BYU Basketball 24-25-Bring out the Jelly!

[Flystripper]

Worthless

[Joe Public]

Boscovic is really mobile for his size.

[LiveCoug]

They are struggling with this new peel and switch D

[Flystripper]

Knell

[LiveCoug]

Demin is so good

[LiveCoug]

If Knell can't hit open 3's he is absolutely worthless

[Flystripper]

If Knell can't hit open 3's he is absolutely worthless

Yep.

[LiveCoug]

A lot to clean up. Oh well.

[Flystripper]

Never was in doubt but that was poor perimeter D and horrible free throw shooting. Good to win when you play poorly as a team. Demin Saunders and Traore with good games.

[byufan4ever]

Box score analysis for the UC Riverside game! They were a much tougher opponent than C Arkansas, but they are around the level of a mid WCC team, so we need to do a lot better to survive in the Big 12. But a win is a win. We started both halves strong, but faded and allowed them to constantly get back into the game. FTs absolutely have to be worked on. 3P shot wasn't falling, but I loved seeing Keita and Foos with good games. I know our offense is supposed to be up tempo high flying 3s and dunks, but I personally love some good old fashioned post play. I do think this game shows how Hall will still help us. Demin had 7 assists, but we only had 15 total and I'd like to see us push that to 20+. For an offense that's supposed to rely on fast ball movement (as opposed to dribbling to find shots), I think this is a fair expectation. One thing I'm really impressed with so far is Keita's screens. I've been screaming for years (long before becoming a member here) that we are one of the poorest screening teams in the nation. Different players, different coaches, and we still suck at screens. Keita is a bona fide awesome screen setter. Sure it helps to be big and solid like he is, but he has the technique down and I love stuff like that. Catchings needs to tone down his 3P shooting. Focus on being a good strong PF, and shoot the open 3s. He's forcing the outside shot when he should be focusing on using his athleticism and learning some post moves.

Ok, on to the fun stuff. It's not really a surprise that Egor Demin wins the Player of the Game again, although Keita wasn't far behind him. Demin had the best PER and GSc. He probably would have had more assists if our players could knock down jumpers. His 8-11 FG shooting is great. I love the way he is able to get to the rim and he can shoot the 3. But, his FTs were dreadful. He didn't come up with any steals or blocks, but he's very active on defense. I love his overall energy. Keita again had the best DRtg, and it wasn't even close. His rebounds per minute is insane. Again, I think he disrupted a lot more shots than his 1 block would indicate. We're going to need him to stay out of foul trouble in conference play. Baker showed a huge improvement. He had the best TS% and ORtg. I knew it wouldn't take him long to come along offensively.

Trevin Knell gets the Struggled to Perform award. As others have already stated, if he's not knocking down 3s, sadly, what's his worth to this team? I'm sorry, but he brings nothing else to the table. He had the worst PER, GSc, TS%, and ORtg. On a fully healthy team I don't see how he starts. His minutes should be directly tied to how well he's shooting the 3. Traore had the worst DRtg. He did have 2 blocks, but I think he allowed his guy to score too much. He also had the worst +/- which isn't a great stat by itself, but it fits the narrative here.

2 UC Riverside.png

BYU is now 2-0 and #34 in Kenpom. We were #19 after game #1, so we took a bit of a fall despite winning. UC Riverside is #139 which currently would qualify them as a Q3 win. Up next is Queens who is 2-0 and #274, making it currently a Q4 game.

Here is the PER summary of our players after two games:

PER Summary 2024-11-08.png

[BigFatMeanie]

Byufan4ever, you probably explained it in the past but what are the GSc and TS% metrics?

[byufan4ever]

GSc is Game Score, it's another metric to measure overall performance. I believe it was developed by Hollinger, who is a stats guy. It's good, but far from perfect IMO, but I like to see how my PER ranks against it.

TS% is True Shooting Percentage. It takes into account FG%, 3 point %, and FT%. A player that shoots 4/10 from the field, but 2/3 from 3 and 4/4 from the line will see an improved TS% over just the 40% you would see from his FG%.

[Goatnapper'96]

Can BYU really overcome its long established fundamentals and be great in basketball? I thought a lot about this this past weekend. Mark Few did it at Gonzaga I suppose, but as much of Utenation is lamenting about now there is great strength in long term fundamentals. Utah thought itself was on the precipice in football and now here they are- the fundamentals, and BYU, caught up. Hell- even Gordon Monson has done an about face and is now mocking/tearing them down because of Harlan's faux pas. What are the odds that even if KY really can coach these kids into a cohesive team, still something TBD, the BYU program will eventually be caught by its underlying fundamentals?

[Jeff Lebowski]

Can BYU really overcome its long established fundamentals and be great in basketball? I thought a lot about this this past weekend. Mark Few did it at Gonzaga I suppose, but as much of Utenation is lamenting about now there is great strength in long term fundamentals. Utah thought itself was on the precipice in football and now here they are- the fundamentals, and BYU, caught up. Hell- even Gordon Monson has done an about face and is now mocking/tearing them down because of Harlan's faux pas. What are the odds that even if KY really can coach these kids into a cohesive team, still something TBD, the BYU program will eventually be caught by its underlying fundamentals?

Geez man. Pull the string.

[myboynoah]

Geez man. Pull the string.

lol