vs. St. Mary's at the Marriott - cougarguard.com — unofficial BYU Cougars / LDS sports, football, basketball forum and message board

MikeWaters · 02-13-2015, 03:53 AM

ok, let's get one thing out of the way. St. Mary's is not a good team. Despite their record. They have one player and then they have nothing.

That's why the loss to St. Mary's was such a big deal.

So while this was a great performance tonight, we need to remember that it wasn't against a very good opponent. Having said that, BYU has lost to worse this season.

Nice to see the bigs play some defense. They very much shaded Waldow's right hand, when he was on the left block (which was about every time). So Waldow could drop step to his left, but the block was in play if he shot with his right. And help was coming from guards if he moved to his left. They really exposed Waldow's inability to shoot a chippie with his left hand.

It's fun to contrast Andrus and Kaufusi. Andrus is high IQ, Kaufusi is low IQ.

I don't really get Rose. Here we are near the end of the season and he is giving all the minutes to Andrus and Kaufusi. Yet he invested so much in Worthington and Nielsen before that. I understand that Kaufusi had to be brought along slowly because of his bad play. But Andrus knows how to play basketball. Why was he glued to the bench for so long?

People may be cheering Kaufusi tonight. And he did some good things. But man, he still frustrates me. His bad hands make him unable to catch and finish. And those dumb unnecessary fouls. When you do all the work to get in position, don't throw that work away by committing a dumb foul! Make the guy hit a tough shot!

Well, it's NIT for us, better than nothing.

MikeWaters · 02-13-2015, 04:02 AM

Is Nixon hurt? I see that he only played 3 minutes.

BlueK · 02-13-2015, 06:32 PM

Regardless of the opponent, it was a well played game for BYU. The defense was the best I've seen all season. St. Mary's is a borderline NIT team, IMO, but that still makes them better than some teams we've lost to like Pepperdine and San Diego. BYU hasn't been playing very well, so any win would have felt good. But we stepped it up quite a bit and smoked them.

Kaufusi played his best game yet. I don't care that much about his offense over the long term because the next few years we won't need his offense that much aside from open dunks and easy putbacks from rebounds. But I do think his offense will get better as he plays more. Still, we'll have plenty of offense from our guards and inside from guys like Mika, Dastrup, Kyle Davis and Jamal Aytes, who all have low post moves. It was his much improved defense last night that really impacted the game, and that is what we will need most from him in the future. And he only had 2 fouls for the game while having to guard Where's Waldo, which is way better than I expected. He also helped well and blocked shots from other SMC players.

I don't think we will win at Gonzaga, but weird things happen in conference tournaments where every team plays with different levels of motivation and it's a netural court. If we finally figured it out defensively and keep playing like we did last night, then there isn't a WCC team other than the Zags that can beat us.

MikeWaters · 02-14-2015, 01:07 AM

Kaufusi only played 19 minutes.

Worthington had 5 fouls in 7 minutes.

Longterm Kaufusi is a backup center that plays limited minutes. Like 12 minutes a game.

If he's not, it's because the team sucks, or he has gotten a lot better on both ends.

BlueK · 02-17-2015, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Kaufusi only played 19 minutes.

Worthington had 5 fouls in 7 minutes.

Longterm Kaufusi is a backup center that plays limited minutes. Like 12 minutes a game.

If he's not, it's because the team sucks, or he has gotten a lot better on both ends.

He looks different to me in the last couple of games. I think he's coming along. He had a longer way to go than most players given that he didn't play HS ball as a senior and went on his mission fully intending to never play competitive basketball again. Then he suddenly switched gears when he came home. He's had a long way to catch up to D1 basketball even though he has the body for it. He had a few nice offensive moves in the last game and his defense seems better and smarter to me. I think he's learning and may be serviceable next year. The main post scoring next year is going to be coming from Kyle Davis at the 4 though, who had 16 points against us last year when he played for USU and is a polished scorer in the paint.

02-13-2015, 03:53 AM	#1
MikeWaters Demiurge Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 36,365	vs. St. Mary's at the Marriott ok, let's get one thing out of the way. St. Mary's is not a good team. Despite their record. They have one player and then they have nothing. That's why the loss to St. Mary's was such a big deal. So while this was a great performance tonight, we need to remember that it wasn't against a very good opponent. Having said that, BYU has lost to worse this season. Nice to see the bigs play some defense. They very much shaded Waldow's right hand, when he was on the left block (which was about every time). So Waldow could drop step to his left, but the block was in play if he shot with his right. And help was coming from guards if he moved to his left. They really exposed Waldow's inability to shoot a chippie with his left hand. It's fun to contrast Andrus and Kaufusi. Andrus is high IQ, Kaufusi is low IQ. I don't really get Rose. Here we are near the end of the season and he is giving all the minutes to Andrus and Kaufusi. Yet he invested so much in Worthington and Nielsen before that. I understand that Kaufusi had to be brought along slowly because of his bad play. But Andrus knows how to play basketball. Why was he glued to the bench for so long? People may be cheering Kaufusi tonight. And he did some good things. But man, he still frustrates me. His bad hands make him unable to catch and finish. And those dumb unnecessary fouls. When you do all the work to get in position, don't throw that work away by committing a dumb foul! Make the guy hit a tough shot! Well, it's NIT for us, better than nothing.

02-13-2015, 06:32 PM	#3
BlueK Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Dallas, TX Posts: 2,368	Regardless of the opponent, it was a well played game for BYU. The defense was the best I've seen all season. St. Mary's is a borderline NIT team, IMO, but that still makes them better than some teams we've lost to like Pepperdine and San Diego. BYU hasn't been playing very well, so any win would have felt good. But we stepped it up quite a bit and smoked them. Kaufusi played his best game yet. I don't care that much about his offense over the long term because the next few years we won't need his offense that much aside from open dunks and easy putbacks from rebounds. But I do think his offense will get better as he plays more. Still, we'll have plenty of offense from our guards and inside from guys like Mika, Dastrup, Kyle Davis and Jamal Aytes, who all have low post moves. It was his much improved defense last night that really impacted the game, and that is what we will need most from him in the future. And he only had 2 fouls for the game while having to guard Where's Waldo, which is way better than I expected. He also helped well and blocked shots from other SMC players. I don't think we will win at Gonzaga, but weird things happen in conference tournaments where every team plays with different levels of motivation and it's a netural court. If we finally figured it out defensively and keep playing like we did last night, then there isn't a WCC team other than the Zags that can beat us. __________________ I am a libertarian Last edited by BlueK; 02-13-2015 at 07:40 PM.

02-13-2015, 04:02 AM	#2
MikeWaters Demiurge Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 36,365	Is Nixon hurt? I see that he only played 3 minutes.

02-14-2015, 01:07 AM	#4
MikeWaters Demiurge Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 36,365	Kaufusi only played 19 minutes. Worthington had 5 fouls in 7 minutes. Longterm Kaufusi is a backup center that plays limited minutes. Like 12 minutes a game. If he's not, it's because the team sucks, or he has gotten a lot better on both ends.