I Love Miles as a Person...

[Short_Change]

You guys are way too harsh on Miles. He's not one of our great players, but he rarely hurts us. He obviously had a bad game. He only played 11 min! Davies was just as bad as was Emery and Haws. Lighten up. I am not in any way blaming the refs for our loss, but did anyone else feel like we were getting ticky tack calls on us and then the refs would swallow their whistles on the other end on similar plays?

[SpiffCoug]

JT has poor games - quite a few this year - but last night wsa not one of them.

[SpiffCoug]

You guys are way too harsh on Miles. He's not one of our great players, but he rarely hurts us. He obviously had a bad game. He only played 11 min! Davies was just as bad as was Emery and Haws. Lighten up. I am not in any way blaming the refs for our loss, but did anyone else feel like we were getting ticky tack calls on us and then the refs would swallow their whistles on the other end on similar plays?

It's the single most frustrating thing about being a BYU basketball fan. You just know that the level of contact necessary for a foul to be called is considerably higher when BYU is on offense and considerably lower when BYU is on defense than our opponent.

[Gunk]

He is exactly the kind of player that'll hurt us in crunch time. When it comes to the big games in conference and tournament play, when the other guys come ready to play, we have often struggled (hence no conference tourney win and three first round NCAA losses under Rose), our best guys have missed shots, unable to step up. Chris Miles fits that image PERFECTLY, I do NOT NOT NOT want to see that guy on the court when things get tight...

Hmmm...yet against SDSU who was it that defended against them in the paint (keep in mind we basically played a zone D the whole SDSU game)? Who was it that pulled down some critical boards in the final minutes and had that key layup?

Miles may have had a bad game yesterday (if you call 11 min of play a game), but the loss isn't his fault. It's not Miles calling the plays to run. And even on the rebounding end Miles is routinely the only Cougar down low even attempting to get a board while the opposing team sends 3 guys. I don't care if you're Dennis Rodman, the odds of beating 3 opponents to the board are slim. Two defenders can focus on keeping Miles from getting the board while one grabs it.

There's two sides to the court. Miles may not put up 10+ points a game but he defends well and is the best option we have down low as a defender. Keeping the other guys from scoring is just as important as scoring. Jimmer played awful defense last night, just horrible. One or two legit defensive plays on Jimmer's part would have done a lot more for us last night than a bucket. Jimmer got beat left and right, requiring the help to come, which usually resulted in fouls. I wonder how many fouls from our centers last night could be attributed to Jimmer not staying in front of his man?

[BroncoBot]

He is exactly the kind of player that'll hurt us in crunch time. When it comes to the big games in conference and tournament play, when the other guys come ready to play, we have often struggled (hence no conference tourney win and three first round NCAA losses under Rose), our best guys have missed shots, unable to step up. Chris Miles fits that image PERFECTLY, I do NOT NOT NOT want to see that guy on the court when things get tight...

Sounds like what you really might be trying to say is Rose struggles in big games.

I can buy that.

I agree with Gunk, Miles is no offensive powerhouse (which I tend to believe is what you all want him to be), but he's usually great for what we need him for. Sometimes teams are able to get the better of him or he just has a bad game. That happens to every player BYU has though.

[Iceman]

I think he has been a big part of the 20-1. He was also a major part of 20-2. How in the world do you shoot a two-foot shot, and miss by three?

To be fair, he looked scared. So did half of the team last night. I hope they man up Saturday, get really peeved at the loss that never should have been, and take the pukes out to the barn.

[Mars]

Chris Miles fits that image PERFECTLY, I do NOT NOT NOT want to see that guy on the court when things get tight...

IMO, we lost yesterday because Miles picked up fouls so quickly. Meaning, that if no fouls were called on Miles, thus allowing him to play the entire game while Davies and especially Anderson sat on the bench, we would have definitely won. Miles' biggest problem yesterday was how much he was not in the game...

[Short_Change]

I think he has been a big part of the 20-1. He was also a major part of 20-2. How in the world do you shoot a two-foot shot, and miss by three?

To be fair, he looked scared. So did half of the team last night. I hope they man up Saturday, get really peeved at the loss that never should have been, and take the pukes out to the barn.

He had two shots like the one that you're explaining. On one of them he was fouled and on the other it was blocked.

I didn't think we looked scared. We played them close the entire game. If we were scared we would have folded up tent and got ran out of town. We didn't shoot the best and had a few defensive break downs, end of story.

[Iceman]

I think he has been a big part of the 20-1. He was also a major part of 20-2. How in the world do you shoot a two-foot shot, and miss by three?

To be fair, he looked scared. So did half of the team last night. I hope they man up Saturday, get really peeved at the loss that never should have been, and take the pukes out to the barn.

He had two shots like the one that you're explaining. On one of them he was fouled and on the other it was blocked.

I didn't think we looked scared. We played them close the entire game. If we were scared we would have folded up tent and got ran out of town. We didn't shoot the best and had a few defensive break downs, end of story.

I really felt that they looked rattled. There was a tightness to their shots, a lot of short arming, or overcompensating and shooting too hard. Not the touch I usually see. It happens, especially in the pit. To make matters worse, the refs weren't making the calls.
The two shots you talked about are the same shots I mentioned. Just didn't look to me like a good effort to finish the shots. My point wasn't really to criticize, but that I know it was not their best game. I love this team, and Miles is a big reason we have seen a great season unfold.

I don't think they lose two more games this year. I really don't. Its so difficult to win out though, that they are likely to drop one. That one would likely be UNLV ( but my bet is the Cougs).

[Schmoe]

Say what you will about Miles, but he OWNED every one of Utah's big men that he defended. He may not do a ton on the offensive end, but I think he's seriously underrated when defending other bigs.