BYU vs. Ole Miss
 

1. in first half, BYU shot much better than average, and Ole Miss missed a lot of easy shots. That couldn't hold forever.

2. 2nd half, small ball goes down. Hard. Like engine on fire, crashing into the ocean and blowing up hard.

3. The most brutal play for me was when Ole Miss hit a 3 with about 1:30 left and an unpressured Collinsworth throws the ball away to Haws.

4. The other really bad play was Collinsworth unnecessary fourth foul. Unbelievably dumb move by him. Just didn't have the maturity to realize the risk/reward was not there.

Anyway, let's flush this team, and hope next year is better and we don't have to see this crappy defense small ball anymore.

Bye, bye Haws. I will miss your sweet J. Bye-bye Winder. I will miss the version of you that finished at the basket early in the season while you were healthy. Bye-bye Sharp. You had a few blocks in your time. Bye-bye Halford. You had your moments.

KC had one of his worst games last night. I don't think anyone can dispute that. Was he the best player on the floor? He should have been. But last night he may have been the 6th best player on the floor. He was 1 for 7 shooting with 5 turnovers, including an inexplicable misconnection with Haws with 1:30 left, where neither player was being challenged.

He wasn't quick enough to get to the rim (thus drawing an offensive foul). Couldn't finish in traffic. And he made a horrible decision to get his 4th foul, really hurting his team.

Bright spots are the 10 assists and the alley-oop dunk. To some degree he may have been affected by the tweaked knee.

But I think that's how he projects to the NBA. Not able to shoot from the outside. Won't be able to get to the rim and finish in the NBA. And will be prone to turnovers against lightning quick defense. Just like we saw last night (though I suspect no one on Ole Miss will play in the NBA).

The argument to go to the NBA is that he is already old. His age is a huge negative, heck, Chad Ford lists that as a weakness on his eval of KC. Being another year older makes his value less. On the other hand, it seems doubtful to me that he would make a squad, as he currently doesn't have a position. He's not going to be a PG. He wouldn't be an above average defender in the NBA. And he can't space the floor due to the lack of range. What position would he play?

I think it is unlikely he will ever play in the NBA. I think he could on the national radar next year if he comes back to BYU. And I do think he will come back. I think this all points to him coming back to BYU and having a great senior year, on a team that will have a better frontline.

I really think something was physically wrong with Colllinsworth. Several times he looked like he could have been in pain and he looked a little gimpy a few times to me. He didn't have the same explosiveness he usually does to get to the basket but he still managed to get a lot of rebounds and assists.

We had some great shooting and scoring this year but too many holes in certain areas that led to poor defense which is mainly what did us in along with mediocre at best rebounding. The small ball team is done. Next year Kyle Davis will make a huge difference. He was arguably the best player out there for much of the scrimmage at the begining of the season and he torched us last year scoring inside for Utah State, and that was with Mika playing for us. Also, Aytes will add depth and hopefully Kaufusi works extra hard and can be good next year. Austin being back also won't hurt. Not a scorer but he can rebound.

Rose's biggest mistake this season - rotations

His biggest mistake was his investment this season in terms of playing time with:
Worthington, Nixon, Toolson, and Nielsen

While at the same time keeping Bartley and Andrus glued to the bench.

By the end of the season the top 4 were giving the team virtually no minutes (because they are bad defenders), and Bartley and Andrus were key players.

Imagine if Bartley and Andrus has been allowed to grow and develop during the first 1/2 to 3/4th of the season.

I think there's a decent chance that Worthingon and Nixon will never play for BYU again.

Pretty amazing that this team did as well as it did considering there isn't really a true 3 or 4 on the entire team.

The closest you have are Sharp and Collinsworth (who is nominally the PG). Haws is a slow 2 who is forced to play 3 in small ball.

The worst part about the defense in the 2nd half was giving up EASY PEASY buckets in crunch time. It's just unbelievable to give up uncontested layups in the half-court. I'm not sure what their 2nd half FG% was, but it had to be high. That and all the offensive rebounds they got.

Ole Miss finally figured it out. We can drive on these guys and we can clean up around the bucket on these guys. Let's not settle for jumpers. On defense, let's show on the 3 and make them drive.

The thing I worry about Kaufusi is that he doesn't have the hands to be a good offensive player. That missed bounce pass was atrocious.

I think Kaufusi's hands got a little better towards the end of the season but he regressed in the last two games.

His free throw shooting shows that he has the hand-eye coordination to do more than he is currently doing. Sort of like me in high school with my crappy offensive game, but one of the highest FT percentages.

Who knows, he could be a completely different player come next season. Smarter. More skills. Maybe he could be on the level of a 2nd team WCC.