BYU Basketball 24-25-Bring out the Jelly!

[Shaka]

I do. My bro, nephew, and I start driving for Denver this afternoon.

[YOhio]

Our QB has a deal with Manischewitz. Our basketball star has a deal with Ore-Ida. Such a hilarious and awesome time to be a BYU fan.

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[Jeff Lebowski]

I love it.

[PaloAltoCougar]

That'll boost BYU's fan base today. WE WANT TOTS!

[Pelado]

Last night, I watched most of the A10 championship game featuring VCU against George Mason.

VCU has height down low that can block shots but their dudes down there are rail thin. I could see the height bothering Traore but I wouldn't expect it to have much effect on Keita.

They employed a full court press on 25+% of the possessions. I'm not as worried about that as I might have been in past years but the team will need to be alert and ready to attack the press.

They have some guys who can make some 3-pointers but their shot selection was suspect at times.

I don't remember seeing them employ the kind of physical, trapping half-court defense that has given Demin trouble in prior games, but that doesn't necessarily mean they won't try it today.

Their guards had good lateral quickness so it might be difficult for Egor to get around them and get to the basket on his own, so I'm expecting to see a lot of pick and roll.

George Mason was able to get plenty of open 3-point shots against VCU's defense (though they didn't always knock down the shots).

George Mason also had quite a few turnovers, but it seemed like most of those were related to a different style of play than what BYU employs. They liked 1-on-1 matchups but would often drive down to/near the paint, pick up their dribble, and then try to pass it to get out of trouble. Many of those passes were poor and made their way into VCU's hands.

If BYU can handle/attack the press and hit their 3-point shots at least close to their season average, I'm feeling good about advancing to the round of 32.

[Pelado]

One more thing - VCU were very good at the free throw line.

[All-American]

Here we go!

[Pelado]

Here we go!

Sweet!

[Joe Public]

[BlueK]

You could tell VCU was a very good team. They probably would have beaten last year's BYU. BYU is just a lot better this year.

[Pelado]

Kevin Young is batting 1.000 in NCAA tournament games.

[byufan4ever]

BYU wins their first NCAA tournament game in 15 years as they beat the VCU Rams by 9. VCU's full court pressure defense started off with a TO by Demin, but BYU adapted and had just 12 team TOs, which is pretty good I would say. VCU hit 2x as many 3FGs, but BYU dominated the FTs and shot the ball extremely well inside the 3P line. A good stretch of play at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half saw BYU get a lead up to as much as 20 points. This was a good win. Both of our big men were very dominant.

Fousseyni Traore gets the Player of the Game. He had the best PER and GSc. A PER/Min of 1.0 is just amazing. I love how he has really improved his FT shooting and how consistently good he has been shooting from the line this season. Can you believe that both of our bigs almost had a double-double? Demin had the best TS% thanks to hitting 3 3FGs. If I had to guess Saunders was our best offensive player and Keita was obviously our best defensive player.

Trevin Knell gets the Struggled to Perform award. For his 17 minutes he didn't exactly play horrible. He hit 2 3FGs, grabbed a few boards and had a steal. But compared to everyone else, he was just lacking in box score production. He had the worst PER and GSc. Mag had the worst TS% as he went 2/5 from the floor and 2/4 from the line.

Up next is 3 seed Wisconsin. Let's make it to the Sweet 16!

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[All-American]

Kevin Young is batting 1.000 in NCAA tournament games.

If he keeps that up BYU could win it all.

[Pelado]

If he keeps that up BYU could win it all.

That's what I was thinking!

[Bo Diddley]

We should all be eating tater tots until BYU loses.

That was a fun game yesterday. Good to get the monkey off our back with a win.

We watched the Wisconsin/Montana game, and Montana was clearly outclassed. But Wisconsin didn't look like they had a great D. They do have a very good offense. Hopefully BYU can execute and keep up. I would expect and hope for a close game that comes down to offensive execution.