LMU

Was close at the half, but shots started falling, defense stepped way up and we won by almost 30 points.



Best thing about the go game, we kept LMU under 40. That's pretty amazing. Stellar defense.



Can't remember the last time we held a team to that low of a score. Maybe an AF game back in the MWC days.



We play SMC next Thurs at SMC. I want this one so bad. Would be a huge win for us.

I usually don't single out any player, but the 4 fouls from Seljaas in 9 minutes of play is pretty impressive. Seems to be a good thing though, bringing aggression.

TulaneVandyRiceCoug wrote:

I usually don't single out any player, but the 4 fouls from Seljaas in 9 minutes of play is pretty impressive. Seems to be a good thing though, bringing aggression.

To be expected. He was guarding their star player at a size/strength disadvantage. So he was fronting and fight for position aggressively.

I liked this comment from Coach Pope from a KSL Sean Walker article:

https://www.ksl.com/article/46699815/byu-basketball-overcomes-stodgy-shooting-night-to-top-lmu-63-38-in-wcc-opener



“I keep talking to the guys that we learn how to endure frustration and get to the next play. It seems like the game is giving us a gift of a lot of frustration to practice with,” BYU coach Mark Pope said. “Our guys did an unbelievable job.



“We felt early in the season when shots weren’t falling that it affected us on the defensive end. It didn’t affect us on the defensive end at all tonight. I can’t tell you guys how proud I am of our team that those guys, despite the frustration, muddiness, ball movement and play calling, that those guys came and competed on the defensive end on every single possession.”



I knew as sure as rain in Seattle that we'd hit a night where everyone was off the mark on shooting the 3-ball and I was worried. I never thought of this angle, which can win the game in those circumstances. Boy I like this coach and his staff. Rose was good, but I believe (and hope) that Pope can be great.



I don't know if he can be great at BYU because he'll be limited by what team he can put together, but I see him as someone who could excel in a place where they were all about basketball and there was no honor code (not saying that he would look for the bad-boy type, but just to not have to worry about the HC as a restriction to recruiting).

TulaneVandyRiceCoug wrote:

I usually don't single out any player, but the 4 fouls from Seljaas in 9 minutes of play is pretty impressive. Seems to be a good thing though, bringing aggression.

Seljaas is the unsung hero of last night's game. He completely disrupted and took LMU's best player out of the game. Those four fouls were key. For 9 min Seljaas harassed and denied Scott space. He made Scott fight for every inch. It was great to watch and it clearly got to Scott. Instead of focusing on the Scott was focused on pleading his case to the refs. On one possession, instead of trying to post up Scott got bumped and just stopped playing, choosing instead to whine to the refs. That was key to the run. LMU fell apart. At half it was a close game. Seljaas went in and disrupted Scott, we went on a run and it was game over for LMU.



38 points. That's some amazing defense. Even on fast breaks we were getting in front of shots and making them miss.