Baylor vs. BYU 2012

[MikeWaters]

There was a time during the game that Rose had Zylstra playing the 4. The lineups that Rose had out on the floor at times boggled the mind.

The problem is that Rose has one great player. Davies. And one very good player. Haws. And the rest are not good at all.

Carlino has taken several steps backwards. He is playing with zero confidence. I think we may have a case of over-coaching where a player is on the floor thinking so hard, trying not to make mistakes, that he can't flow anymore. No doubt Carlino needed to improve his game from last year's version, but this was not what we wanted.

I still don't understand why Winder is not seeing the floor more. He was a big part of last year, and is no doubt the best guard defender. His offense can't be any worse than Carlino and Cusick. I don't get it. Did Winder's parents call Rose fat? Did Winder fart on the team bus?

Cusick has been a huge disappointment. When you are a slow guard that can't actually play any defense, you had better be able to knock down wide open shots. He cannot do that. So basically he's good for dribbling the ball up the floor after a make, without generally turning the ball over during that 7 seconds. Has to be one of the worst guards getting this much PT in Major Division I.

Josh Sharp is one of those hustle guys that you would love coming off the bench from time to time. For a shot of energy. For those couple of offensive boards he gets. But this guy is unbelievably unskilled. And gets pushed around because he weighs less than a pile of dry leaves. That he starts tells us how bad the BYU front line is.

Nate Austin has disappointed as well. I see no improvement over last year. He's not going to ever content for all-conf. big man. He will not be a go to guy next year when Davies is gone.

Ian Harward is a guy that I would like to see on the floor more. With as bad as the Sharp/Austin combo is, Harward does not strike me as any worse. If BYU is going to be better they needed a deeper front line and Harward provides that. Yes he's a toothpick, but I was encouraged by some of his skills. He deserves more than 5 minutes a game.

Cory Calvert is someone that I am not totally down on. He shows flashes from time to time that make me think he might end up as a valuable player for BYU in future years. But his lack of speed and athleticism temper my enthusiasm. This BYU team has terrible perimeter defense and Calvert is part of the problem, not the solution.

Haws has been a bright spot. But you get the impression that the staff have told Haws that he has the green-light at any time. And he sees the lack of talent around him outside of Davies and he feels like he has to go into Kobe mode. It's not really his personality, and doesn't suit his skillset. He's not a good one-on-one player. He should be your third scorer on a good team. Not your first or second. He's the guy you want taking 15 foot jump shots in a flow offense. He had a horrible last 2/3rds of a game against Baylor. Bricking shot after shot.

Zylstra is getting the 5th most minutes, but I almost feel like he should be on the floor more. Not because I think he is good, but because I think the other guys are worse. He gives you some size, and he's (sadly) one of our best defenders. He can rebound and you can flex him onto different guys on defense. We all know his limitations. But as a senior he ought to know his limits as well.

Davies has been great. Best player by far. But he can't do it himself. Rose has failed to surround him with enough talent to do anything significant this season. Fail.

Perhaps the biggest disappointments have been Ambrosino and Delgado. I mean, I'm not sure what the expectations were for them coming in because I'm not sure any of us had seen them play. We didn't expect them to be worldbeaters, but we probably did trust the judgment of Rose and think that these guys could make a contribution. If the BYU front line weren't so thin and horrible outside of Davies, Ambrosino would not be seeing the floor at all. He's not strong, he can't jump. He's not a good defender. And he's really not proven himself to be a threat on the offensive side of the floor. Where does that leave him? He's basically a euro-finesse player with very mediocre skills. Again, he could be a kind of change of pace Tavernari on a decent team, getting a few minutes here and there. On this team he's just dog poo. Delgado like Calvert is someone I have mixed feelings about. I think his upside is higher than what we have seen, but given that what we have seen is largely bad, that's not very encouraging. He's a guy that feels the pressure in the minutes he gets, but is still aggressive. And may be more athletic than our other guards outside of Winder. Again, that is faint praise.

Rose looks lost out there. This is a season where in several games the thought came to me "Rose is being outcoached." I don't think he is managing this group very well, nor is he getting the most out of the limited talent out there. Experienced players are not playing with confidence. Rose still hasn't settled into rotations that make sense or work. He is floundering, and he doesn't have any time to figure it out before conference play. And that is worrisome.

No doubt not having Collinsworth and Rogers has hurt. Collinsworth was a decent defensive heads-up type player that would have complement Davies better than the other guys. But of course nothing like the impact of Hartsock. And Rogers was one of the only scorers that BYU had. Davies and Rogers. And they lost Rogers. He added some height as well. Rogers was not a great defender but he wasn't worse than the guys we are putting out there now.

You'll notice that when BYU is playing a decent team that the other team is getting good shots, and BYU is having to take tough shots. Like Haws doing a turn around jump shot from 15 feet with a hand on his face. And then on the other end guards are breaking down BYU on the dribble and passing to wide open jump shots. BYU is bad on offense but it's the defense that is the real problem. We miss Abuou in a bad way. And of course Hartsock. Haws right now can't fill those shows as a scorer.

My prediction is that BYU does not make the tourney. Hopefully the crop coming in next year can turn things around, despite the huge loss of Davies.