Is it ever good enough?

[craigoscarson]

Why the greed? I'm just tired of the moral victory known as BYU basketball.

I saw this season as clear step up in regards to returning players. But it's been the same story. Close games and moral victories. BYU had SDSU in the bag (SDSU isn't all they're cracked up to be BTW), took purdue (who is the worst loss so far) to overtime and stumbled against utah. Win 2 of those three games and BYU is pretty much a lock in the tournament at this point. Stanford hasn't beaten anyone of significance... yet. UMASS should be a W, they are a bad road team and already are batting just over .500. Gonzaga will beat us at least 2 times this year.

As it stands, instead of being a top 15 program, BYU has settled into their usual 35-60 spot in the rankings. This won't change much with WCC play starting.

To answer your question. It will be good enough when BYU stops finding ways to lose games and starts finding ways to beat quality programs. Tall task, but it is what I expect of a talent laden team with a lot of upperclassmen.

If you're content with close games and wins against teams with RPI >60, you're easier to please than myself.

would you feel a lot better if we were 10-2? or if we had beaten Pitt but lost to either lbsu or eky? (teams that have given top 10 teams fits (lbsu is young, flawed, but insanely athletic team and played sdsu within 1, and led texas late in their game and beat a pretty good kstate team) (eky just steamrolled #16 miami by nearly 30)...

We're beating the teams we're supposed to and we've been within one bad call by a ref or a couple free throws from being ranked ourselves... which is pure insanity consider how bad we are down low... we're really bad... terrible. We have no big men with a single post move, yet we're 9-3.

This was a season where I said above many had very low expectations.. I usually predict a tourney invite and did so last year when almost all did not.. this year I expected NIT and we're almost through the non-con and we have not yet eliminated ourselves from a tourney invite. I think that's incredible..

9-3 is not mediocre, and it's not average, it's great for this team..

yes we have kc yes we have tyler... but our front line is BROKEN... BROKEN ... BROKEN

If somehow Eric Mika had stuck around I do think we're be in the top 20 and have 1-2 losses... but we have 3 losses without him and a broken frontline... I'll take it

Our talent is just not there as a whole... yet we have depth and we have a couple very special players that are willing us to a very good record, in spite of our flaws

[nuk13]

Thanks Craig. Byu's done great with what they have. I wish Rose would put some time in on working and recruiting big kids. We have some good ones and more coming so I hope some work is put in to get them up to speed soon.

[BroncoBot]

would you feel a lot better if we were 10-2? or if we had beaten Pitt but lost to either lbsu or eky? (teams that have given top 10 teams fits (lbsu is young, flawed, but insanely athletic team and played sdsu within 1, and led texas late in their game and beat a pretty good kstate team) (eky just steamrolled #16 miami by nearly 30)...

We're beating the teams we're supposed to and we've been within one bad call by a ref or a couple free throws from being ranked ourselves... which is pure insanity consider how bad we are down low... we're really bad... terrible. We have no big men with a single post move, yet we're 9-3.

This was a season where I said above many had very low expectations.. I usually predict a tourney invite and did so last year when almost all did not.. this year I expected NIT and we're almost through the non-con and we have not yet eliminated ourselves from a tourney invite. I think that's incredible..

9-3 is not mediocre, and it's not average, it's great for this team..

yes we have kc yes we have tyler... but our front line is BROKEN... BROKEN ... BROKEN

If somehow Eric Mika had stuck around I do think we're be in the top 20 and have 1-2 losses... but we have 3 losses without him and a broken frontline... I'll take it

Our talent is just not there as a whole... yet we have depth and we have a couple very special players that are willing us to a very good record, in spite of our flaws

Again, this is all great, but let's face it, BYU had a shot at doing something special the first 12 games of this year. And they blew some leads they had no business blowing, and lost to a purdue team that is less than average. So I'll answer your other questions... I'd feel OK about losing the utah game and being 11-1 currently. EK and LBSU were good wins, I'll give them that, but they were games BYU should have won.

But, I will give you that the frontcourt is disastrous this year.

Season's not over, lot of basketball to play. Would still love to get to the tournament and make some noise.

[Wolverine]

would you feel a lot better if we were 10-2? or if we had beaten Pitt but lost to either lbsu or eky? (teams that have given top 10 teams fits (lbsu is young, flawed, but insanely athletic team and played sdsu within 1, and led texas late in their game and beat a pretty good kstate team) (eky just steamrolled #16 miami by nearly 30)...

We're beating the teams we're supposed to and we've been within one bad call by a ref or a couple free throws from being ranked ourselves... which is pure insanity consider how bad we are down low... we're really bad... terrible. We have no big men with a single post move, yet we're 9-3.

This was a season where I said above many had very low expectations.. I usually predict a tourney invite and did so last year when almost all did not.. this year I expected NIT and we're almost through the non-con and we have not yet eliminated ourselves from a tourney invite. I think that's incredible..

9-3 is not mediocre, and it's not average, it's great for this team..

yes we have kc yes we have tyler... but our front line is BROKEN... BROKEN ... BROKEN

If somehow Eric Mika had stuck around I do think we're be in the top 20 and have 1-2 losses... but we have 3 losses without him and a broken frontline... I'll take it

Our talent is just not there as a whole... yet we have depth and we have a couple very special players that are willing us to a very good record, in spite of our flaws

Again, this is all great, but let's face it, BYU had a shot at doing something special the first 12 games of this year. And they blew some leads they had no business blowing, and lost to a purdue team that is less than average. So I'll answer your other questions... I'd feel OK about losing the utah game and being 11-1 currently. EK and LBSU were good wins, I'll give them that, but they were games BYU should have won.

But, I will give you that the frontcourt is disastrous this year.

Season's not over, lot of basketball to play. Would still love to get to the tournament and make some noise.

11-1 with a loss to Utah means BYU would have won the Maui Classic. I think Arizona would have had something to say about that.

[BroncoBot]

would you feel a lot better if we were 10-2? or if we had beaten Pitt but lost to either lbsu or eky? (teams that have given top 10 teams fits (lbsu is young, flawed, but insanely athletic team and played sdsu within 1, and led texas late in their game and beat a pretty good kstate team) (eky just steamrolled #16 miami by nearly 30)...

We're beating the teams we're supposed to and we've been within one bad call by a ref or a couple free throws from being ranked ourselves... which is pure insanity consider how bad we are down low... we're really bad... terrible. We have no big men with a single post move, yet we're 9-3.

This was a season where I said above many had very low expectations.. I usually predict a tourney invite and did so last year when almost all did not.. this year I expected NIT and we're almost through the non-con and we have not yet eliminated ourselves from a tourney invite. I think that's incredible..

9-3 is not mediocre, and it's not average, it's great for this team..

yes we have kc yes we have tyler... but our front line is BROKEN... BROKEN ... BROKEN

If somehow Eric Mika had stuck around I do think we're be in the top 20 and have 1-2 losses... but we have 3 losses without him and a broken frontline... I'll take it

Our talent is just not there as a whole... yet we have depth and we have a couple very special players that are willing us to a very good record, in spite of our flaws

Again, this is all great, but let's face it, BYU had a shot at doing something special the first 12 games of this year. And they blew some leads they had no business blowing, and lost to a purdue team that is less than average. So I'll answer your other questions... I'd feel OK about losing the utah game and being 11-1 currently. EK and LBSU were good wins, I'll give them that, but they were games BYU should have won.

But, I will give you that the frontcourt is disastrous this year.

Season's not over, lot of basketball to play. Would still love to get to the tournament and make some noise.

11-1 with a loss to Utah means BYU would have won the Maui Classic. I think Arizona would have had something to say about that.

And... I would have been fine with a loss to AZ. UNLESS, that is, BYU blew a 5 point overtime lead with 50 seconds left. That I still would find unacceptable.

[Wolverine]

This really has nothing to do with anyone's comments on here per se, but why is it that losing team's fans never give the opposing team credit for pulling out a win when down by 5 in the last minute or so? Why does it always have to be "our team blew it"? Just wondering Merry Christmas to all and here's to 2 wins this week and no knock down brawls

[AZman]

I will agree, all things considered BYU is performing at a high level. The there have been no blowout losses, which I mark up as a win. The big men need to develop, plain and simple. They are showing flashes of potential (especially Kaufusi on D and Nielsen on offense) and once they develop over the season they could very well make a run in the post season (probably as an at large). Coaching has been fairly good to this point although coach Rose should probably settle on a 9 man rotation with Kaufusi, Nielsen, Winder and Aytes getting the minutes. I'm sorry but Halford should not see the court, I was surprised to see him guarding Randle in the Stanford game. Maybe Coach Rose sees something that I don't?

Anyways, I guess the point of my ramblings is that BYU right now has a good team but their post-season success will depend squarely on the development of their bigs as the season progresses.

[Gunk]

I don't think anyone is necessarily upset with our current record. This seems like a "I was right, admit you were wrong post" not a "oh hey, this team is alright" post.

Fine, I admit the team is exceeding my expectations. There. People happy now?

Course, I based my expectations on KC taking a lot longer to get back into competitive condition and you can't really fault me for that. KC's recovery is nothing short of miraculous as was Haws returning so quickly to play Stanford. It's taken KC playing at a miraculous level to get us where we are today. Without KC, we would be looking at a .500 record.

I expected issues down low and we do have major issues down low, even Rose can back me up on that. We've added more "depth" down low but it's just substituting one ineffective post player in for another.

We are one bad landing, one retwisted knee away from the season being a wash.

Regarding KC at PG. He isn't a PG. If he plays professionally it won't be as a PG. He can't shoot and his post up moves are limited so the PG position makes sense for him given his average handles. KC does not split defenders off the dribble. He is not a razzle dazzle, shake 'n bake PG. He uses his larger body very effectively at shielding the ball and bumping smaller defenders off him. The best off the dribble handler we have is Winder - now that guy can split defenders.

That said, KC is a phenomenal player. We are lucky to have him and the success of the team is riding on that surgically repaired knee of his.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[BroncoBot]

This really has nothing to do with anyone's comments on here per se, but why is it that losing team's fans never give the opposing team credit for pulling out a win when down by 5 in the last minute or so? Why does it always have to be "our team blew it"? Just wondering Merry Christmas to all and here's to 2 wins this week and no knock down brawls

Probably because losing in that scenario is not a result of one team playing wel. Both teams contribute and the team that eventually loses has to have turnovers, missed FTs, giving up offensive rebounds. It's not just that one team played well, the leading team had to basically give up a few points which of course is what fans will focus on when they lose.

Go back and watch Gonzaga lose in the huntsman center with Morrison. Classic meltdown that wasn't really about about how well UCLA played, but how bad Gonzaga closed that game.

[nuk13]

It was good enough today even though Haws on the sore ankle only got 4 pts. Thanks Winder!