Why this BYU team is so bad
 

the way to understand this is to perhaps consider why a prior team was so good.

Let's look at the 2010-2011 team (Jimmer's senior season).

Highly underrated is Noah Hartsock. Hartsock's career records:
#13 FG percentage
#11 FT percentage
#8 offensive rebounds
#2 blocks
#3 blocks per game

Charles Abouo:
#11 offensive rebounds
#19 steals

Jackson Emery:
#3 3-point FG attempts
#3 3-point FGs
#7 3-point FG/game
#14 assists
#1 steals
#1 steals/game

And then to that you add two players who are playing in the NBA: Jimmer and Brandon Davies. Davies during his career was ranked #5 in total blocks and #8 in blocks per game and #8 in total steals.

So you had dual rim protection in two of the best rim protectors in BYU history: Davies and Hartsock. You had the best guard defender in BYU history in Jackson Emery. And then you had one of the best athletic defenders in BYU history in Charles Abouo who could guard multiple positions.

The current starters: Eric Mika, Nate Austin, Kyle Collinsworth, Matt Carlino, and Tyler Haws.

Where's the defense? Where's the rim protection? Mika has 12 blocks, the same as Collinsworth. Nate Austin leads the team with 15 blocks. Carlino has 1.9 steals per game, which is the same rate as Emery over his career. But we know that Carlino's steals often come at the expense of reckless gambling.

The point is this: the talent dropoff between the Jimmer senior team and this BYU team is HUGE. The only person that might sniff the NBA on this team is Mika. There is no GLUE on this BYU team.

The talent on this team is either not there, or lacks the correct cohesion. The LDS pool of athletes, the principal pool for BYU, is not very deep. Absent BYU striking it big with the once every thirty year prospect like Jabari, BYU needs strong big men, good shooting guards and a competent PG.

This year's team is extremely weak on the frontline, with only Mika being worthwhile.

The defensive capabilities of the team are non-existent. Some of it is by design to keep Mika in the game as long as possible. Some of it is many of the players are inconsistent or just poor.

Haws either can't play defense or is just as disinterested as Jimmer.

Carlino is off again on again.

Mika is a typical big man freshman, committing lots of fouls at the wrong time.

Kyle can play some defense, but offensively, he is a liability from the three point line, and unless he scores on his drive, I cringe every time he shoots a free throw.

The better defensive player, Winder, doesn't play much, because he has historically been undependable from the offensive side.

Missions killed the freshman class, so we have no depth and little to look forward to for a while.

The team looks to win some games at home and to lose a bunch on the road.

I haven't watched the last two games, but apparently Rose has moved Carlino to shooting guard and had Kyle Collinsworth take over the point.

Maybe that's a reason for the worse performance.

KC really frustrates me. He has a lot of great physical skills and a more than decent basketball IQ. But the kid can't shoot worth a lick. He has not improved one bit in that regard since he was a freshman. He has terrible form. Guys in the NBA improve their shots all the time. Why can't a player like KC actually learn how to shoot? Doesn't he practice all the time? Why not improve?

It's just going to be hard to run a good offense when one of your guards is zero threat from the outside.