About Plaisted...
 

I was thinking during the game, "He is playing like a MWC honorable mention center."

There is a reason that our guys often pass on getting him the ball on the block (or more likely, 6 feet from the block).

He should DOMINATE against a small line like Air Force's. Instead, except for a key part of th 2nd half, he was very average.

Trent, we need you to STEP UP. Stop coasting on your athleticism and play the game of basketball!!

As a followup, what are the chances that Neville will own Plaisted again?

Neville will get the ball right on the block.

Plaisted will get the ball 6 feet out.

....

It was Plaisted who did have a nice move against Air Force. Turn, spin the othoer way, fake, over/under. That was nice. But the fact that I have to comment that it was nice tells you something about his game. And it's lack of variation, subtlety, IQ, and finishing.

I don't know how many times I screamed "turn baseline!" last night. I don't know what his problem is. He can catch the ball two feet from the basket with the defender overplaying him to the middle. All he has to do is turn baseline and DUNK but instead he turns to the middle and ends up 8 ft from the basket trying to around the defender who knows what he's going to do. So frustrating. I think the guy just doesn't have it upstairs.

He'll still be a good/great MWC center, but he's very frustrating. And yes, Neville will own him on Saturday. Keena will blow up and our guards will shoot a lot of three's and we will win going away, but Trent will again get outplayed by Neville.

How much of Plaisted's lack of getting on the block is on him and how much of it is on Rose?

I'd me more prone to put it on Plaisted himself, because Rose is a good coach, but is there any reason that Rose doesn't demand that Plaisted get to the block and stay there?

Plaisted can use his athletic ability when he gets down to the low post. He could really wreak havoc for the opposition if he'd do that.

I think it is on Plaisted. He often can't get position due to his defender being stronger than him.

That's the key to stopping Plaisted. Take him out of the less-than five-feet from the basket game.

Plaisted gets to the block or deeper quite often. I don't think that's necessarily his problem. He does have trouble doing it against bigger, stronger guys (which are rare in college BB) like Neville.

He had problems against TCU as well. Just as he did last night.

It should say something about Plaisted that Rose gave him significant bench-time last night, even though he was not in foul trouble, and was facing a defender a half-foot shorter than him.

What game were you watching? Plaisted led BYU with 36 minutes played last night.

http://www.byucougars.com/Filing.jsp?ID=8904

I agree. Also that we made our run with Trent on the bench. However, he did come back to make a couple key plays down the stretch. I was calling for them to give it to him again. They did but he passed it out and I think that was when we didn't get a shot off.

My first thought is I wonder if that's not right. It seemed like he was on the bench for a long time when we were making our run in the second half.