Cougar vs Tree (Bball vs Stanford, not the former LB who charges $10 for a blog)

[San Juan Sun]

I try not to get too excited for early season basketball. I try not to read too much into a team you see in early November, which sometimes doesn't resemble the one you'll see in conference play.

So with that out of the way, I'm excited to see the Cougs vs Stanford tonight. Should be a nice test, at an unfriendly arena, against a quality team. From what little I can gather from box scores and ESPN.com, it looks like Stanford is led by a scoring PG named Randle. He didn't shoot well last year (40% FG) and his assist to turnover ratio is about 1.2. They have a long, do-it-all forward who hurt Bucknell, Stanford's first opponent.

Against Bucknell, Stanford only played 8 guys, and the 3 reserves who got in the game played less than 10 minutes each. 4 of 5 starters played 30+ minutes.

Perhaps a big PAC-12 fan can give us the scoop on the Trees (SU?).

Game is at 7pm MST on ESPN2 in glorious high definition.

[Donuthole]

Twin brothers from Centennial High (alma mater of Trajan Pili and Cole Miyahira) in Las Vegas are freshmen on Stanford's squad. I watched them play a handful of high school games, and I'm interested to see if they get any burn tonight.

Stanford loves twins.

[jay santos]

How good is Stanford supposed to be?

[PaloAltoCougar]

Will fils and I be the only CS'ers in attendance at Maples Pavilion tonight? It will be an interesting game that will give a good indicator of where BYU is to this point. Stanford is a middle-of-the-PAC team, with some talented players. They have a few seniors whose incoming 2010 class was thought to be very strong--if they don't make the Tourney this year Dawkins is probably done as a coach, and the players have said they really want to win for his sake. The Vegas line shows Stanford -6; here's a chance to impress on ESPN.

We're sitting up and behind on one end. If I had the time, I'd make a big Romney head and spin it during Stanford FT's, but I don't so I won't. Any other suggestions would be welcome and but still ignored.

[LiveCoug]

game is at 9 pm mt, not 7 pm mt.

[byu71]

Will fils and I be the only CS'ers in attendance at Maples Pavilion tonight? It will be an interesting game that will give a good indicator of where BYU is to this point. Stanford is a middle-of-the-PAC team, with some talented players. They have a few seniors whose incoming 2010 class was thought to be very strong--if they don't make the Tourney this year Dawkins is probably done as a coach, and the players have said they really want to win for his sake. The Vegas line shows Stanford -6; here's a chance to impress on ESPN.

We're sitting up and behind on one end. If I had the time, I'd make a big Romney head and spin it during Stanford FT's, but I don't so I won't. Any other suggestions would be welcome and but still ignored.

WHAT???? You are PaloAltoCougar. That is the home of Stanford. None of up someone's behind is good enough. I want to see you a few rows behind the broadcasters. What kind of fan are you anyway?

[cougjunkie]

Stanford is a tough test for BYU. Stanfords strengths are BYUs weaknesses.

They are a big team with a lot of depth upfront.

They start 6'6 Anthony Brown at the 2, 6'8 Josh Huestis at the 3, 6'10 Dwight Powell at the 4, 6'11 Stefan Nastic at the 5. Point guard is 6'2 Chaisson Randle.

BYU will counter that with 6'8-10 (depending on who you ask) Eric Mika, 6'10 Nate Austin, 6'6 KC, 6'5 Tyler Haws and 6'2 Matt Carlino.

That means KC will be guarding Huestis. I would expect Mika to guard Powell. He is the focal point of the offense and they love to dump the ball inside. Powell was first team ALL-PAC last year averaging 15 and 8.5 rebounds.

The PG Randle averaged 13.6 last year but like SJS said he didn't shoot the ball real well.

The biggest difference will be the depth of Stanford upfront on the bench they have 6'9 (Roscoe Allen), 6'11 (Elliot Bullock), 6'10 (Schyler Rimmer), 6'9 (Grant Von Hoeven), 6'9 (Scott Woods) and 6'10 (John Gage). They have the ability to throw a lot of big bodies at BYU if our bigs get in foul trouble.

I could see Dave Rose trying to run these guys out of the gym with a 4 guard lineup. We will need KC and Haws to really rebound well tonight.

A few familiar faces: Roscoe Allen was a highly recruited prospect out of Bishop Gorman in Vegas. He played AAU with a few Utah kids and was actually talking to Dave Rose for a short while. He really liked BYU but ultimately chose Stanford. Elliot Bullock is a center out of Salt Lake. He played for Olympus. Went to Stanford for two years where he was used sparingly. Left on a mission and just returned over the summer.

[smokymountainrain]

BYU will counter that with 6'8-10 (depending on who you ask) Eric Mika,

Did we ever get a ruling from Santos on Mika's height?

[PaloAltoCougar]

WHAT???? You are PaloAltoCougar. That is the home of Stanford. None of up someone's behind is good enough. I want to see you a few rows behind the broadcasters. What kind of fan are you anyway?

I am a man of the people. Plus, I didn't want to hit on Bigelow for good seats, and these are the best BYU could come up with. It's not like I'm one of those hoity toity Legacy snobs.

And CJ, thanks for the better summary of Stanford. It'll be interesting to see who controls the tempo. If it's a plodding hammerfest inside, we're toast.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Will fils and I be the only CS'ers in attendance at Maples Pavilion tonight? It will be an interesting game that will give a good indicator of where BYU is to this point. Stanford is a middle-of-the-PAC team, with some talented players. They have a few seniors whose incoming 2010 class was thought to be very strong--if they don't make the Tourney this year Dawkins is probably done as a coach, and the players have said they really want to win for his sake. The Vegas line shows Stanford -6; here's a chance to impress on ESPN.

We're sitting up and behind on one end. If I had the time, I'd make a big Romney head and spin it during Stanford FT's, but I don't so I won't. Any other suggestions would be welcome and but still ignored.

Make a big head out of Lord Grantham, or better yet, the Dowager Countess.

[byu71]

It's not like I'm one of those hoity toity Legacy snobs.

Just another example of you being smarter than I am. Dang

[Blueintheface]

6'2 Nate Austin

FIFY

[jay santos]

Did we ever get a ruling from Santos on Mika's height?

No. I haven't seen him up close for over a year and a half i know you guys depend on me for this sort of thing. Sorry to let you down.

From what I've seen so far at games and on TV he is plenty tall enough to play the 5 but I'm still undecided about how quickly (if ever) he can become as dominating as we hope.

[Coach McGuirk]

If Mika is 6'10" then Nate is 6'11".

[smokymountainrain]

FIFY

CJ was talking about the his true height, not his wingspan.