Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeWaters
I hadn't seen BYU play in a while prior to the Gonzaga game.
So I am not a good judge of recent trends.
I do think BYU get a little lucky in that game. Without looking at stats, even account for the defense, I think we had more shots fall than we would expect, and Gonzaga the reverse. There was a little bit of chance/luck at play.
I also think that there is no way that Gonzaga is the 3rd best team in the country.
As much as the win builds us up, it also cuts down Gonzaga significantly. If Gonzaga can't deal with the defense of Josh Sharp, and can't deal with the BYU's small ball, then maybe that is a recipe to beat them. An early Gonzaga exit from the tourney wouldn't surprise me.
But as we say, Gonzaga has issues, so does every other team.
Rose is finally finding some rhythm with his rotation. The guys aren't deferring to Haws to huck up shots. Some of the poor defenders are riding the pine (Nixon, Toolson), replaced by better defenders. Guess what? Defense creates offense. Hard to run off made baskets. Kaufusi has improved on defense. I've never liked Halford's shot, too many moving parts for him to be consistent, but it's working now. I like how the guys are playing aggressive man to man. Remember, I was complaining about last year's Rose zone. Hated that. Gave up so many looks and buckets.
We just need to win a couple games here in the conference tourney. If we have another bad loss we are out for sure. And I think SMC would be a bad loss.
Next year will be fun too.
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Rose has done a good job juggling lineups and dealing with injuries. They didn't know until February that Aytes and Austin wouldn't return. They lost KC, CK, Winder who hasn't recovered yet and even Haws yet the rotations have improved. CK has improved from horrible to serviceable. Which emphasizes how limited Worthington is. Pope deserves credit for improving very marginal talent.
What will BYU do for outside shooting next year?