BYU vs Laval analysis

[cougjunkie]

Just a few thoughts as I watched the game, please keep in mind this was a pre-season game and the minutes for Plaisted, Cummard, and Tav were somewhat limited.

1. Trent Plaisted was 6 inches taller than the guy guarding him, and Trent looked very anemic in the first half, he still has the same one move, where he spins to the middle of the paint and shoots the jump hook with his left hand. He did try to go right early a few times and missed easy layups. In the second half he looked a lot better and took over for stretches.

2. Lee Cummard is by far the best defender on this team and I think he is the best in the conference. He plays passing lanes so well and his length gives people serious problems. His shot was off tonight but he kept shooting, he had plenty of open looks and he got to the rim a few times where he missed layups but I like his aggressiveness. He also had two nice dunks.

3. Jonathan Tavernari plays a very below the basket game, however he is good at what he does, he is a lights out shooter, has developed a nice turnaround jumper, and he rebounds surprisingly well. J-tav is going to be an all-time great when he is done at BYU.

4. Sam Burgess looks like he has improved his shooting a lot, he fits the big 3 perfectly, he drifts to the open spot on the floor and is a good spot up shooter. He also does not try to force anything, rarely attacks the basket, and always looks to the post first. He is a perfect role player on this team, I think we will see him have some big 18-22 point games this year and some quiet 4-6 point games. But he will be a factor.

5. Ben Murdock/Lamont Morgan- Murdock obviously knows the offense a lot better and his first instinct is the push the basketball. He has gotten better but I worry about him against high pressure teams, and quicker guards. I also think he lacks a little on the defensive end. Lamont Morgan is as fast as any guard we have had at BYU, he gets after on D as aggressively as any player we have ever had, and he is learning the offense. The problem with Lamont is he is 5'7 at best, and is not a great shooter. However I think between him and Murdock we will be serviceable at that position.

6. First player off the bench tonight was Collinsworth, he is ready to play at this level, he is pretty solid defensively has very good size, and I think he will play a Jackson Emery role this year. He can guard 3 possibly 4 positions as well. Other notable bench players: Archie Rose is as passionate about Defense as Morgan, he was frustrating the hell out of his man tonight, so much that the guy guarding him took a couple of cheap shots on him. Rose is a nice player as well, and will be a good defensive stopper for use, a perfect backup to Cummard, he also has a nice stroke.

7. Micheal Lloyd he showed some good potential tonight, plays solid defense and has nice size. I think however he would be better of redshirting this year.

8. Chris Miles he rebounds very well (of course he did have a huge height advantage), is a solid post defender, gets good position but I dont ever see him as being a big time scorer for us. I am not just basing that off one game either, at Timpview he only scored 14 a game his senior year, which is alright, but he had 7 inches on every center he played against.

9. Vuk Ivanovic sucks, if you dont look good against Laval who are you going to look good against? He is a disaster in the post and with Trent out of the game we still ran the same offense where we tried to feed the post and Vuk looked horrible, he turned it over on numerous occassions, traveled several times and just looked bad. He also played zero defense, If Miles doesnt shake the mission legs we will be in trouble if Trent gets in fould trouble.

10. Jimmer Fredette played 1 minute in the game and then collided heads with Murdock bloodying up both of them, however in that one minute he recieved the ball in teh corner drove to the hoop on his man, spun baseline shaking free and making an acrobatic layup. It was a very nice move.

11. Martineau may actually play some this year if Dave Rose decides he needs a 3rd point guard, I dont think Martineau is great but if we do need a 3rd pg that will be Martineau over Pinegar. Hopefully we can just redshirt both of them.

12. Overall I really think the potential of this time is very high, but we do need Lee to become that second option, as well as continue to get solid production out of J-tav and Plaisted. This team will shoot very well from the outside which should open things up a lot in the middle for Plaisted. I see no reason why Trent can average 18 and 10 this year.

[smokymountainrain]

I thought it was interesting to see that USU beat the same team by a score of 100-46 with Carroll scoring 32 points in just 20 minutes.

[Indy Coug]

Judging by the number of BYU/Laval comments on CG/CB/TBS, I think more people attended grapevine's punctuation seminar than went to the game.

[jay santos]

Thanks CJ, I missed the game. Thanks for the report.