BYU vs UMASS Sat Dec 7 @1:30 EST CBS Sports Network

While I love the aggressiveness of the guards, I believe that Carlino and FBIV can take us out of the game just as quickly as they get us back into it. Both should look to distribute to Haws and Mika who are both higher percentage shooters to these guys. If the shot is not there, they will get it on the kick out. Hopefully, Rose can correct these poor tendencies.

byucougar1 wrote:
While I love the aggressiveness of the guards, I believe that Carlino and FBIV can take us out of the game just as quickly as they get us back into it. Both should look to distribute to Haws and Mika who are both higher percentage shooters to these guys. If the shot is not there, they will get it on the kick out. Hopefully, Rose can correct these poor tendencies.

We're not as athletic and experienced as a team like Umass... This was the #1 RPI team in the country on their floor. We held our own, but in order to win a game like that we have to play smarter and play much much better defense. (Umass shot 55.5%)...

mizzoucoug wrote:
Oh well. We'd better beat Gonzaga. I don't believe they are on par with any of these ranked teams we've seen yet.

Wanna bet? :~(

Wolfman wrote:

Oh well. We'd better beat Gonzaga. I don't believe they are on par with any of these ranked teams we've seen yet.

Wanna bet? :~(

UMass did not really have a scary beast of a player - not even the big man that was in foul trouble all night. I thought he might be based on ststs. But no. The squirt of a point guard sort of was. But not really. The problem was that they have 5 guys on the floor at all times including a couple of reserves thay are capable of really putting some hurt on you. You cannot afford to double up on the squirt or on the 5, because they have inside and outside threats that ate dangerous. Patient, too.



We will see teams with a scarier beast of individual play. We may not see this much balanced team strength.



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Wolfman wrote:

Oh well. We'd better beat Gonzaga. I don't believe they are on par with any of these ranked teams we've seen yet.

Wanna bet? :~(

Yeah, I'll take that bet.

In order for this team to keep up with and play with the best, Mika needs to play the majority of the game as does Austin. They were out of the game for long stretches of time with foul trouble, and Austin eventually fouled out (0 points). It also helps when he at least contributes a couple of baskets instead of drawing a goose egg.



Guard play was also sporadic with Carlino and FB1V oftentimes going 1 against 2, 3 and sometimes 4 players. They need to dish it out rather than force shots - and it showed with our low assist total. Having Worthington and hopefully Kafusi on the court for rebounding and defense will give Mika and Austin a break, add some much needed heavyweight depth, keep the starters fresh and hopefully help them avoid ticky-tack fouls that keep them on the bench.



Looking back on the three loses to Top 25 teams, we know that if we ever put together a complete game, we can have a very good chance of winning. This experience will prove invaluable in WCC play and hopefully provide them with the confidence that they can play ball with anyone and likely win. The OR game will be a good barometer of how well the team has progressed.

I think the Utah Game will provide an even earlier barometer. This isn't football, but it is still a rivalry. They have this date circled. They have been down a long time. Way down. They are rising from the ashes. Barely tested, but clearly improved. I expect that they will give us a game. We need to show that we can still punch them in the mouth, put them on their heels, and keep the pedal to the medal.



We can unless we fall into this pattern of sloppy, selfish play when we get the lead.



We are back in our time zone. IDK if travel legs played into our slow start and overall slowness.



We cannot even think of Oregon until we take care of local business.



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Agree that State Supremacy is necessary. I believe that USU is better than UT so I expect similar results. There is no way that their fan base matches the intensity of the Aggies student section. That being said, we have some glaring weaknesses: poor rotation on zone defense, tendency for some selfish one-on-one play by guards, spotty 3pt shooting, and untimely FT misses. I hope a majority of these problems are corrected by game time. While this team is much better than last year, these are still some of the very same problems that plagued them last season.

byucougar1 wrote:
Agree that State Supremacy is necessary. I believe that USU is better than UT so I expect similar results. There is no way that their fan base matches the intensity of the Aggies student section. That being said, we have some glaring weaknesses: poor rotation on zone defense, tendency for some selfish one-on-one play by guards, spotty 3pt shooting, and untimely FT misses. I hope a majority of these problems are corrected by game time. While this team is much better than last year, these are still some of the very same problems that plagued them last season.

Haws is by far the biggest culprit on defense. Can't rotate to save his life. Any team with a decent coach recognizes this. Load the opposite side of Haws, team rotates over, swing one man or leave one man open on Haws' side, attack the opposite side of Haws, and then pass to a wide open player on Haws side. Haws sucks in so far and is so slow to rotate is a gimmie everytime.



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Gunk wrote:

Agree that State Supremacy is necessary. I believe that USU is better than UT so I expect similar results. There is no way that their fan base matches the intensity of the Aggies student section. That being said, we have some glaring weaknesses: poor rotation on zone defense, tendency for some selfish one-on-one play by guards, spotty 3pt shooting, and untimely FT misses. I hope a majority of these problems are corrected by game time. While this team is much better than last year, these are still some of the very same problems that plagued them last season.

Haws is by far the biggest culprit on defense. Can't rotate to save his life. Any team with a decent coach recognizes this. Load the opposite side of Haws, team rotates over, swing one man or leave one man open on Haws' side, attack the opposite side of Haws, and then pass to a wide open player on Haws side. Haws sucks in so far and is so slow to rotate is a gimmie everytime.



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But this team doesn't have a Jackson Emery who can cover for Haws like Jackson could cover for Jimmer.

Gunk wrote:

Agree that State Supremacy is necessary. I believe that USU is better than UT so I expect similar results. There is no way that their fan base matches the intensity of the Aggies student section. That being said, we have some glaring weaknesses: poor rotation on zone defense, tendency for some selfish one-on-one play by guards, spotty 3pt shooting, and untimely FT misses. I hope a majority of these problems are corrected by game time. While this team is much better than last year, these are still some of the very same problems that plagued them last season.

Haws is by far the biggest culprit on defense. Can't rotate to save his life. Any team with a decent coach recognizes this. Load the opposite side of Haws, team rotates over, swing one man or leave one man open on Haws' side, attack the opposite side of Haws, and then pass to a wide open player on Haws side. Haws sucks in so far and is so slow to rotate is a gimmie everytime.



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Yes. He is so bad it is a wonder we are not 0-10.



Hyperbole much.



Top 20 teams can exploit it to an extent. Othets, apparently not enough.



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Rose doesn't play enough man it's that simple. And why is that? I think it's because of Haws. He sucks on D. Bring in Halford or Winder and give it 5 or 6 minutes to see if we can get some freaking stops! At some point you have to try and stop a team from scoring every time down the floor.



A lot of fans and media types were saying "Well they have to miss at some point." I hate that line. If you give any D1 player repeated 10 foot floaters and easy looks around the rim, then no, they don't have to miss at some point. These are not deep bombs--they are easy plays especially for a team of ballers like UMass.



Defense is the reason this team is not getting over the hump. Until Rose tries something different we are a 1 or 2 and done tourney team, which isn't horrible I guess.

mizzoucoug wrote:
Rose doesn't play enough man it's that simple. And why is that? I think it's because of Haws. He sucks on D. Bring in Halford or Winder and give it 5 or 6 minutes to see if we can get some freaking stops! At some point you have to try and stop a team from scoring every time down the floor.



A lot of fans and media types were saying "Well they have to miss at some point." I hate that line. If you give any D1 player repeated 10 foot floaters and easy looks around the rim, then no, they don't have to miss at some point. These are not deep bombs--they are easy plays especially for a team of ballers like UMass.



Defense is the reason this team is not getting over the hump. Until Rose tries something different we are a 1 or 2 and done tourney team, which isn't horrible I guess.

Well - there you have it. NIT last year. Big question marks coming into this year. Collinsworth and Mika and bench exceeding expectations. Going back to the dance. This team may go 1 and out. 2 at best imho. That will exceed my expectations set based on where we left off last year and who we lost and all of the new faces.



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mizzoucoug wrote:
Rose doesn't play enough man it's that simple. And why is that? I think it's because of Haws. He sucks on D. Bring in Halford or Winder and give it 5 or 6 minutes to see if we can get some freaking stops! At some point you have to try and stop a team from scoring every time down the floor.



A lot of fans and media types were saying "Well they have to miss at some point." I hate that line. If you give any D1 player repeated 10 foot floaters and easy looks around the rim, then no, they don't have to miss at some point. These are not deep bombs--they are easy plays especially for a team of ballers like UMass.



Defense is the reason this team is not getting over the hump. Until Rose tries something different we are a 1 or 2 and done tourney team, which isn't horrible I guess.

I have to agree with much of this, even though I hate to throw Haws under the bus. (I much prefer throwing MC). When Bart and Half come in, D intensity steps up. Bt we are also weak and vulnerable at the post on D. We need SMASH, because we do and because he's the best (biggest)there is out there that DR can pick up.

mizzoucoug wrote:
Rose doesn't play enough man it's that simple. And why is that? I think it's because of Haws. He sucks on D. Bring in Halford or Winder and give it 5 or 6 minutes to see if we can get some freaking stops! At some point you have to try and stop a team from scoring every time down the floor.



A lot of fans and media types were saying "Well they have to miss at some point." I hate that line. If you give any D1 player repeated 10 foot floaters and easy looks around the rim, then no, they don't have to miss at some point. These are not deep bombs--they are easy plays especially for a team of ballers like UMass.



Defense is the reason this team is not getting over the hump. Until Rose tries something different we are a 1 or 2 and done tourney team, which isn't horrible I guess.

Agree, especially if Haws is doing his first half disappearing act.



If Haws isn't making up for his lackluster defense by scoring points, then put Winder or Halford in. Halford can score and play D. Winder's shot seems improved as well.

Gunk wrote:

Rose doesn't play enough man it's that simple. And why is that? I think it's because of Haws. He sucks on D. Bring in Halford or Winder and give it 5 or 6 minutes to see if we can get some freaking stops! At some point you have to try and stop a team from scoring every time down the floor.



A lot of fans and media types were saying "Well they have to miss at some point." I hate that line. If you give any D1 player repeated 10 foot floaters and easy looks around the rim, then no, they don't have to miss at some point. These are not deep bombs--they are easy plays especially for a team of ballers like UMass.



Defense is the reason this team is not getting over the hump. Until Rose tries something different we are a 1 or 2 and done tourney team, which isn't horrible I guess.

Agree, especially if Haws is doing his first half disappearing act.



If Haws isn't making up for his lackluster defense by scoring points, then put Winder or Halford in. Halford can score and play D. Winder's shot seems improved as well.

Just how many points does he need to score to make up for it and just how much less effective are other players when Haws is not in there drawing a double team. I remembet one really off game. Probably injured. I remember streaks in others. Which of our playrts is not streaky?



Other than possibly Halford, who else are you confident about stepping up to the FT line.



Line out the stats for Haws game by game. It will be clear when he was still injured - taking half a game to loosen up strained muscles.



Bartley is getting plenty of minutes. Maybe too many. Maybe Maybe Maybe Halford should see a few more minutes.



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Quick question for someone more BB knowledgable than me. Repeated statements about Haw's poor defense have me wondering: Is it because he is too slow, or because he is too slow? I mean, is he slow as in foot speed, or slow as in mental competency? Either one would surprise me since his dad may have been one of the fastest players to ever play BB for BYU, and he seems to be of at least average intelligence.

UMass fan here and thought BYU was a very good team. Was impressed by the number of fans and families. Financial traveling to Provo is a stretch, but will keep it mind. You have very passionate fans.



Good luck for the rest of the season and hope you take care of the ducks and Gonzaga. Feel you will win at least one.



Take Care and Best Wishes.

Alphaleonis wrote:
Quick question for someone more BB knowledgable than me. Repeated statements about Haw's poor defense have me wondering: Is it because he is too slow, or because he is too slow? I mean, is he slow as in foot speed, or slow as in mental competency? Either one would surprise me since his dad may have been one of the fastest players to ever play BB for BYU, and he seems to be of at least average intelligence.

He's not slow either way. I think the "blame Haws for our deficiencies" mantra is reactionary and overblown. We'll be on an extended winning streak in early 2014 and all this talk will be shelved until we lose a tough road game to Gonzaga or someone else.

BYULV wrote:

Quick question for someone more BB knowledgable than me. Repeated statements about Haw's poor defense have me wondering: Is it because he is too slow, or because he is too slow? I mean, is he slow as in foot speed, or slow as in mental competency? Either one would surprise me since his dad may have been one of the fastest players to ever play BB for BYU, and he seems to be of at least average intelligence.

He's not slow either way. I think the "blame Haws for our deficiencies" mantra is reactionary and overblown. We'll be on an extended winning streak in early 2014 and all this talk will be shelved until we lose a tough road game to Gonzaga or someone else.

Watch Haws in the zone next time. I can call it just about everytime a team is going to exploit his side of the court when in a half court set.



It's not that he is slow either way, it's he sucks down too far into the key. He'll react to the ball and completely forget the other man. He needs to play the space not the ball so much. If he needs help covering his side he needs to call it out.



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