Where was this BYU team?
 

This is a curious team.

their defense was much better. Kaufusi did some good stuff. Haws hit some 3s.
Mika was huge. Bryant had some big moments in the 2nd half (like rebounding).

BYU was able to get through 2nd half fatigue by slowing things down on offense (like Wisconsin of past).

I thought with this team a half court offense would be wiser, but the coaches didn't agree until yesterday.

Freshmen and sophomores. The last time we had a team this inexperienced we won one game all season.

We have had mostly a halfcourt offense all season. The difference against Gonzaga is that we held the ball for at least ten seconds before starting to go into the offense. We still were a high possessions per game team this year but that was because we were shooting quickly out of our halfcourt offense. But you're right that taking some time off on every possession seemed to work better. Not sure how it translates into playing St. Mary's since that is their game.

That team had no talent.

This team won 20 more games though. My point is there is no reliable gauge for how a BYU team with no upperclasmen is supposed to do. All comparisons you can make to other BYU teams have to be made to teams with more experience.

But these teams are ranked below BYU on the rpi today and have at least as much talent. They also aren't as inexperienced as BYU.

Ohio State
Syracuse
Texas A&M
Indiana
Georgetown

Tell me you didn't just cite RPI...

by the end of the season they all end up looking roughly the same anyway, despite the rpi's flaws.

We can run this same exercise with pomeroy:
Iowa
Pittsburgh
Texas
Memphis
UConn

That's better.