CougarCorner

BYU faced a team without the size or talent to really challenge us. The also weren't physical enough with us to disrupt Emery and Haws. So we got a blowout.

In the big picture the most important things are:

-Childs got some confidence back after getting stoned at SMC

-Bryant showed how good he can be with 17 pt, 3 asts in an efficient 20 minutes.

-Haws and Mika continued to look like stars

-Emery didn't miss much time but I think he aggravated his left wrist. He might need to take a game off.

-Per Cougarboard Coach Rose was talking about starting Bryant in the post game show (LJ Rose going to the bench)


On to the little things:
Shaw gave us some important minutes off the bench with his energy and size. He also showed enough mobility to guard on the perimeter.

Beo was about the same.

LJ Rose still does some good things for us but the scouting report is out on him. Teams mostly ignore him on offense. Maybe a bench role will get him off the scouting radar.

Note Bryant was the first sub off the bench.... at power forward.

Looking forward at San Francisco they are a 5-out team who can shoot. They beat Utah this year. We will need to be very disciplined on D. We should have a big time advantage on the boards and in the paint with Mika and Childs.

Here is the St. Mary's game: The Pacific game: And the season average so far: Look at the difference in assists in those two games. That's why I use a multiplier for assists in my calculations. It's very important.

Those stats don't support starting Bryant over Rose. LJ can rebound and dish out assists.

Mars wrote:Those stats don't support starting Bryant over Rose. LJ can rebound and dish out assists.

I would agree. I like our starting line-up (but Emery and Haws have to step it up!) with Bryant coming off the bench as long as he plays like vs Pacific and not the rest of the games this season.

With Bryant the question would be why haven't we seen him before like he played against Pacific? Given some of the really high praise Steve Cleveland gave him at the beginning of the season, I think the most likely reason is he wasn't yet fully back from the injury physically and/or mentally. If he plays like he did in the last game, I think it's much less likely we lose another game we shouldn't.

Bryant has really only shown against lesser teams. Against better opponents he struggles and rather than take what he can get and use his teammates, he forces things. IMO, it's a maturity thing.

Gunk wrote:Bryant has really only shown against lesser teams. Against better opponents he struggles and rather than take what he can get and use his teammates, he forces things. IMO, it's a maturity thing.

Bryant has only played in two games since Novermber 23rd -- St Mary's and Pacific. Anything in November I think you can explain by his forcing himself to play before he was physically or mentally ready. So when speculating on what Bryant can do for the team the rest of the year I think we only have two games to go on. The SMC game was his first game back in a month and a half. Yes, it was against a better team. But the next six are against easier teams and he played great in the last game. We'll see what he does tonight. If he plays well I think there is a lot of reason for optimism on him for what he can do in the games coming up.