Italy tour

https://kslsports.com/414998/haws-toolson-lead-byu-hoops-to-victory-in-first-game-of-italy-tour/



It has some highlights and the box score.

Game 2



BYU 87

LLC International 46



https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ECdFKhCUwAALHR_.jpg:large



Interesting what a different lineup of players in 2nd game. No Haws, Wade or Toolson.



Why give so much time to Alex Barcello when he can't play this year? Sounds like he's the real deal.

I read a quote by Pope that he wanted his team to lose a game on this trip so that it would motivate them to play better and start off the season strong. Maybe that's what he was trying to do but it backfired?



Also, I just learned recently that the original Dream Team lost in a scrimmage to a bunch of college kids (granted it was players like Grant Hill and Penny Hardaway), but I never knew that. Apparently, their coach wanted the same thing: for them to lose and get humuliated. I guess it worked in that case.

Heard Zac S broke his foot and is returning to the states for surgery.

Thru two games, Yeoli had taken 20+ shots, but only one of them was a three. Looks like Pope is putting Yeoli down on the blocks.

SpiffCoug wrote:

Thru two games, Yeoli had taken 20+ shots, but only one of them was a three. Looks like Pope is putting Yeoli down on the blocks.

I'm trying to understand why he played Yeoli in both games for significant minutes while holding back on the other starters. Pope has a plan, that's for sure, but it's not a traditional plan and so it's hard to just guess at what he's doing.

This is not about the Italy trip. I attended Holmoe's session at BYU Education Week this morning. His explanation of the situation I understood was how it had been pointed out to me about maybe this happened because of Yoeli not having someone from the coaching staff to help him through his situation. TH made it sound like they tried to have both the compliance person(s) and "who was left from the coaching staff" help him and reach out, but they were unsuccessful. Now one, I didn't understand, after Dave Rose retired, what he meant about the coaching staff that was still there. I guess, and it makes sense, that they were still employed until the point that Pope was hired and said that he was going to go in a different direction. Someone at BYU would have then communicated that to DR's staff at some point after the retirement I suppose. I don't know. It was like the perfect storm. I don't believe from TH's response to a question about YC's agent that TH doesn't put the blame partly on him as well. TH did call the NCAA's punishment as grievous.

EM_Puma wrote:

"who was left from the coaching staff" help him and reach out, but they were unsuccessful. Now one, I didn't understand, after Dave Rose retired, what he meant about the coaching staff that was still there. I guess, and it makes sense, that they were still employed until the point that Pope was hired and said that he was going to go in a different direction. Someone at BYU would have then communicated that to DR's staff at some point after the retirement I suppose. I don't know. It was like the perfect storm. I don't believe from TH's response to a question about YC's agent that TH doesn't put the blame partly on him as well. TH did call the NCAA's punishment as grievous.

i also think at the time Yoeli didn't really intend to come back anyway, so keeping on top of the right procedures was possibly somewhat of an afterthought to him. This is just for the NCAA. There are no such procedures for those who aren't coming back.

The smart move is to never self report to the NCAA and tell them you will fight them all the way in any investigation.



UNC would have sued the NCAA had they been penalized and the NCAA copped out and said it was an academic issue. If UNC self reports and suggests penalties they would have been hammered.



Self reporting is over punished. It’s BYU, circle on the ground and all that.... but still think they could play it more like the big boys. I doubt Yoeli was the only one to make mistakes, but he might have been the only one to self report lol.

After posting that I realized Yoeli used an agent who was a no no so the SL Trib or Utah compliance department would have been all over that anyway. Both of those organizations seem really interested in making sure BYU follows rules and not so interested in what Utah is doing lol.

3rd win vs Stella Azzura 71-61

box score https://byucougars.com/dl/sites/default/files/File_Attachments/GAME%203%20ITALY%20BOX%20SCORE%20-%20MEDIA.pdf



It was back to the starters. Don't like to see Baxter get 20 minutes and score 0 points. Had 5 rebounds though.



3 pt shots still low. Need improvement there.

Does BYU not have a shot coach regularly getting boards and shooting 1 on 1 with players? I realize it’s not possible all year, but I hope it’s not another season of bad shooting.



If so, I put it 100% on the coaches. If so, it will be another disappointing season.



Shooting isn’t rocket science. Perfect practice makes perfect. It takes a good shot coach to make sure mechanics are perfect.



There is no excuse for having guys this gifted shooting this poorly in games for another season.

The excuse this year for poor perimeter shooting will be the 3-pt being further back.

CougarCrazy wrote:

The smart move is to never self report to the NCAA and tell them you will fight them all the way in any investigation.



UNC would have sued the NCAA had they been penalized and the NCAA copped out and said it was an academic issue. If UNC self reports and suggests penalties they would have been hammered.



Self reporting is over punished. It’s BYU, circle on the ground and all that.... but still think they could play it more like the big boys. I doubt Yoeli was the only one to make mistakes, but he might have been the only one to self report lol.

Is BYU a whipping boy?

Cougars end 4-0 with a BYU 81 LCC International (who they beat already) 55.

https://www.deseret.com/2019/8/23/20830309/byu-basketball-finishes-tour-of-italy-with-4-0-record



Here's the box score: https://www.heraldextra.com/byu-lcc-international-box-score/pdf_7a0d2aab-4f34-5229-a6b9-1aa19b3dcd3d.html



It was another night for the backups with Kolby Lee with the most minutes (27) and points (16). He had 10 rebounds for a double/double.



Evan Troy 2nd most points at 13. At least he shot 60% of his 3 pointers.



As a team, 3 pt woes continue as they only shoot 24.4%. Interesting that Pope had noted from the time that he took over that the Cougs have shot more balls than anyone else. That doesn't give me much confidence that they are going to turn this 3 pt shooting around.

nuk13 wrote:



Is BYU a whipping boy?

One of the ESPN talking heads said BYU is their ideal whipping boy. They said it has name recognition but isn’t big enough to give the NCAA trouble.



I will invest 5 minutes to Google for a quote, but it made sense unfortunately.

EM_Puma wrote:

Cougars end 4-0 with a BYU 81 LCC International (who they beat already) 55.

https://www.deseret.com/2019/8/23/20830309/byu-basketball-finishes-tour-of-italy-with-4-0-record



Here's the box score: https://www.heraldextra.com/byu-lcc-international-box-score/pdf_7a0d2aab-4f34-5229-a6b9-1aa19b3dcd3d.html



It was another night for the backups with Kolby Lee with the most minutes (27) and points (16). He had 10 rebounds for a double/double.



Evan Troy 2nd most points at 13. At least he shot 60% of his 3 pointers.



As a team, 3 pt woes continue as they only shoot 24.4%. Interesting that Pope had noted from the time that he took over that the Cougs have shot more balls than anyone else. That doesn't give me much confidence that they are going to turn this 3 pt shooting around.

Does he ever mention time with shooting coaches? Cause the numbers don’t look like it and it’s really weird to me. It’s not one or two players, it’s all of them. If the 1st few games are like this I’ll be able to relax and enjoy a season without expectations lol.

CougarCrazy wrote:

It’s not one or two players, it’s all of them. If the 1st few games are like this I’ll be able to relax and enjoy a season without expectations lol.

MY FEAR EXACTLY!

Interesting approach though to the tour. 1/2 the games mainly for your starters and 1/2 the games mainly for the backups. Different.



DR more likely, based on the history he displayed, would be working a bit more on the chemistry of the starters playing together. Pope didn't. No idea on what his thought on that is. Maybe because there is so much senior leadership that he imagines this time of developing the bench was more pivotal to the success of this team.

If I recall, the 3 pt shooting from Haws and Toolson in the first game at least was very good.