The Anatomy of the 2013 BYU Post-Season Run

#1 factor--REST. I am forming a working theory, that Dave Rose's pace of play, as much as I like it, is just too draining on most if not all teams. And so, BYU was running on high octane/nitro the first half and did quite well. But ran out of gas the second half and late into the conference schedule and tourney. But look what this team has done on rest? Yes, trip to SoMiss was tight from Monday, but they are still relatively rested, confidence is back and Zylstra showed up in a career night fashion.

BYU and Rose and Carlino and the Lone Peak brothers (Haws and Austin) are trained to get out and run and gun. So, REST and Run have Been huge. Now comes Baylor, also a run and gun team with taller athletes than SoMiss. We'll see.



#2 factor--UNDERPERFORMED during the season. Davies and Zylstra and Austin have underperformed. Maybe Carlino as well. This is the last hurrah for Davies and Z and they are playing with urgency and almost reckless abandon. A lot of unmet expectations and Rest have kept this team hungry.



#3 factor--SCHEME is a question to me. Has Rose given the green light to Z? Has he taken his foot off the break?



#4 Shooting. It's great!



Thoughts?

The biggest factor is obviously Carlino.



He has upped his game considerably, which may have to do with your point #1, rest. BYU teams need an effective point guard who can run and see the floor effectively and efficiently. When he plays poorly the whole team struggles, when he is on, the whole team is on.

Yep. Haws was gassed by the end of the season. Having a 10 days off before the first game and then another 6 before the second has rejuvinated him.



I think it's the biggest reason he's shooting 54% this post season after shooting 39% the final four games of the season.

Your #1 point also speaks volumes about the depth BYU has, or lack thereof. BYU's bench has been abysmal all season. There is no rest for the starters who are forced to play 38 minutes a game, and during the regular season, that's hard to do every couple days.

#5-- LEVEL OF COMPETITION. Hasn't it been fairly consistent that BYU has beaten teams they are usually capable of beating, fairly handily? Whereas teams that are equal or tougher, just seem to hammer BYU. Maybe this is very obvious and universal, IDK. But, we have beaten solid teams at seem fairly motivated, but no teams I would say were better on paper or on the court. Have we just met up so,e very beatable teams?

That would seem to stop with Baylor. Bt then again, I thought BYU would struggle with SoMiss. Maybe it was an off night for them.



Hawk, why most all your eggs in Carlinos basket? Is Zylstra and Austin's improved play attributable to Carlino? I sort of get that, but what has caused him to step up his game? Is he, like one poster suggested in the other thread, now the team leader? Is this the changing of the guards and the Srs are soon to be out? So, now, Carlino feels the open door to take control of this team? Is he finally just stepping into those shoes? Has Rose finally given this team to him? What?

A few thoughts on this.



Our guys were tired, no question. The rest did them well, and we get 4 days till Baylor. This, of course, does reflect on how bad our bench is. If our bench were our starting players I doubt we could beat Pepperdine.



In NIT play, Rose is starting the 5 best players on the team. He should have been using this lineup all season. I hope he learns from this. Start the 5 best guys and then worry about the rotation! Austin coming in for Davies didn't work.



The pressure is off. If the guys win in the NIT everyone is pleasantly surprised. If we lose, we shrug it off and say, "See, I knew these guys weren't that good." We won't be any more disappointed with them than we already were. As a result, they're playing loose and having fun. They win, great. They lose, there's always next season. IMO, playing loose and having fun has contributed immensely to Zylstra shooting better and Carlino playing better.



Carlino is the captain. I don't know what Rose has said to Carlino or done, but Carlino is playing lights out and from my perspective he's been given a longer leash. IMO, Carlino is the type of player you have to trust a bit. He knows his mistakes, is competitive and capable; so, there needs to be a bit of give and take with him and he needs to know he has Rose' trust and confidence. Case in point, his first few shots last night were bad/off. Instead of benching him and chastising him, Rose let him keep playing and shooting. A few minutes later, he was dialed in and his 3 point shooting kept So MS off our heels. That Jimmer-like shot was awesome. Carlino and team are built to run and they need to be let loose.

All I can say is that this is a rare treat to have a BYU BB team suddenly play like you wanted them to. This has been one of the most frustrating seasons as the team seemed on the surface to be better than what they were achieving. It felt like pure nonsense to be bounced out of the WCC tournament by San Diego (who claimed their 2nd win a a row over BYU).



I'm just going to enjoy the unexpected bounty, but it does give me some hope for next season seeing how Haws, Austin and Carlino have been playing in the tournament.

They had a rest from some people whinning about how they had no chance to win. Bandwagon is loaded and optimism for a positive outcome is reaching a peak.

Rose said it in his post game interview Wednesday night:



"We had 8 or 9 days to think about the direction of our program (after the season) and a few things happened, and we realized that we had somehow gotten away from who we were. We weren't playing our kind of basketball anymore."



They discovered what I have been posting all season about. The best players need to play, (ie, stop playing Cusick at the point) and they need to get out and run. So they are winning now.



Carlino is playing well because he is in his element. The thing he was recruited to come to BYU to do. Steven Nash sucks in a half court offense, and so does BYU and (and by proxy, Carlino because he is the one with the all in his hands.)



They started running. That is the answer.

I'd agree with you normally Mars. But there is a short run fatigue and then what I am referring to as a longer run of fatigue, vis-a-vis the second half of season, which all came after the gut wrenching, last second dagger at the hands of Delavadovoa, two games a week, mixed with a high paced offense, and some losses, mentally pressing to make it into the Big Dance, and some loss of confidence.

The REST was as much mentally as it was physically, bc I'm sure they worked hard in practice during the off week. But the otherwise tight schedule and travel of Tuesday and Thursday this week was offset by the break that preceded the tourney, the first game, then six days later the second game. They were more rested going into the tues/ Thursday combo--and the first two games were also at home vs on the road, confidence was restored, It all came together regardless.

Mars wrote:


BYU played Mercer on Tuesday in Utah, flew to Mississippi on Wednesday, and played a road game at 1-seed SoMiss on Thursday (who was favored by 6 points), and still won by double-digits. So I'm not sure that "Rest" was the #1 key factor in that win, or had anything at all to do with that one really.

"Rest" isn't just about physical endurance and stamina; it also has a lot to do with injury recovery and mental rest. And it is cumulative. Having 10 days off between the SD loss and the UW game was huge. It allowed the team (except for Sharp) to recover from the bumps and bruises of the regular season and the mental downer of the SD loss in the WCC tournament. The 5 days after UW allowed BYU to recover so that they could handle two games and a cross-country trip in 48 hours. Another 5 days off before the Baylor game should do wonders.

Long story short, is that BYU stopped being the punching bag and started punching (running)

BlueIsBetter wrote:
Long story short, is that BYU stopped being the punching bag and started punching (running)

BYU was running at the start of the season -yet Carlino sucked. It simply isn't that simple.



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Cougarbib wrote:

Long story short, is that BYU stopped being the punching bag and started punching (running)

BYU was running at the start of the season -yet Carlino sucked. It simply isn't that simple.



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No they didn't. What game did they run in that they lost? Hmmmmmmmm? Name me a game that they scored over 12 points in fast break points that they lost.



Simply, you are out of your league here. I have seen every game this year and last, and you ... well... haven't. Simply, shut up before you get smacked up. BYU stopped running in the middle of last year to feed Hartsock in the post, who couldn't run. It was the right move last year, but it killed us this year to not go back to it.



Look at fast break points, genius. You won't find them in any of our losses, or any time that Cusick is playing point guard. Maybe do a little research before you make stupid statements. You might have been to busy watching the Yewts take 10th in Pac 12 basketball to watch some of our games. Ute fan.

Here, I did some homework for you: (since you are too busy looking up the results of the Ute pro day)



Florida State - Loss - 0 fast break points

Baylor - Loss - 0 fast break points

Saint Mary's - Loss - 8 fast break points

San Diego - Loss - 8 fast break points

San Francisco - Loss - 0 fast break points

Gonzaga - Loss - 2 fast break points

San Diego (WCC tournament game) - Loss - 2 fast break points



NIT against Washington - WIN - 12 fast break points

Mercer - WIN - insufficient stats - more than 12 though for sure

SMU - WIN - insufficient stats - more than 12 though for sure

BlueIsBetter wrote:

BlueIsBetter wrote:
Long story short, is that BYU stopped being the punching bag and started punching (running)

BYU was running at the start of the season -yet Carlino sucked. It simply isn't that simple.



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No they didn't. What game did they run in that they lost? Hmmmmmmmm? Name me a game that they scored over 12 points in fast break points that they lost.



Simply, you are out of your league here. I have seen every game this year and last, and you ... well... haven't. Simply, shut up before you get smacked up. BYU stopped running in the middle of last year to feed Hartsock in the post, who couldn't run. It was the right move last year, but it killed us this year to not go back to it.



Look at fast break points, genius. You won't find them in any of our losses, or any time that Cusick is playing point guard. Maybe do a little research before you make stupid statements. You might have been to busy watching the Yewts take 10th in Pac 12 basketball to watch some of our games. Ute fan.

Yes Bitter - I remember you asking if I watched the games when I posted the 20 REGULAR SEASON win poll and you thought that was a ridiculous question and predicted they would flirt with 30. Watching every game and understanding what is going on are two different things. The team ran more when Haws was racking up 20 point consecutive games to start the season, but Carlino was sucking. Running means more than just fast break points. It means getting down court fast with an early outlet pass and immediately attacking the basket.



Carlino used to be much too impressed with his dribble.



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BlueIsBetter wrote:
Here, I did some homework for you: (since you are too busy looking up the results of the Ute pro day)



Florida State - Loss - 0 fast break points

Baylor - Loss - 0 fast break points

Saint Mary's - Loss - 8 fast break points

San Diego - Loss - 8 fast break points

San Francisco - Loss - 0 fast break points

Gonzaga - Loss - 2 fast break points

San Diego (WCC tournament game) - Loss - 2 fast break points



NIT against Washington - WIN - 12 fast break points

Mercer - WIN - insufficient stats - more than 12 though for sure

SMU - WIN - insufficient stats - more than 12 though for sure

Reading Comprehension Bitter. I said started the season running. And running was working most of the time, but Carlino sucked. Look it up.



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Cougarbib wrote:

Here, I did some homework for you: (since you are too busy looking up the results of the Ute pro day)



Florida State - Loss - 0 fast break points

Baylor - Loss - 0 fast break points

Saint Mary's - Loss - 8 fast break points

San Diego - Loss - 8 fast break points

San Francisco - Loss - 0 fast break points

Gonzaga - Loss - 2 fast break points

San Diego (WCC tournament game) - Loss - 2 fast break points



NIT against Washington - WIN - 12 fast break points

Mercer - WIN - insufficient stats - more than 12 though for sure

SMU - WIN - insufficient stats - more than 12 though for sure

Reading Comprehension Bitter. I said started the season running. And running was working most of the time, but Carlino sucked. Look it up.



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Carlino's shooting sucked at the beginning of the year. His assist to turnover ratio didn't.



In fact, it was better at the beginning of the year than it was last season and it was better at the beginningof the season than it was towards the end of WCC play when we got stuck in a lame half-court set.



The biggest mistake was putting in Cusick instead of Calvert. Cusick has no concept of how to push the ball up the court. Cusick is a steady hand, which was great when we had Hartsock and Davies to feed in the post. We didn't have that two-headed monster this season.

Gunk wrote:

BlueIsBetter wrote:
Here, I did some homework for you: (since you are too busy looking up the results of the Ute pro day)



Florida State - Loss - 0 fast break points

Baylor - Loss - 0 fast break points

Saint Mary's - Loss - 8 fast break points

San Diego - Loss - 8 fast break points

San Francisco - Loss - 0 fast break points

Gonzaga - Loss - 2 fast break points

San Diego (WCC tournament game) - Loss - 2 fast break points



NIT against Washington - WIN - 12 fast break points

Mercer - WIN - insufficient stats - more than 12 though for sure

SMU - WIN - insufficient stats - more than 12 though for sure

Reading Comprehension Bitter. I said started the season running. And running was working most of the time, but Carlino sucked. Look it up.



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Carlino's shooting sucked at the beginning of the year. His assist to turnover ratio didn't.



In fact, it was better at the beginning of the year than it was last season and it was better at the beginningof the season than it was towards the end of WCC play when we got stuck in a lame half-court set.



The biggest mistake was putting in Cusick instead of Calvert. Cusick has no concept of how to push the ball up the court. Cusick is a steady hand, which was great when we had Hartsock and Davies to feed in the post. We didn't have that two-headed monster this season.

My point is SIMPLY this. Carlino has actually improved. Better shot selection. Better flow. Less dribbling. How many 9 assist games did Carlino have in the first half of the season? How many vs decent teams? Carlino got the memo from Rose. Be happy.



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