Portland

[Gunk]

Fun game.

We struggled a bit in the 1st but ran away with it midway through the 2nd half. Three point shooting really wasn't there.

Portland is a much different team then we've seen in the past. It will be interesting to see how they play on their home court.

Few things I liked:
1) We kept our heads. Portland made a run at us a few minutes into the 2nd and rather than meltdown as in seasons past, we responded.
2) When we started to get a bit chaotic, Rose called a timeout, rallied the troops, and out of the timeout we were a different team. We went back to playing controlled ball. In seasons past, this wasn't the case. Rose would call timeouts and egos would prevail.
3) Blocked shots and steals. There were a bunch of them. Our defense in the 2nd half set the tone for the offense.
4) Childs' dunks were awesome. Great game by him.
5) Bryant is a baller. He forced some shots, but he had a great all around game. Loved watching him get shots over Portland's 7-footer.

[ABYUFAN]

I liked BYU's second half three point defense. Some of the reason Portland had only 21 second half points was due to their bad shooting, but many times BYU had good defense jumping towards a potential three point shooter before the pas was sent there - I chalked that up to good coaching.

[nuk13]

Portland's previous low score was 54 points in a loss against Boise State. Their season low was 45, 9 less than their previous low, against the Cougars last night. Evidence of better defense is showing up. We will learn a lot tomorrow night.

I like your list Gunk. This team is relentless which overpowered Portland in the second half.

It was a fun game and this is a fun team. I haven't enjoyed a team this much for years. They all play team ball.

[SpiffCoug]

I like that BYU is being able to control tempo much better this season. In past seasons, BYU wanted to run. If teams didn't want to run, then the game was slower than BYU wanted and the Cougars struggled to execute their offense in the half-court.

BYU does not seem uncomfortable in such a game this year.

[frdbtr]

This team is much improved over the last few. Having said that, they HAVE to take care of business in the WCC at home. That means they can't lose to St Mary's or Gonzaga at home and have a prayer of a chance at the WCC championship. Of course it goes without saying that they also can't drop head scratcher games to the bottom dwellers in the WCC like has happened the last couple of years.