BYU Basketball 24-25-Bring out the Jelly!

[Joe Public]

Gotta rebound, Cougars.

[Joe Public]

When Demin figures out how to finish those drives to the rim consistently, watch out.

[byufan4ever]

Great first half against Arizona. Can't really complain about much. I was afraid before the game that Love would just get hot from 3P. He jacks up a lot of 3s, but only hits in the low 30%. This game may come down to who can hit their FTs (although I'm glad that there have not been too many fouls called in the first half).

[Flystripper]

Refs letting both sides play for the most part. Have to be strong with the ball

[Joe Public]

Awaka for AZ is doing lots of damage - 12 points and 6 rebounds at the half.

Hall has been steady passing the ball. I’d love to see Catchings reemerge any time now.

An exciting first half. Go get ‘em, Cougars!

[Joe Public]

BYU is running out of juice and needed their A game tonight. A good first 30 minutes.

[byufan4ever]

BYU played Arizona tough for 30 minutes, but ultimately loses by 11. Arizona is a good team with a good coach. They made some defensive adjustments on Demin. But we cannot go 6+ minutes without a FG. Foos and Baker shot the ball really well, but had a low amount of attempts. We gotta get the hot players in the game and a play to get them the ball. I seriously think Hall is the only one who even attempts to pass the ball to Foos in the post.

Dallin Hall gets the Player of the Game award, for the first time this season. He had th ebest PER and GSc. 6 assists to just 1 TO and several nice drives to the basket. Where has this Hall been all season?! Traore had the best TS% and DRtg and honestly I think he deserves a lot of Keita's minutes. Keita had the better PER and gets the blocks, but Traore had a better PER/Min and blocks aside, Keita's defense can be down right horrible at times. How does a guy his size and that strong, let people get such good positioning on him on a constant basis? Baker had the best ORtg, but he just didn't shoot enough.

Egor Demin gets the Struggled to Perform award, for the third time. He had the worst PER, GSc, TS%, and Ortg. It was nice seeing him "try" to be more aggressive, but not only did he have too many missed layups, he shot too many 3Ps, missed his FTs, and worst of all, had just 3 assists to 4 TOs. Can't have that from our star PG. Mag had the worst DRtg.

22 Arizona.png

[Omaha 680]

Arizona is better. We didn't take care of the ball. But foul disparity combined with free throw shooting doomed any chance of an upset down the stretch. We can't control the foul disparity but should be doing more to try to create fouls in such a game. We should control FT shooting. 8-14 isn't going to cut it when your opponent goes 15-17.

I didn't expect to win but frustrating to have the feeling the entire second half that they would pull away and then watch them do just that.

[Pelado]

With just under 7 minutes to play, the score was 69-66. Then BYU went without a field goal for about 5 minutes of game time and Arizona expanded their lead to a dozen points.

I liked Demin attacking the rim in the first half. Arizona didn't seem as physical with him as some of the other opponents have been (Houston, UCF, etc.), which may have made him feel more in his comfort zone. Not sure what Arizona was doing differently to prevent him from continuing that in the second half.

Hall really picked up the slack in the second half with his drives for layups, shots from distance, and passing.

Really struggled on defense. Arizona seemed to get just about any shot they wanted. And when the shots were contested, they made them anyway. Arizona was impressive.

[myboynoah]

Is there some kind of cosmic balance sheet out there that allows a player to be a dead-on three-point shooter in one game and then totally suck the next couple of games? Because if there is, why isn't KY managing that better?

[SteelBlue]

Arizona's length seemed to grind BYU down at the end. Besides the 7' 2" dude who could nail 3s and hit FTs better than our guards, they had Awaka (somehow listed at 6' 8" but seemed a half foot taller than Fous or Keita) who also didn't miss FTs and was a beast in the paint. Rebounding and defending against those two was physically costly and felt like the likely explanation for BYU losing their legs with 7 minutes to go.

[BigFatMeanie]

Here is a decent read from ESPN on the way BYUs program is changing with Kevin Young and Dybantsa and NIL. It seems well balanced and while it contemplates things like the honor code it doesn’t take any cheap shots at the church or members:

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...g-boosters-nil

The flagship program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, BYU has aspirations to create a new association with its brand: As a blue blood. College basketball's legacy programs remain the most influential in the country, but NIL rules have restricted their monopoly on five-star talent, opening the door for teams like the Cougars.

"I think BYU basketball can be one of those basketball ... powerhouses," said Cougars guard Dallin Hall. "And so I think that's something we're trying to build. I think that's something that BYU can become, that when you see [BYU], you're like, 'Oh, that's one of the basketball superpowers in the country.'"

Can a recent mid-major team really soar into the conversation with the sport's prestigious programs?

A fervent, lucrative group of supporters are willing to pay to find out. And their efforts started with a signing arguably more critical to their long-term trajectory than a top prospect: a new head coach.

[Joe Public]

[LiveCoug]

I went ahead and did not enjoy the second half of this game

[beefytee]

The sad truth is this is an NIT caliber team.

I would love for them to turn it around before the end of the season. I don’t see that happening at this point though.