Baxter

Guy tore it up today. Really nice to see him getting better. We need another threat on the floor. Teams will double Childs, which will leave Baxter open.



Great guard play tonight as well.



Emery finally started scoring.

Man, what a party that young man had! Double-double in his first start. 25 points including 2-2 from 3 point range for a big. You sure don't see that every day.



And great to see Emery finally playing well. His defense reminded me of his older brother, and that set up his confidence on offense. BYU's defensive hustle all around was impressive.



LMU had a great game plan: shut down Yoeli and TJ. Both were held to single digit scoring. But both did a TERRIFIC job of finding the open man.

Gonzaga had the same game plan. Make others score. This time around we had better defense and others did score.

Ever since the Cougar Tipoff I've been wanting to see Baxer start along side Childs. Supposedly it's only been his conditioning that's been holding him back.



I still think Childs needs to be more decisive with the ball. Either make a quick move before the double team comes (which he did once last game) or pass it out sooner. He cannot hold onto the ball for 8 seconds while double teamed.

byufan4ever wrote:

Ever since the Cougar Tipoff I've been wanting to see Baxer start along side Childs. Supposedly it's only been his conditioning that's been holding him back.



I still think Childs needs to be more decisive with the ball. Either make a quick move before the double team comes (which he did once last game) or pass it out sooner. He cannot hold onto the ball for 8 seconds while double teamed.

This is largely coaching.



A good coach would use this to the team's advantage. We know double teams are coming. We know they key in on Haws, so rotate Cannon, Emery, Seljass, or someone that has a decent shot at making three over to the weak side for Childs to pass it right back out to. Ball goes to Childs, start the rotation. When the double comes, Childs knows where to pass it too. Right now he's holding onto it looking around for someone to pass it to. Rose could also send Baxter or Worthington through the middle for Childs to dump it to.



Rose isn't taking advantage of the double teams, he isn't making opponents pay for doubling Childs and opponents know this.

Looks like his threatening to transfer if he didn't start playing more is paying off for both him - in terms of production - and for the team - in terms of playing well.

SpiffCoug wrote:

Looks like his threatening to transfer if he didn't start playing more is paying off for both him - in terms of production - and for the team - in terms of playing well.

He threatened to transfer? Ballsy.



Guess it's the norm nowadays, but Rose certainly does seem to have an issue with keeping guys.

SpiffCoug wrote:

Looks like his threatening to transfer if he didn't start playing more is paying off for both him - in terms of production - and for the team - in terms of playing well.

Source? This is rumor at best.

byufan4ever wrote:

Looks like his threatening to transfer if he didn't start playing more is paying off for both him - in terms of production - and for the team - in terms of playing well.

Source? This is rumor at best.

It's a rumor I saw over on Cougarboard. It seems a reasonable conclusion. It could be completely without basis, butI could see it happening.

Gavin Baxter looks like Johnny Cash's too-tall long lost Uncle.

SpiffCoug wrote:

SpiffCoug wrote:

Looks like his threatening to transfer if he didn't start playing more is paying off for both him - in terms of production - and for the team - in terms of playing well.

Source? This is rumor at best.

It's a rumor I saw over on Cougarboard. It seems a reasonable conclusion. It could be completely without basis, butI could see it happening.

I interpreted your original post as if it was common knowledge that Baxter had publicly demanded more playing "or else." I found that rumor on cougarboard (which has the most horrible UI ever) and it is simply one person's opinion who didn't even try to act like he/she had any inside info. Maybe I'm going overboard with this, but this is what I would call tier 4 rumor material. On another sports site I follow they tag a tier 1/2/3/4 to each rumor based on the source, facts, and how likely it is to happen. I would tag this ias Tier 4. No concrete source. No evidence. Probably didn't happen at all.

Baxter at the beginning of the year didn't look good. He wasn't in shape yet and his timing was way off, which is not surprising for someone who hasn't played in a couple of years and has only been home from his mission for a couple of months.

BlueK wrote:

Baxter at the beginning of the year didn't look good. He wasn't in shape yet and his timing was way off, which is not surprising for someone who hasn't played in a couple of years and has only been home from his mission for a couple of months.

Agreed. I was very underwhelmed by him early in the year. I am pleasantly surprised with his progress that he's made this year. I cannot think of another player that I've seen this much progress from during the course of the season

ABYUFAN wrote:

Baxter at the beginning of the year didn't look good. He wasn't in shape yet and his timing was way off, which is not surprising for someone who hasn't played in a couple of years and has only been home from his mission for a couple of months.

Agreed. I was very underwhelmed by him early in the year. I am pleasantly surprised with his progress that he's made this year. I cannot think of another player that I've seen this much progress from during the course of the season

Guy has major hops. He got so high on that one blocked shot last night. That was insane. I can't remember a guy at BYU that could get that high.

I heard Bernard used to get pretty high.