A dedicated game thread for our match against Bama at 5:00 because why the hell not

[byufan4ever]

Well, it took a historic shooting night from Alabama to end BYU's run and they lose by 25 in the Sweet Sixteen. They went 25/51 from 3FGs which is just crazy. Some of it was bad defense with wide open shots, but some of them were Jimmer type shots, but from their entire team, and there was just no stopping those shots. I am surprised that with BYU's focus on scoring in the paint that we didn't have a huge FTA advantage and we actually ended up with 1 fewer. I'm also sad that Foos only got 7 minutes and ends his career this way. I know Keita has been huge for us, but as you'll see in the box score analysis below, he played well and had an amazing 1.7 PER/Min. I'm not the coach and I know Alabama was taller than us, but that's never affected Foos before, at least offensively.

Lost in Alabama's shooting barrage, is that Richie Saunders had a game and he gets BYU's Player of the Game. An amazing PER of 32.1 and he also had the highest GSc and TS%. 6 rebounds and 4 steals to go along with his very efficient 25 points. I don't think he's coming back next season. Denim was our next best player and even though he didn't shoot the ball terribly well, his 7 assists to just 1 TO was very nice to see.

Dallin Hall gets the Struggled to Perform. A negative PER and GSc, and the worst TS%. He looked like he had the jitters or was recovering from an illness or something. Stewart wasn't much better so maybe Baker should have gotten some of his minutes?

I've updated the season average PER for the 3 March Madness games. Knell bumped Hall out of the top 5, which will finish as Saunders / Keita / Demin / Traore / Knell.

This has been a very fun season that exceeded my expectations. I'll do a sesaon recap and analysis of the players in the coming weeks.


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PER Summary 2025-03-27.png

[Jeff Lebowski]

Ha. Yeah, Dallin Hall was a mess. Maybe his worst game ever.

[Donuthole]

Lost in Alabama's shooting barrage, is that Richie Saunders had a game and he gets BYU's Player of the Game. An amazing PER of 32.1 and he also had the highest GSc and TS%. 6 rebounds and 4 steals to go along with his very efficient 25 points. I don't think he's coming back next season.

Where do we think he's going? He doesn't project as an NBA first rounder, IMO. He's certainly capable of making an NBA roster and having a career. Are you thinking he tries that route and then plays overseas of he doesn't make an NBA roster? Or does he take a big NIL paycheck to go to a blue blood program? I'm thinking if BYU NIL funds can come up with 3.5M for Dybantsa, they should be able to come up with $800k to keep Richie around. He's easily worth at least that much, if not 7 figures.

[Shaka]

I can't figure out how Hall could be so bad. He airballed a five-footer.... I supposed KY figured Hall would get out of his slump. Sad that he didn't.

[byufan4ever]

Where do we think he's going? He doesn't project as an NBA first rounder, IMO. He's certainly capable of making an NBA roster and having a career. Are you thinking he tries that route and then plays overseas of he doesn't make an NBA roster? Or does he take a big NIL paycheck to go to a blue blood program? I'm thinking if BYU NIL funds can come up with 3.5M for Dybantsa, they should be able to come up with $800k to keep Richie around. He's easily worth at least that much, if not 7 figures.

Saunders' stock is never going to be as high as it is now and he's not getting any younger. He's not going to be the star of next year's team. If he has a chance of getting drafted, it's this season.

[Bo Diddley]

Saunders is doing his dream job. He's always wanted to be a BYU bball player.

I loved the energy, focus and drive he played with in that game all the way up until the end.