Up close perspective

[craigoscarson]

1st and foremost, besides the terrible and dangerous weather to get there, we caught the KU UNI game and it was awesome... one of the sports highlites of my life to witness it
I have no idea how UNI lost a game this year or how UNLV nearly beat them; those guys were big fast and skilled. KU is every bit of the #1 team in the nation and UNI matched up with them very well. Jimmer could take a lesson or two on how to guard an all american like the kids from UNI. KU never got off a clean uncontested shot (KSU got off plenty)
I love my Cougs, but the highlight of the night was watching the #1 overall seed go down to a team like UNI. If the Cougars could find a couple more scrappers like UNI, we could go very very far in the future.

#2 Because of being the lower seeded team BYUs family etc. sat opposite the team bench. I sat right behind the Hartsock family and 4 of the players wives (emery, miles, tav) and about 10 feet away from the fredette clan.
Apparently, in order to get the ticket allotment behind the team bench you have to be the lower seed (KSU and KU were there)

#3 even though there were a dozen + Hartsocks at the game ; there were gobs of empty seats in the BYU players section. Each player got 6 tickets and several only had 1-2 at the game from their family. IF in the future, we end up at a location away from the west coast or utah, I reccomend finding a way to ask around; the players have no problem putting a good BYU fans name on the list for tickets... and they were great tix... outside before the KU game they were scalping nosebleed tix for $150 apiece and these seats were virtually front row.

#4 in spite of the refs having a bad night against us (they were very inconsistent) the reason we lost this game was that we allowed them wayy too many uncontested 3's and we took almost no uncontested shots. Those KSU guards shot the lights out, but it was more than anything a result of having tons of daylight to set up and take their shot.

#5 the fact we managed to keep it close was a result of being very very scrappy; our guys put their heart and souls out on the court; they were tired and a little too slow and ultimately it cost us...

#6 Noah Hartsock is an absolute warrior and showed it tonight... he's only going to get better.. his high school coach was there and reminded me that Noah absolutely ripped the Lopez brothers in AAU and that he's finally starting to round into form from his mission (he also told me that Noah should have redshirted last year)

#7 guys did look tired; obviously we came out on fire; playing with nothing to lose but ultimately ksu was much fresher

#8 apparently tj freddette doesn't own any byu gear, he wore a light blue sweater and a brown leather jacket... come on represent for BYU (very bizarre)

#9 Tyler Haws wasn't in the game when KSU made their runs and played very very well when he was in the game...

#10 KSU is very deep and quite young; if they dont' do more this year, they're going to do damage in the future

#11 Jimmer still has a lot to work on; he's a tremendous competitor but he went to the hole too much without a plan and when the KSU bigs contested, he didnt' know what to do with the ball at times (yes the refs let ksu away with a lot of contact) -great point guards are still getting off on him and if we want to win these huge games, we need to be able to count on jimmer being able to neutralize a perimeter threat

#12 the Kstate fans were very complimentary during and after the game of BYU; they know that in order to beat us that they had to play a great game and they did... after BYU starting out 10-0 we gave them a real scare,, the place was dead silent

bottom line, we kept it close but we really were outlassed most of the game; had the ball bounced differently a couple of times, clemente and pullen not shot lights out, we would have won this game in spite of playing quite average.

It was still a great night and I think the Cougs learned a great lesson that will have benefits next season and in the future.

Guys like Davies, Abouo, and even James Anderson have to step up to fill the shoes of Haws, JT, Miles, and LMJ... if they do... (and Jimmer makes the right decision) we're going to go even further next year

this still goes down as the greatest season in a very very long time; I couldn't help but just be proud of our guys tonight, in spite of some visible flaws.

[BYUROCKS]

I think other then Jimmer coming back, how well Davies develops is going to have biggest effect for our team.

[Ddawg]

Good read Craigo. Thx for taking the time to put your thoughts down. Ahhh .... now the let down. It was quite a year - quite a run!!!!

[Qman]

Hartsock battled but needs bigger guns to win. I think Hartsock gave us everything he had he just needed to be a little stronger to rip down those rebounds and finish a couple of plays. Davies made some good things happen but he needs experience and strength.

We needed Miles badly in this game. He was the only one of bigs with the size and strength to hold his own. He wasn't aggressive on offense and he made several bad fouls.

Haws and Abouo both made several positive plays. Loyd and Fredette were smothered by K-State.

I wonder what this team will do next year in the tourney. We will be back.

[beauso79]

I hope Rose can find another post player somewhere

[SpiffCoug]

My perspective while watching on TV in Orem.

- Kansas St was just flat out better than we were.

- Kansas St plays similar to SDSU where offensive rebounding is a huge part of their offense, but unlike SDSU they actually have the players who can actually hit outside shots.

- Rose and BYU need to find a way to become a better defensive rebounding team. The stats may show that we're a decent def rebounding team, but the results tell a different story. As was point out 35 off boards given up in two games is about 3x-4x too many for any good defensive boarding team.

- Officiating was horribly inconsistent. In the first half, the fouls started out BYU 5 KSU 6. Then 8 of the last 9 fouls before the half were on BYU. Then to start the 2nd half it was BYU 4 KSU 10. Final PF totals BYU 24 KSU 20.

- BYU did an admirable job of hanging tough with a type of team that usually gives us fits. We only had 13 turnovers, which is very manageable. We didn't get blown out. We got back into the game and had a chance to make it a two or three point game late, but couldn't quite make those plays.

- KSU could very likely come out of the west.

- The people most disappointed in the loss aren't true BYU fans or are scalpers who had seats in Energy Solutions Arena who just lost a "0" off their asking price for tix if BYU had won.

- Jimmer is very good, but there are defenders like Pullen all over the NBA. You're not ready Jimmer.

- KSU was the first team in the last month that the speed to counter Loyd.

- Hartsock played well and was the only guy who came to rebound.

- We had a very good season. If you look at the season has a big, fancy dinner, the appetizers were great (Jimmer dropping 49); the main course was very good (13-3 in conf is nothing to sneeze at); the soup was a little disappointing but not too bad (Jimmer's 45 vs TCU, but poor loss vs UNLV); and the desert started good, but had a weird aftertaste. All in all, a very enjoyable meal that I would gladly order again.

[SpiffCoug]

Oh, one more thing, as good of defense as KSU played on Jimmer, I thought their better defensive performance was on our role players. JT, Jackson and Haws got all of zero open looks after KSU's first time out.

[BYUBALLIN]

I see everyone talking about getting better in the post, i totally agree with. Correct me if iam wrong here, Collinsworth comes back from his mission for next season right. I remember watching this kid play and he got some serious game. Iam sure glad iam moving to utah in may. Iam really glad i put down money in feb for season tix next season. I will now have season tix for hoops and football. I cant wait for next season.

[Lawboy]

Davies and Hartsock need to live in the weight room the next 6 months, If those boys can get bigger and stronger, that will help immensely in the post. I hope the older Collinsworth boy does too. We have a great group returning, but they need to improve their bodies as much as anything. Perhaps Abouo can show them how, he has a great, strong build for hoops.

Great year. The next step is get the post guys to improve. If they do, next year could be Sweet 16 or better.

[craigoscarson]

Kitic your point on Loyd was spot on, in fact Clemente had a play where he blew by Loyd and you could see Michael say, "he thinks he's faster than me."

Guess what MLJ; he is.

Kevin Harlan said on KC radio (Harlan covers NBA on TNT, some NFL, and did the BYU game last night-- he's one of the best and lives in my neck of the woods) that he saw Ty Lawson last year and he's not sure if Clemente isn't faster than Lawson.

This game was tight, BYU went on that big epic run to start the game (I was so glad it wasn't another A+M start) but we didn't cover them well enough defensively and they covered us very well on defense. Yet we still had a chance to tie it up late in the game; these Cougars are very good and if Jimmer comes back... we could do some major damage next season.