tends to demand good pg play in converting the opportunities to good offence.
Not too worried about the offense. If we shoot 65% down low because no one can stop us, the outside 3 will be there. And, from what I hear, we have a couple of bigs that can shoot the 3. Haarns scoring will be between 12-18 points a game. George can shoot 3’s, dribble drive and post up. I see him 12-18 points a game. Harwood same. Barcello same with some big games. Harding 15-20 points a game. And with better defense and rebounding, our scoring will be about what it was last year.
I do agree it would be good to find one good transfer for PG. it certainly wouldn’t hurt.
Here is an article about George, I thought you might like to read:
I read it yesterday and very enjoyable article and a good kid. I hope Mark Pope can work with on his aggressive elbows when come to WCC regular season. But George should figure that out on his own no problem when come to Zebras
Ya, there’s not much difference with JC and WCC officials with respect to ability. George has the moves and the shots. Look to him have the ball in his hands and drive a lot. Much like TJ but with a better finish at the rim. I also like his midrange game as well.
The Turkish point is on the national team. Has been playing international ball for years. That is a step up from college ball.
A lot is being said about players like George and Harrms. Hyping these guys is unfair to them, Only Harrms is a senior. We had 7, count them, 7 seniors last year. This year we will have Barcellos and Harrms. BYU will NOT be as good as last year. We do not have a true point, TJ, a lifetime Point, started for 4 straight years, never missed a game to my knowledge. Now we are going with Barcellos??? A guy who was very reluctant to ever drive to the hoop, come on, Man.
If I were to compare this team with last year’s, I can point out 3 distinct changes…Last year’s team lived by the 3. This year’s team will play close to the rim.
Last year’s team was weak at defending the rim, this year’s team will be very strong.
Haws will play pro ball somewhere, he is a legendary offensive mind. This year’s team will be challenged at times to create offense unless we get some more ball handlers.
George is a junior is he not? He’s got experience. I think he will surprise people. He’s capable of starting the offense and scoring at will.
We do need another point. Or another good outside shooting guard. But, without one, our offense will still score a lot of points. And our defense will be better. I think we can make a run to the sweet 16 with Haarms.
Hopper - Watch George’s highlight video. A lot of those guys he competed with were JC schmo’s; not Gonzaga and St Mary’s. George is explosive and can finish with either hand. But I see him as more of a garbage man than a true creator. Fish will know more as he has inside info.
There will be no run to the Sweet 16. Yes, Harms and the bigs will be good, but college basketball is a guard/wings sport.
Correct. Last year’s team worked because the offense was designed around one guy, Haws. You can count on one hand the times that other players ran the offense and drove to the hoop, not to score but to kick out to a wide open Harding, Barcellos or Toolson, pick and rolls were 100% Haws. You take him out of the equation, BYU becomes a pass along the edges or the pick was to get Toolson a quick 3 or worse, a lob into Childs where if he was doubled, would have to take a fall away, or a charge or kick the ball right back out.
Harrms, especially George and you can go down the list of players that are new to BYU will only be as good as the guy that runs the show and gets them the ball where they can be effective.
Pope is getting so much attention nationally (and Harrms proves it) that I think he will get a good transfer portal point but at this point I am leery of calling this a Dance team til I see ball handlers.
I agree with the leery part.
But I check every day for transfers who both play point and can play next year…nothing in the offing. If the NCAA had announced the players get to play immediately rule, then I would agree another solid point would be in the picture. Unless someone decides to transfer instead of being dissed in the NBA draft it could be a very long year.
Having someone or two in the pipeline for after AB leaves is important oo. Just not for this next year.