[MikeWaters]

The first time in a long time that I had knots in my stomach for an entire game.

Just going to briefly comment here because I need to get to bed.

1. Great to see the Cougars come out and be aggressive. But they weren't dumb aggressive. They were smart aggressive. They were taking their shots when they were there, not hesitating.

2. The defensive effort was vastly improved compared to prior games I watched. It's been a while since I watched them. When playing man to man, a lot more pressure on the ball now. Kaufusi looks vastly improved on defense. Protecting the rim. Not jumping and hacking. Most importantly, not making dumb fouls. He still has that desire and tendency to make the dumb foul, but now he is mostly holding back. Like when he missed the free throw and runs to the baseline on the rebounder. Earlier this year he would have chosen to make a dumb frustration foul.

3. Worthington. Hopefully we will never see him in a BYU uniform again after this season. He's hopeless and dumb as a pile of rocks. Might be a great kid, but I can't stand his game and it's lack of improvement on the defensive end.

4. Goes without saying that Halford and Collinsworth were nails.

5. I was disappointed with Winder's defense. Maybe still has lingering injury.

6. Haws choke job tonight and his history of choke jobs were one of two things that left a bad taste in my mouth tonight. For an 88% FT shooter to miss the two most important free throws of his career. That's a choke job. His history of not showing up when it mattered is why he won't be revered down the line.

7. The other thing that really pissed me off was Rose's coaching at the end. The slowdown, the guys not doing ANYTHING until there was no time on the clock. Shot-clock violation out of a time out. Putting Anson Winder on the block for free throw rebounding (it didn't burn us, but could have). Rose is at his worst when the coaching really matters. Guys won despite Rose, when it came to the last 3 minutes.

8. Ok, now that I got that out of the way. FINALLY a game where we had no chance and we came in and won. FINALLY. Feels great. And I hope this leads to a tourney bid. I'm happy for the entire team and the coaching staff. Esp. happy with the seniors.

9. Wish Rose hadn't gone away from Sharp so much in 2nd half. But maybe that was to keep Wiltjer off the floor?

10. More Rose bashing. Glad to see Sharp, Bartley, Andrus on the floor. Glad to see Nixon on the bench. I just don't get Rose's personnel decisions over the course of this season. I don't know why he stuck with the no-defense flat-footed shooters so long (Nixon and Toolson). I don't know why he invested so much in someone with no basketball brain--Worthington. On the other hand, I need to credit him for Kaufusi's improvement as well as Halford's confidence.

11. One more thing. I thought the Collinsworth foul with 7 seconds left on the reach was a HORRIBLE decision on his part. You don't want to stop the clock when a guy is 28 feet away with this back to the basket. Now maybe it wasn't a foul and we'd be patting him on the back for getting a steal. But you just can't risk a reach in that moment. Ended up working out, but gosh, it was a series of poor decisions and execution at the end of the game.