Indy, I'm leaving on vacation in a few hours
 

but please tell me how it is reasonable and justified that Plaisted had those kind of numbers against this team.

And please don't talk about foul trouble. He looked terrible when he was in the game. He can't get on the block, he can't shoot. he's a mediocre rebounder.

I'm just so fed up with someone of his physical gifts, and his lack of heart, intellect, and desire. It's sickening.

I hope he stops reading the press clippings about how is the next great whatever and somebody kicks him in the nads and tells him how it is. You are headed for "bust" territory real quick.

Coach Rose doesn't go without blame either.

P.S. He got in trouble because of lousy defense

They put Doelman on Keena, which left Trent with 6'7 guy on him all night and he has 6 freaking points. He missed point blank shots, had a point blank jump hook in a crucial situation and he misses it horribly.


BYU didnt bring it tonight.

I struggle to understand how a dude who is 6'11" runs a 4.6 40 and has an alleged 48 inch verticle can miss a dunk badly.

For as athletic and talented as Plaisted is supposed to be, he doesn't show it much on the floor from what I've seen.

I really do hope TP learns to step it up next year, because with TP, Cummard, Tavernari and Burgess we have a decent base of a team.

Very disappointed because I thought we should have won this game.

I wonder if Trent is one of those head-cases that lacks self-confidence.

Or if he is an arrogant cocky type that is lazy.

Or a combination.

But he certainly is *something* that is detrimental to himself. Rose needs to screw his head on straight.

And it's clear that we are going to need a scorer next year, with Keena gone. Trent can't be that guy. He has no range and no ability to get to the block. That's a deadly combination. Worst of all, he's not that good on the glass either.

One more thing: horrible close-out on the three. I"m pretty sure it was Plaisted. That in itself lost us the game. When the guy dribbled from the 3 to the bucket.

I feel bad for all the seniors. Plaisted needs to buy them all dinner.

I know him--kind of. He's DEFINITELY not an arrogant cocky type. If anything he'd be the former. He's painfully shy and humble and a genuinely good guy.

The game was so disappointing. Argh! Plaisted didn't win the game but I wouldn't say he lost it. He had a bad game but so did others. It's very frustrating.

Plaisted left his feet way to much.

He couldnt finish around the rim.

X had way to many put back tips, we didnt box out very well.

Keena and Mike Rose brought it in their final game.

Ainge wasnt horrible, but made a few mistakes

The Zone defense was horrendous, but we couldnt play man to man because we got burned there. So its not Roses fault, he knew their were matchup problems and did his best to hide them.

That last drive by Ainge was pretty much meaningless.

Sizzle my daughter is 16 months tomorrow, so that is something to celebrate.

Didn't Majerus call Plaistead a turnip or something like that?

Only way BYU gets out of the first round, is by going something like 32-1 and getting a 4 seed (knowing the NCAA tournament) then drawing some scrub that shouldnt be in the tourney. Other than that the NCAA tournament owns us.

Thank you. That's very helpful.

This was our year to do it. Xavier wasn't that good. The Hansen team would have beat them going away the way they played against UCONN. The Bigs/Haffa team would have beat them by 20 the way they played against Syracuse. This team was better than they played tonight.

The zone D was terrible giving up offensive rebounds. We gave away the game on the line. Ainge made poor decisions. Lee was MIA. And Plaisted played as bad as I've seen him. Very disappointing to turn in that kind of performance in the game of your life against a very beatable opponent.

Yeah, he had a bad night but where would we have been without him this year. True, he's still pretty raw and he didn't make the huge jump we hoped he'd make this season. But accusing him of lacking heart, intellect and desire goes too far imo. My guess is that he has plenty of heart and desire.

He sure seems like a Shawn Bradley type - he was always able to rely on his height to dominate players in high school and because if that, he's lazy and doesn't think he needs to work on his game.

I don't see him working nearly as hard as Keena. Keena defines desire.

Plaisted apparently hasn't noticed.

It's Rose's job to get Plaisted to improve. If Plaisted isn't 100% better next year I put this on both Plaisted and Rose.

Good call.

Rose has a guy who could be a very good college player, but if the player doesn't want to get better, there's not much Rose could do other than cut him loose.

Cut him loose?? His presence will be required next year.

I understand that - I'm just exaggerating what Rose needs to do as a coach. His job is to develop Plaisted, but if Plaisted isn't willing to do his part, there's not much Rose can do to help him.

Some anecdotal evidence to support your 'painfully shy' assessment:

I saw Plaisted walking down the hall at the Thomas and Mack last week. A couple of fans said "nice game" to him and he looked like he wanted to drop through the floor with embarrassment. He was definitely bashful.

He needs to see a sports psychologist.

Smoltz did, and it helped him.

He needs to get coached, improve his basketball IQ by playing against people better than him, needs to get his head straight.

So, I guess Indy didn't have the balls to respond to this thread.

Just like I thought.

Wrong again Indy. Keep pumping the figures. Maybe you'll come up with something.

Actually, I didn't notice the thread until now. I got distracted by some Cougarguard religion thread that claimed that Joseph Smith somehow ripped off Mother Goose to write the Book of Mormon.

Here is what I am putting forward:

1. Trent was a disappointment this year overall in terms of improvement and expectations.

2. Trent was a *tremendous* disappointment in the Xavier game.

1. He went from no longer being the main focus (while KY became the conference POY) compared to last year. He may have deferred too much in accepting his role. He needs to be more assertive on both ends of the floor. I think he actually improved this year in a few facets of his game, but he was inconsistent (23 ppg, 9 rpg in the 1st two rounds of MWC tourney to what happened the next two games). Measuring up to expectations is a fruitless task.

It will be interesting to see how hard he works on his weaknesses during the offseason and what role he takes in the absence of Keena Young.

2. Yes, but I'd also say that Lee Cummard was twice the disappointment.

The announcers all talked about him being able to use either hand in moving to the middle. But often, it seemed like that was the only move in his repertoire. And perhaps worse than that, was his inability to get the ball in good position to score. I think opposing coaches know that if you can get him off the block, he can't score. Trent is not strong enough to get on the block (in the games I watched).

About Lee, he is going to have to step up his game a bit. I think he is a little too comfortable in his role. He's going to need to be more aggressive, esp. on the offensive end.

I think Burgess needs to give these guys lessons in mental toughness and aggression. From what I have seen Burgess has that in spades.

Am I on glue, or didn't the guy just dominate a couple games ago? I'm a big believer in Plaisted. He won freshman POY, then followed it up with 2nd team all-MWC. Please leave the words "bust" and "Plaisted" out of the same sentence. What are these standards?

This is a guy that people were saying would be in the NBA during his freshman year. He was a "raw" talent.

The problem is that he is still pretty dang raw. And when you are a 6'11" white guy who doesn't rebound extraordinary well, doesn't have a face-up game, only has one back-to-the-basket-move, can't shoot freethrows, and can't pass very well.....these sorts of guys don't get drafted.

I think many of us thought during his freshman year, this kid will get drafted eventually. Now after his sophomore year, I am not so sure. Without A LOT of improvement, I just don't see him sniffng the NBA.

Rafa as a senior is twice as good as Plaisted as a sophomore, and I think that is being conservative.

Hafa was twice the player as a senior as he was a junior at BYU. If Plaisted has the work ethic (I don't know one way or the other about his work ethic), he has plenty of time and ability to be pretty damn good by the time he's done at BYU.

Trent's problem is not necessarily that he can't use his right hand. His problem is that he does the same move every time. He always goes to the middle. He needs to learn how to drop step baseline, fade away j, drop step j, square up and go up and under, etc. Out of the ten or so common big man moves he only has one or two. The right hand is not really the issue. Along with that, he has defensive issues and rebounding issues and aggressiveness issues in general--not to mention FT shooting. But the guy is so talented, with what little of his game that he's developed he's still a good college center.

Plaisted is the least athletic dude I've ever seen who can run a 4.6 40 and has a 46 inch vertical.

I've seen the 'arm in the rim' dunk Indy, and that's impressive... but where is that type of athleticism in the game?

That, to me, is where Plaisted is a disappointment.

Granted, I haven't been able to watch every BYU game this year (Gracias Señor Thompson) so maybe he has showed it in other games. Just not what I've seen.

I'm only a self-proclaimed expert, but I did watch all but a handful of games this year. I wouldn't say Plaisted lacks athleticism--at all. He shows it in bursts. I would say Plaisted's lack of smarts, aggressiveness, and confidence (at times) restrains that athleticism. I've seen Plaisted switch off on a 6'3" quick perimeter player, and work hard, move his feet and stop him from penetrating. Then you see a guy like Dohlmann, who's not half as athletic as Plaisted, make him look like a stiff on the perimeter. Dohlman did it with his brains not his athleticism.

Plaisted played great in several times this year, and at times you thought he was getting consistent enough that he was ready to break through to the next level, but then he'd regress.

Plaisted's problem is all in his head. He has all the physicals tools already. And this isn't a slam, but the guy needs extensive work with a Sports Psychologist.

I don't think the guy has come close to reaching his ceiling, but he seems afraid to go for the ceiling at the same time. His demeanor is almost as if he's embarrassed that he's good.

The lack of progress is disturbing in TP. Personally I think that he relies to much on athleticism, like for instance falling for headfakes, or closing out too hard, and in only going toward the middle. His skill level needs to improve dramatically or he has already hit his ceiling.

Also, I agree with Rocky that he lacks mental fortitude at this point. The good news is that all of the problems he has are correctable, and the positives remain, a big, athletic player.

I expect a huge jump for Plaisted
 

He was starting to put it together late in the year, now he'll carry that into the offseason. His biggest problem is lacking a feel for the game. He gets a lot of weak fouls because of that.. I thought he actually got a lot more aggressive late in the year as his confidence grew, and that made him play much faster.

I've seen some horrible players really turn it aound once things started clicking. For example, Joel Anthony at UNLV. You guys have no idea how bad this guy was before his senior year, truly one of the worst UNLV players ever. This season he won MWC DPOY plaing only 18 minutes a game and was a key player in UNLV's success this year.

My expectations are that Plaisted steps it up next year to 1st team All-MWC averaging about 16 PPG and commanding a double team that will open things up for everyone. The biggest hole in his game is foul trouble, though that actually improved a little too this year.

As far as his stats, his blocks improved, turnovers went down, assist went up, he fouled less, his shooting % went up. His points went down by 1 PPG, but that's not surprising considering how KT did. His rebounds also went down .7 and I'm not sure what to make of that. He played 28 minutes per game, and I'd like to see that more toward 33 next season, but that will depend on how his judgement improves.