BYU vs. Pepperdine
 

Took the GF and her 2 kids to the game tonight.

Was one of the weirdest games I've ever sat through.

The turnover amount was staggering and yet they still won by 19 points due to an excellent night of shooting.

JT is moping. His body language is giving him away in that you can tell he is not happy at all with his new role on the team. Just my opinion anyway.

I might be in the minority here but I think we're a better team when JT has the green light.

Ben Murdock handling the ball had his first real bad game of the year tonight.

I do like Chris Collinsworths upside and the kid is getting better. He's a fantastic ball handler for his size.

Mike Loyd's alley-oop to Cummard for the dunk was a thing of beauty.

I agree that at this point we are not as good a team as when JT had the green light, but I believe that if JT can learn to be aggressive and still play within the system, we have the potential of being a much better team than we were when he was chucking up everything that came his way.

I know people are really rooting for Jimmer to shine, but I just don't see it. When he's on the court, he adds nothing. He's not a great shooter. He's not athletic. He doesn't defend or pass particularly well. I seriously wonder why he's getting so much PT.

Does anyone else get nervous every time Lloyd is called on to handle the ball? His ball-handling skills seem shaky at best. Am I wrong about him?

Jimmer is kind of neutral on the court. In other words, he doesn't add much on either end, but he won't make a terrible mistake either.

I personally don't think he has that much upside. Is he going to become a better shooter? A better ball-handler? A better defender?

At some point we may get to see what he can do with the full green-light, which means putting the ball on the floor and going towards the hole, taking some difficult shots.

His lack of quickness in the recruiting videos looked problematic. It still looks problematic. Jimmer might do better in a motion offense where he comes off a lot of picks. Who knows.

Jimmer is interesting. I expected to see more upside from him and have been a bit unimpressed but then I just noticed that he is 5th on the team in PPG. Trent, Lee, JT, and Burgess are ahead of him but he his ahead of Murdock in PPG and far ahead of Murdock in PPM. I think I will reserve judgment on him. He seems slow but also seems to get by people. He is shooting a nice percentage but not a great one. He is a little small but he does have a very high basketball IQ.

JT is worrying me. He is so busy pouting on the floor that he isn't earning his starting spot back. He isn't working and trying to do the things that will help the team win without him scoring. I really hope he can learn his role on this team and become the player he and coach both want him to become.

Collinsworth is looking good. He is becoming comfortable on offense, shows nice range, excellent handles, gets to the rim, and at the same time, still guards and rebounds. I really like what he is showing. Personally, I think the team is better with him in the lineup than with JT at this time. Collinsworth fills in some of the gaps his ability to guard lets Cummard play more offense. His ability to rebound limits our weakness on the defensive boards when JT is in. We also don't lack for scoring with him in because Burgess and Cummard make up for Collinsworth's lack of offense. I'm confident with him as a starter.

Plaisted has learned how to be aggressive. His rebounding game has improved tremendously. His help defense is also much better. If we can get him to guard on the ball better we could go far. I think he could become an NBA player if he learns to guard on the ball and shoot an 18 footer. Right now he has neither the strength to be a true center nor the range to be an NBA power forward. That said, he is a far better college center at this time than Araujo was his senior year. That bodes well for Trent.

Cummard can score. I always thought he could score, I just didn't realize how efficient he would be at it. He just averaged 24 ppg. this week and he did it on a relatively small number of shots and few trips to the line. Impressive.

Burgess does the little things. He can defend, hit the open shot, make the extra pass, rebound from the guard spot. He gives us great senior leadership.

Murdock finally had a bad game. Against Pepperdine he finally showed a flaw. I'm not sure if other teams can capitalize on it...I doubt it.

All in all, I think this team is better this week than they were last week. If they can get JT into a team mindset they could be a better team still. Hopefully they will work toward peaking in March. As it is, they could win 14 games in conference without JT playing well. That is scary for the conference. If JT gets going or if Fredette really blossoms as a scorer, we could see BYU go undefeated in conference. Nothing like having 28 or 29 wins to impress the selection committee.