I think this game is going to be a lot tougher than Thursday’s game was. LMU is a decent team who has been competitive in nearly every game this season.
Hopefully BYU plays well in the high school gyms because this will be their first test of a league schedule full of hs gyms.
For LMU the ball goes through Brandon Brown 5 foot 11. He runs the show and if you stop him you stop at LMU
Once again we ran into two guys that run in the 6’5-6’6 height who are solid players and that’s why I say that Yolie Childs is Byu’s MVP this year
Lmu is not a great free-throw shooting team at only 63% they also do not get to the line very often. This game boils down to money if Mika and child’s stay out of foul trouble we win this going away. LMU is not that good on d. LMU is also a very methodical team like St. Mary’s if they can play slowball and keep Byu from getting too much of a lead they could make this an interesting game
Teams tend to hit their three balls in their own gyms so another indicator would be LMu gets 40% from three ball range they could make this game interesting but Byu just has too much firepower inside and out and Byu’s guards are too good at penetrating and drawing fouls
One last thing. Trevor Emanuel scored 18 on SMC. He is a transfer from Oregon 6 9 skinny bean pole
Byu 80 plus. LMu lucky to hit over 70
Yep! HS gyms has always been a problem for BYU. But with all the freshman BYU has maybe it won’t be as big of a problem this year.
Funny how it doesn’t seem to be a problem for Gonzaga…
How’s that for scaring us?
Did not catch the first half and thank goodness for that but they sure showed some tenacity getting back into the game and ultimately winning
I did say something to the effect of watch out for Trevor Emanual right?
Haase and Emery going for 42% from the three was the difference in this game
BYU played their worst half of the season or equaled it… think UVU. BYU should be happy and grateful for the gift that LMU gave them. Big time choke by LMU.
In some ways it was a good win because it showed BYU that even when you play bad you can gut it out and survive if necessary. If the Cougars had played even decent defense they would have won going away.
I don’t understand the strong effort on Thursday and the complete lack of effort today.
True. Worst defense of the year without a loss.
That said Mika’s jitters around the basket didn’t help. If he had played anything close to his normal first half would have won going away.
Without Mika’s equal in the paint…BYU would be in major trouble this year.
If the team had played the first half the way they did the second wouldn’t have been a close contest.
Remarkable stats: 3 pt shooting, 2 pt shooting, and FT were all within 1 of attempts in the first and second halves. The difference was in the results: second half they were falling first half they weren’t.
Seems to me to be about the mindset.
USC, Ill, and now LMU all started the same. Talent differential between BYU and USC, Ill, and LMU are different so different results. Team working together is more experienced so better results.
League play is always interesting. Gonzaga struggled with Pacifica before pulling it out. Pacifica got the hero ball syndrome in the second half and lost. Gonzaga is beatable.
When was the last time BYU got out-rebounded? When was the last time that Mika shot so poorly (4-17). This game was won at the free throw line. BYU was impressive in their come-back. Haws seems to be getting better every game. Emery is playing more within himself. Fun team to watch. I felt sorry for Mika. Everyone’s strategy is to beat him up. I’m hoping he can adjust but it’s no fun to have to face teams that specifically plan on denying the ball and pushing you around.
It was won with defense. Aggressive defense leads to better offense. That’s why the fouls happened. We still aren’t shooting a high enough percentage in free throws consistently.
As far as Mika, boo-hoo. If he doesn’t like it, he could try tennis or bowling. We dish a lot out too. That isn’t why he shot 4-17.
Mika isn’t whining about it. He’s as tough as they come. Just saying, other teams’ game plan is to beat up Mika much like they beat up Tyler Haws. The thing I like about Mika is that he stays aggressive on offense. If teams are going to foul him, he’ll make them pay at the FT line. Mika was 9-12 from the line and had almost half our FT attempts. BYU was 20-29 from the line while LMU was 9-17. We scored 11 more points from the line vs LMU. All the other stats were pretty even including steals and blocks. Yes, we did play better defense the second half but we also got to the line more by attacking the basket.
I thought BYU was trying to force it in to Mika way too much. I am glad Emery and Haws picked up the slack and knocked down shots because that helped a lot. Mika shot 12 free throws but he also missed 13 shots, most of the close in variety. All told he took between 20 and 25 shot attempts. When you aren’t hitting, that is way too many for any player.
Just for grasshoppers sake, that is one of the things that bugged me about Kobe… yeah, he could score 50 or 60 points but he was taking 50 or 60 shots doing it.
Anyhow, all of the abuse Mika will take can only help him. If I was playing BYU I would do the same thing. He has been consistently good so try and disrupt that. Now it is time for the rest of the guys to step it up.
Yeah, I agree. Mika was forcing the action a lot. He probably assumed too much of the scoring load in past games because BYU guards were in a shooting slump. Now that they seem to be shooting with more confidence, maybe we’ll see Mika kicking the ball out to the guards more often. Mika took 17 shots and missed on 13 of those but you have to take into account that he was fouled on some of those attempts which led to 12 FT attempts (9 made FT). All told, 17pts on 17 attempts isn’t bad efficiency. Plus, he was able to foul out Jovanovic and get 4 fouls on Tuach both of whom accounted for 20 pts and 10 rebounds. BYU had better advantage inside with those guys on the bench. Still, Mika does get a lot of turnovers because he’s forcing the ball too much. Like you, I think he should look to kick the ball out to the guards more often if he can draw the defense and kick it out to the open player.
Actually, Glenn, when a player is fouled on a field goal attempt, the field goal attempt is not counted. Therefore, Mika really did miss 13 shots–not counting the ones he was fouled on. It was really a horrible display of shooting from the big guy–especially in that first half. Too often, his shots at close range just look too rushed, and I cringe every time he goes to that fade-away jumper.
Brain lapse! 
Thanks for catching that. I know better. Yes, you and Jim are right that Mika really did struggle with his shot. How many point blank shots were missed? He’s made a few of those fade-aways in the past but not many. I cringe when Childs shoots the fade-away too but he did knock one down at LMU. I’d rather see the big guys be more patient and kick the ball back out to the guards and just try to reposition in post rather than settling for the fade-away. Childs has also been inconsistent with his jump hook lately but he generally plays within himself and shot a pretty high percentage from the field (60%). .
Well, no he didn’t take 50 or 60 shots to score 50 or 60 except for his last game. And his teammates wanted him to shoot most of the shots in that game. Kobe commented on it after the game that for 20 years everyone was telling him to pass the ball but in that game they were saying don’t pass it, shoot it! Greatest finish to any game in that situation. Storybook ending with his wife and daughters there for a final game to a great career.
Now, back to Mika, Emery and Haws. Glad you were okay with Haws and Emery hero balling it 