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byucougar1There appeared to be several reasons why BYU beat SD (87-53) - 34 pt margin????
As Rose had stated, prior to the game the team had identified with an offense first mentality and defense second. They would look for every opportunity to score (sometimes with questionable shots and jacking them up without a conscience), but rarely making defensive stops. When they weren't shooting the ball well nor distributing the ball well, they often got behind rather quickly, and never seemed to recover.
However, against SD they went into the game with the intent to play man-to-man and focus on defense first. Rose stated in the post game interview that âWe were a defensive team playing with urgency on every defensive possession. We need to bottle that and make that become a huge part of the identity of this group.â I concur and believe that Halford's contribution was not just on offense (28 points) but with his defense on Johnny Dee (2-12), and the spark that it gave the team. His style of play carried over to the others, and it showed with their confidence and tenacity that continued throughout the game. While Halford may not score 28 points again, I believe that his defensive energy is contagious and hopefully this will carry over to all the starters and subs going forward.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Cougs were back into the distribution of the ball (sharing and resulting assists) instead of 1 shot and done. They had 25 assists and shot 53 percent from the field. Much of that can be attributed to looking for the open man and getting/taking a good shot.
It also seemed that when Carlino played off the bench, he looked to find the open man first before jacking up shots from wherever he was on the court. It resulted in stability and a continuance of the type of play that had been established. Hopefully, the message has been received.
Not sure what Pepperdine and LMU have planned for revenge weekend, but hopefully BYU brings the same defensive mindset to these games so that their PGs don't go off again for career highs in points/game.
As Rose had stated, prior to the game the team had identified with an offense first mentality and defense second. They would look for every opportunity to score (sometimes with questionable shots and jacking them up without a conscience), but rarely making defensive stops. When they weren't shooting the ball well nor distributing the ball well, they often got behind rather quickly, and never seemed to recover.
However, against SD they went into the game with the intent to play man-to-man and focus on defense first. Rose stated in the post game interview that âWe were a defensive team playing with urgency on every defensive possession. We need to bottle that and make that become a huge part of the identity of this group.â I concur and believe that Halford's contribution was not just on offense (28 points) but with his defense on Johnny Dee (2-12), and the spark that it gave the team. His style of play carried over to the others, and it showed with their confidence and tenacity that continued throughout the game. While Halford may not score 28 points again, I believe that his defensive energy is contagious and hopefully this will carry over to all the starters and subs going forward.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Cougs were back into the distribution of the ball (sharing and resulting assists) instead of 1 shot and done. They had 25 assists and shot 53 percent from the field. Much of that can be attributed to looking for the open man and getting/taking a good shot.
It also seemed that when Carlino played off the bench, he looked to find the open man first before jacking up shots from wherever he was on the court. It resulted in stability and a continuance of the type of play that had been established. Hopefully, the message has been received.
Not sure what Pepperdine and LMU have planned for revenge weekend, but hopefully BYU brings the same defensive mindset to these games so that their PGs don't go off again for career highs in points/game.