BYU vs. Utah

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by BlueK

the younger brothers of Emery and Haws are thought by some to be more talented than the older ones. Maybe it's debateable with Jackson and Nick, but not really with TJ and Tyler. TJ is more athletic. Their dad was a state champion sprinter. TJ has reportedly inherited more of that than Tyler. Mika and Dastrup playing together with those guys seems like it would be a solid core of some pretty good teams in the near future.

that's the hope

[MikeWaters]

We have to remember that Utah destroyed BYU last year.

Safe to say now that Utah has been, by far, the better team both years. Even if the score this year was close.

I would trade BYU's team for Utah's team in a heartbeat. Esp. with Utah missing one of their best players (Loveridge).

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

We have to remember that Utah destroyed BYU last year.

Safe to say now that Utah has been, by far, the better team both years. Even if the score this year was close.

I would trade BYU's team for Utah's team in a heartbeat. Esp. with Utah missing one of their best players (Loveridge).

They are player for player better. Wright is KC's equal, and Loveridge is better than Haws. They have centers and long guys. We have Winder and nothing else. This year.

[BlueK]

Originally Posted by Archaea

They are player for player better. Wright is KC's equal, and Loveridge is better than Haws. They have centers and long guys. We have Winder and nothing else. This year.

There are so many variables. Yes, Utah pounded us last year and obviously has better athletes, but at the same time it didn't do the Utes much good because they didn't make the NCAA tournament and couldn't even beat Saint Mary's in the first round of the NIT. Ultimately it's about the number of wins and post season. At the end of the year I don't care what you had on paper. Lots of teams have superior talent but struggle to put it all together. But when they do, they will surpass us. The fact is, BYU is going to struggle to recruit the same kind of athletes other schools can get as long as it remains what it is culturally. BYU historically overperforms its athletic talent. Traditionally we've done that by playing smarter. It sucks that we came up a little short against ranked teams SDSU and Utah, but we really shouldn't have been that close. Last year that happened against ISU and UMass but we did beat Texas and Stanford. No one will argue that we more more athletic than those two, especially Texas.

Sure, we can get some non-LDS players, and we need to get some of them, but at what cost of recruiting resources? Do they dare spend all that time and money chasing non-LDS players they have little chance of landing and possibly lose out on perhaps a not as talented, but good LDS player who then chooses to go elsewhere because BYU didn't seem as interested? Who knows. For the non-LDS guys they will always be stuck needing to find the diamonds in the rough who are late bloomers or who for whatever reason slip through the cracks -- Anson Winder, Jamal Aytes, etc. If anything, under Rose BYU has gotten these kinds of players way more than previous coaches did. We can at least be in the running for the very top LDS talent most of the time, but for the non-LDS guys we're Boise State or Wyoming at best. And maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see any coach being able to change that much because it's never happened. One strategy to consider perhaps is to take advantage of the new NCAA transfer rule for 5 year guys like the Jordan Leslie's in football. It's probably a lot easier to sell the program and honor code for one year. But to do that you have to leave a scholarship open.

[MikeWaters]

Ha, we did not play smarter. We were definitely the stupid team on the floor. Two throw-ins after made baskets intercepted?

Multiple forced bad shots. Not getting the ball to our scorers.

Here's John Haddow's analysis, which incidentally is treated like gold on cougarboard. All these years later, he is the wise sage of CB. Go figure.

http://www.cougarboard.com/board/mes...ml?id=13424105

[MikeWaters]

Btw, you don't have to be black to be an athlete. Collinsworth is an elite athlete. Haws is not.

If Collinsworth had an above average jump shot, I think he could sniff the NBA. We'll never know what could have been due to his inability to shoot.

At the NBA level, KC would be well below-average in athleticism. But that's not too shabby when you are among the greatest athletes in the world.

To be successful we need guys who can play good defense against good teams. The last team that could do that was Jimmer's senior team. Because they had two historically great defenders (Emery--all time steals leader and Hartsock--2nd all time blocks leader), and then another really great all-around defender in Abouo (I can never spell his name). And that team had KC as well.

We won't see success until then. And you need defense at all positions.