Official BYU vs Kansas State thread..........

[smokymountainrain]

Ohio St is really good - they've won 15 of 16, are currently up double digits on GA Tech and have the best player in the country, but I can't help but think they would have been a much better match-up for BYU than KSU.

Damn.

[tooblue]

Where's the thread about ballet -- I can't seem to find it.

[U-Ute]

That happens in the tournament and it can be maddening. In 1997's Elite 8 Ron whatshisname (of Kentucky) had a career game against Utah and was unstoppable. Same thing with Wally Szcerbiak (sp) against the Utes in 1999. The stars just seem aligned sometimes. Still, a 30-win season is a very nice antidote to any depression you guys might feel.

Ya. Sometimes it works against you, and sometimes it works for you (Miller).

[SeattleUte]

It's like when you watch the ice skating worlds and the one of the big names falls on her lutz. The other contenders don't up their game, they realize something's in the air and get nervous that they're going to blow it, too.

Well, it looks like Kansas State was plenty motivated. Now it stands tall over hated Kansas.

Babs, are chastened? It's okay, I know you weren't serious, you were trolling.

[TripletDaddy]

Bummer that BYU lost, but it was a nice step forward for this team.

K-State was very composed after falling behind by double digits and Pullen (sp?) was incredible.

I don't blame refs, karma, or SeattleUte. BYU didn't rebound and was outclassed.

Would have been fun to see BYU playing the S16 in their own backyard, but alas....

Would like to see some improvement next season in the rebounding department.

Overall I am happy for the team and glad we have Coach Rose. This was a fun year for BYU hoops.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Would like to see some improvement next season in the rebounding department.

Well Terry Nashif seems to be coaching the bigs at BYU to the next level.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

DDD, did you ever explain why you copied the 30 or so CBers that are rocking the GoMo pic you have as an avatar?

[Babs]

Babs, are you chastened?

Well, I hardly see what my-

oops. nevermind.

[TripletDaddy]

DDD, did you ever explain why you copied the 30 or so CBers that are rocking the GoMo pic you have as an avatar?

no, I don't recall explaining that.

[pellegrino]

Well Terry Nashif seems to be coaching the bigs at BYU to the next level.

Onward! Ever onward, as we. . . .

[jay santos]

My take on the analysis of Rose's coaching adjustments or lack thereof.

1. Half court trap. This really doesn't deserve more than the LOL Lebowski gave it. We don't have a half court trap, so we're obviously not going to put it in in the most important game of the year when we're still in the game. And the reason we don't use a half court or full court zone trap is that 1) it's very easy to beat, very few teams do it, and if they do they're very athletic and they only pull it out in rare instances like out of a timeout or a made free throw, it's something you see a lot of in junior high basketball, not much at a level higher than that

2. Small ball. This might have worked or it might not have. Going small is not usually the counter in a game where you're getting killed on the boards.

Rose was in a game where the other team was killing us on the boards, making all their free throws, shooting lights out from the three, and had a tremendous advantage with their big guys. It's pretty tough to make an adjustment which satisfies all those weaknesses. Rose won 30 games this year. He's been in games where he's been down and all of a sudden things click and Jimmer gets hot or we go on a run and get back in it and take the lead. It happened last week against UNLV. You can criticize him for not making adjustments, but you're only down 10 and probably the best thing to do is be patient and hope K-State starts missing shots and you start making them.

The adjustments Rose did make in this game:
1. Monstered the post--seemed to work pretty well
2. Went big with Hartsock playing a lot of 4 and JT not getting many minutes. JT was awful in the game and it was clear we needed help on the boards.
3. Went with Haws over Abouo more than in other games down the stretch. I'm not sure why he did this, maybe he felt he needed Haws' offense.
4. He flipped back and forth between the man and the zone to keep them guessing.

There's not a scientific formula for what adjustments will work and what won't. I'm pretty satisfied with Rose's ability as a coach. He's constrained by what he has in terms of personnel, and I think he does a pretty good job with it.

[Surfah]

My take on the analysis of Rose's coaching adjustments or lack thereof.

1. Half court trap. This really doesn't deserve more than the LOL Lebowski gave it. We don't have a half court trap, so we're obviously not going to put it in in the most important game of the year when we're still in the game. And the reason we don't use a half court or full court zone trap is that 1) it's very easy to beat, very few teams do it, and if they do they're very athletic and they only pull it out in rare instances like out of a timeout or a made free throw, it's something you see a lot of in junior high basketball, not much at a level higher than that

2. Small ball. This might have worked or it might not have. Going small is not usually the counter in a game where you're getting killed on the boards.

Rose was in a game where the other team was killing us on the boards, making all their free throws, shooting lights out from the three, and had a tremendous advantage with their big guys. It's pretty tough to make an adjustment which satisfies all those weaknesses. Rose won 30 games this year. He's been in games where he's been down and all of a sudden things click and Jimmer gets hot or we go on a run and get back in it and take the lead. It happened last week against UNLV. You can criticize him for not making adjustments, but you're only down 10 and probably the best thing to do is be patient and hope K-State starts missing shots and you start making them.

The adjustments Rose did make in this game:
1. Monstered the post--seemed to work pretty well
2. Went big with Hartsock playing a lot of 4 and JT not getting many minutes. JT was awful in the game and it was clear we needed help on the boards.
3. Went with Haws over Abouo more than in other games down the stretch. I'm not sure why he did this, maybe he felt he needed Haws' offense.
4. He flipped back and forth between the man and the zone to keep them guessing.

There's not a scientific formula for what adjustments will work and what won't. I'm pretty satisfied with Rose's ability as a coach. He's constrained by what he has in terms of personnel, and I think he does a pretty good job with it.

Exactly.

[beefytee]

Not having much of a clue about basketball I have a few questions.

There doesn't seem to be much criticism of the BYU defense and mostly criticism of the offense.

From what I saw, it seems like the defense was the week point. BYU didn't score much below their average. They topped 70.

Is iy simply that BYU isn't athletic enough to play good defense? Was it a bad match-up?

To me it looked like the team really needs to work on its defense. Fredette looked particularly out of position a lot of the time. Maybe it was because he was tired?

I think he really needs to work on it in the off-season and is one huge reason he shouldn't go to the NBA this year.

[jay santos]

Not having much of a clue about basketball I have a few questions.

There doesn't seem to be much criticism of the BYU defense and mostly criticism of the offense.

From what I saw, it seems like the defense was the week point. BYU didn't score much below their average. They topped 70.

Is iy simply that BYU isn't athletic enough to play good defense? Was it a bad match-up?

To me it looked like the team really needs to work on its defense. Fredette looked particularly out of position a lot of the time. Maybe it was because he was tired?

I think he really needs to work on it in the off-season and is one huge reason he shouldn't go to the NBA this year.

Jimmer's not a good defensive player. He definitely needs to work on it if he wants a place in the NBA.

As a team, we're not a great defensive team, due to our lack of athleticism. IMHO, we play about as good as we can defensively given our athleticism issues.

KSU only shot 41% from the field. That's not bad defense. We got hurt with offensive rebounds and from the 3. They got a lot of open looks from 3 when we played zone. They did a great job of swinging the ball around and making the extra pass. In our man, we got caught a couple times going underneath screens instead of over screens, which I'm sure is mistakes/laziness by the player because that's not what Rose teaches.

Against a team like K-State, you have to pick your poison. We gave them the 3 and they made it.

[U-Ute]

Jimmer's not a good defensive player. He definitely needs to work on it if he wants a place in the NBA.

I've been on record as saying I think Jimmer may have spot in the NBA and I still think so. There are plenty of guys in the NBA who don't have the quicks on the defensive side because they can put the ball in the hoop in a variety of ways. If anything Jimmer was exposed by Pullen a bit on the offensive end of the floor. He had a difficult time getting his shot off and had his pocket picked a couple of times in the critical middle part of the game. I didn't see the end, so I didn't see how he ended up getting his points - eg: if he settled down and figured out how to score or if KState let their intensity slip up a bit.

As a team, we're not a great defensive team, due to our lack of athleticism. IMHO, we play about as good as we can defensively given our athleticism issues.

KSU only shot 41% from the field. That's not bad defense. We got hurt with offensive rebounds and from the 3. They got a lot of open looks from 3 when we played zone. They did a great job of swinging the ball around and making the extra pass. In our man, we got caught a couple times going underneath screens instead of over screens, which I'm sure is mistakes/laziness by the player because that's not what Rose teaches.

Against a team like K-State, you have to pick your poison. We gave them the 3 and they made it.

But I want to add that this is with regards to the top 15 teams in the country - which is where KState is. I think BYU is very active defensively and on the boards, and it is reflected in your record in league play.

U-Ute