BYU vs. Utah

[BlueK]

I think BYU should at least start off in man defense this game. A zone plays right into Utah's desire to slow the game way down. A man defense tends to speed the game up, which is BYU's strength. Utah will not beat BYU if the game is played at BYU's pace. Also, Utah is deceptively good from outside. I'd hate to see Utah content to pass the ball around the zone for 30 seconds only to hit a three.

[MikeWaters]

BYU's zone tends to give up wide open 3s. As in uncontested.

I only watched a few minutes of the Utes. From what I saw, they looked athletic and skilled.

If this game were at Huntsman I would be calling a decisive win for Utah.

[BlueK]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

BYU's zone tends to give up wide open 3s. As in uncontested.

I only watched a few minutes of the Utes. From what I saw, they looked athletic and skilled.

If this game were at Huntsman I would be calling a decisive win for Utah.

Home court advantage is worth more in college basketball than in any other sport. I think Utah is good, but even the computers have them rated just slightly above BYU right now on a neutral court. I think BYU will win if they can play the game at their tempo.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by BlueK

Home court advantage is worth more in college basketball than in any other sport. I think Utah is good, but even the computers have them rated just slightly above BYU right now on a neutral court. I think BYU will win if they can play the game at their tempo.

BYU's pattern against better teams has been a slow tempo in the first half, followed by a faster tempo in the second half.

I'm going to be very curious if the BYU bigs will be able to play D against the Utah big that will be a one-and-done.

Also curious how effective BYU's small-ball lineup will be. Collinsworth, Haws, Fischer, Winder + 1 big.

I'm old enough now to expect that BYU will underperform against Utah. Which if it happens here could be a blowout loss.

[BlueK]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I'm going to be very curious if the BYU bigs will be able to play D against the Utah big that will be a one-and-done..

They'll do ok. Our interior defense is actually better this year, and because of having more players, we also have a lot more fouls to give this year. We had zero inside fouls we could afford last year because we didn't want Mika to come out because he's all we had at the position, and we relied on his offense. Also, Purdue has a couple of very good bigs and neither really had that much of an impact.

Also, Mika was a terrible defender. I know it's basically taboo to say anything less than glowingly positive about him, and he deserves praise for how developed his offensive game was for a freshman, but his defense sucked. I expect it will get better after he comes home.

So for Poeltl the strategy has to be to play physical. He's good, but he's skinny, and he can be slowed down with someone big staying on him. Wichita State doesn't play anyone taller than 6-7 and he had an easy time. We can also foul him. Just don't let him make the shot before the foul. Fortunately he turns into Luke Worthington when he goes to the line. I'll gladly trade one point at the line for 2 or 3 on the other end.

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Also curious how effective BYU's small-ball lineup will be. Collinsworth, Haws, Fischer, Winder + 1 big.

Our half court offense seems a lot better to me this year than last. I think Carlino was actually the problem a lot of times last year as he was unpredictable even to our own team, and when he'd try to take the game into his hands the rest of the players didn't always seem to know what he was going to do, so they would stand around. I haven't seen that this year. I think they're a lot more in sync with each other, and that even goes for the SDSU game who was possibly the best defensive team we'll face all year. It's our defense that everything hangs on. The offense will be good enough.

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I'm old enough now to expect that BYU will underperform against Utah. Which if it happens here could be a blowout loss.

Rose is 12-4 against Utah, and 7-0 in Provo. Cleveland's teams had a lot of trouble with Utah, but not Rose's teams. Also, I don't know how much history matters here, although it's interesting to consider that Utah only has one player going tonight who has ever played in the MC. Also, the P12 doesn't have the same large, loud arenas Utah players would be used to playing in if they were still in the MWC (BYU, UNM, UNLV, SDSU) Other than Arizona, P12 venues are pretty tame compared to a packed Marriott Center. I'd expect Utah to win in SL, but the opposite in Provo. BYU also needs this one a lot more than Utah does and both sides know it. I'm curious to see how that affects it. The dynamics last year were different.

[MikeWaters]

quick hits:

1. Lack of a good interior play hurt BYU. Poetl didn't do much for Utah But we had no rim protection, piss-poor rebounding, and no punch at all on the offensive end (including put back and layups). For once, I thought Worthington was actually the best post for BYU. Good fundamental D.

2. I think BYU was lucky to be as close as it was. Utah had that horrendous stretch on offense against the BYU zone where they seemed to just stand around and do nothing. Take out that stretch and it's a blowout win for Utah.

3. As I have said before, BYU has a lot of players on the squad, but not a lot of players. Aside from Anson Winder, not much punch.

4. When BYU goes to its small ball lineup, you only have 2 good defenders on the floor. Winder and Collinsworth. Fischer, Haws, and the big o' the moment. It's tough for BYU. There was one moment in the second half, BYU is playing zone, Utah runs a guy across the baseline. Haws doesn't notice. Haws is guarding no one. Guy catches in the corner, "Oh," Haws thinks. "I ought to be playing defense." Swish. Big play, because BYU is was up by 4, that cut it to 1.

5. Hats off to Winder, played a great game.

6. Fischer is proving himself to continue to be a very one-dimensional player. He actually hurt BYU. Didn't take care of the ball, didn't play good defense, and really didn't contribute on offense. Gawd, I miss Jackson Emery. He was so underrated. Emery is 10x the players that Fischer will ever be. Fisher is proving himself to be that prototypical white guy that comes off the bench to park himself on the 3 point line.

7. I'm amused when we run our accountants onto the floor. Halford and Nielsen. Halford is again showing that his unorthodox shot is not good at all. Such poor ability to square up and that weird windup. He misses badly quite often. Nielsen was very aggressive on offense, letting the ball go whenever he had the opportunity. I'm not sure he made any of those shots. Miles Simon the announcer even remarked that they needed to get the ball to Haws after one of those shots. Nielsen can barely run, he's so unathletic. Again, that classic BYU big with little to no athleticism.

This team won't go far due to lack of ability on both ends at the 4 and 5 positions. They did well to be as close as they were. Imagine replacing Haws with an average BYU guard, and how many points BYU would score against Utah. It would not be pretty. Utah has the horses, BYU does not.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

quick hits:

1. Lack of a good interior play hurt BYU. Poetl didn't do much for Utah But we had no rim protection, piss-poor rebounding, and no punch at all on the offensive end (including put back and layups). For once, I thought Worthington was actually the best post for BYU. Good fundamental D.

2. I think BYU was lucky to be as close as it was. Utah had that horrendous stretch on offense against the BYU zone where they seemed to just stand around and do nothing. Take out that stretch and it's a blowout win for Utah.

3. As I have said before, BYU has a lot of players on the squad, but not a lot of players. Aside from Anson Winder, not much punch.

4. When BYU goes to its small ball lineup, you only have 2 good defenders on the floor. Winder and Collinsworth. Fischer, Haws, and the big o' the moment. It's tough for BYU. There was one moment in the second half, BYU is playing zone, Utah runs a guy across the baseline. Haws doesn't notice. Haws is guarding no one. Guy catches in the corner, "Oh," Haws thinks. "I ought to be playing defense." Swish. Big play, because BYU is was up by 4, that cut it to 1.

5. Hats off to Winder, played a great game.

6. Fischer is proving himself to continue to be a very one-dimensional player. He actually hurt BYU. Didn't take care of the ball, didn't play good defense, and really didn't contribute on offense. Gawd, I miss Jackson Emery. He was so underrated. Emery is 10x the players that Fischer will ever be. Fisher is proving himself to be that prototypical white guy that comes off the bench to park himself on the 3 point line.

7. I'm amused when we run our accountants onto the floor. Halford and Nielsen. Halford is again showing that his unorthodox shot is not good at all. Such poor ability to square up and that weird windup. He misses badly quite often. Nielsen was very aggressive on offense, letting the ball go whenever he had the opportunity. I'm not sure he made any of those shots. Miles Simon the announcer even remarked that they needed to get the ball to Haws after one of those shots. Nielsen can barely run, he's so unathletic. Again, that classic BYU big with little to no athleticism.

This team won't go far due to lack of ability on both ends at the 4 and 5 positions. They did well to be as close as they were. Imagine replacing Haws with an average BYU guard, and how many points BYU would score against Utah. It would not be pretty. Utah has the horses, BYU does not.

Oh Lord, how long will my people suffer? How long we will wander in the wilderness?

[BlueK]

We missed Austin for his rebounding. That is one thing he does do well. I think in a close game it may have been the difference maker. Of course, also add Loveridge and you get the same result. Utah is better than I thought. It's still early but they're probably looking at a 3 or 4 seed in the tournament.

[MikeWaters]

It's called recruiting. It's obvious Utah has out-recruited BYU.

We're adding marginal players. Kaufusi--didn't even intend on playing college basketball, suffers from low hoops IQ. Nixon--footspeed so poor I don't think he can play at this level, can't guard any position on the floor. Fischer--"superstar" transfer who is on a good team, a 6th or 7th offensive player off the bench.

Recruiting of bigs has not been good. The exception is Mika. We'll see if any of the on-the-way guys have some talent to show.

Shame we are wasting Haws senior year on a crippled team.

[BlueK]

Sure, Utah did recruit great the last couple of years. Unfortunately, probably not even one of those guys would have picked BYU no matter how hard we would have tried. We did try with Loveridge and Chapman. Neither had any real interest. Chapman isn't LDS. Loveridge reportedly isn't active LDS. BYU is just a tough sell to college kids who don't want the honor code or don't identify with the culture. It is what it is.

BYU did have a lull in recruiting during the Jimmer years. I think it's been corrected, but the problem is that it's always about 3 or 4 years after any recruiting class before it has an impact because of missions.

Kaufusi is a completely unexpected walkon who grew 4 inches on his mission. He wasn't recruited at all, so having him on the team isn't evidence of bad recruiting. He doesn't have a scholarship. He has some athletic ability and might become a decent contributor, but not as a freshman. Mika as you mentioned was the #3 rated center in the US coming out of HS. Great get there. Payton Dastrup who is on his mission, but would be playing now if he hadn't gone, ultimately chose BYU over Ohio State and Virginia. Both will be on the team at the same time the year after next.