A critique on Haws

He is by far our best scorer, but I don't think he's an incredibly smart basketball player. At least he's not as aware as he needs to be based on situations.



There are examples both in games we won and games we lost where he was not doing what the best scorer/free throw shooter should be doing.



At the end of games when BYU is ahead, he rarely comes to get the ball to be the one that gets fouled. The ball generally ends up in the hands of Carlino, Collinsworth, or Winder on inbound plays. Haws has generally tried to leak out to the front court. He needs to come and get the ball.



Haws also needs to improve his ball handling. BYU tries to run staggered screens to get him open, which in and of itself isn't bad, but sometimes the best scorer just needs to be able to come and get the ball and do something with it.



He needs to extend his range on a consistent basis. The mid range game is solid, but it would probably become more effective if he extended his range consistently out to the NBA 3 point line.



He also needs to be mentally tougher. Teams can get into his head. He was better at not being as affected this year, but still has to improve.



For him to get to the NBA (I guess that's his desire) the 2 biggest items he needs to work on are the ball handling and the range.



Haws is great and will leave BYU as its all time leading scorer, but he's got some work to do.

I agree with what you are saying for the most part, but he is a bit of a liability late in a game when a team is trying to come back. Earlier in the year he did get the ball regularly at the end of games and teams were successfully turning him over instead of fouling him. He definitely needs to work on his ball handling.

I'll add two more to that list:



1) Passing. He's fine passing it back out to reset the offense, but when it comes to recognizing a double and getting the ball to the open man for a bucket, he's horrible at it. He's basically a 2 and for a 2 his assists numbers are low. I think he suffers a bit from tunnel vision.



2) Defense. If he wants to play in the NBA he's got to make significant improvements in his defense. At a bare minimum he needs to learn to rotate better in a zone. He doesn't have the range Jimmer has nor the ball handling skills to make up for any short comings on defense.

He is smart enough.

He needs to go to the Scottie Pippen school of dribbling and ballhandling for a somewhat tall guy. He needs to get lower and a few more tricks.

Not sure about the tunnel vision. Maybe.

He is much less likely to go to the NBA than Jimmer. Remember Jimmer had some size to handle contact when he does go to the room.

I would love to see a one-on-one game between Tyler and TJ. TJ would beat him on threes and likely beat him on getting to the hole. Midrange is obviously Tylers forte.

It would be a great game up to watch. I would give it a 50-50 chance. But if I had to put my money on one of them, I might just have to put it on TJ. He is better creating his own shot. Tyler needs help offensively to get a shot off. I don't know what TJ is like defensively.

Anyway, I hope this thread stays appropriate toward Tyler. Even though I think Kyle was the overall MVP, it's hard to knock Tyler and his tremendous effort all year long and the fact that he was the conference MVP.

More than anything we can critique him on, I agree, we need to realize how lucky we are to have him. The guy can score. I have a hard time criticizing his mental and physical toughness after watching the abuse he takes from every team we play, night in and night out. I don't see a lot of players out there that get held, bumped, fouled and generally beat up the way Tyler is. I'm surprised he's only had the rare outburst.



Finally, if you have ever met Tyler and talked to him, he is a really nice guy. He is humble, down to earth and very respectful. He is the kind of guy you would want your daughter to date - bet you couldn't say that about 90% of the college ball players today.

He is a very good player. We are just pining away for a great player to lead us to some NCAA victories.

Great last two comments. Maybe the last three. ;-)

BYULV wrote:
More than anything we can critique him on, I agree, we need to realize how lucky we are to have him. The guy can score. I have a hard time criticizing his mental and physical toughness after watching the abuse he takes from every team we play, night in and night out. I don't see a lot of players out there that get held, bumped, fouled and generally beat up the way Tyler is. I'm surprised he's only had the rare outburst.



Finally, if you have ever met Tyler and talked to him, he is a really nice guy. He is humble, down to earth and very respectful. He is the kind of guy you would want your daughter to date - bet you couldn't say that about 90% of the college ball players today.

99.9%

BYULV wrote:
More than anything we can critique him on, I agree, we need to realize how lucky we are to have him. The guy can score. I have a hard time criticizing his mental and physical toughness after watching the abuse he takes from every team we play, night in and night out. I don't see a lot of players out there that get held, bumped, fouled and generally beat up the way Tyler is. I'm surprised he's only had the rare outburst.



Finally, if you have ever met Tyler and talked to him, he is a really nice guy. He is humble, down to earth and very respectful. He is the kind of guy you would want your daughter to date - bet you couldn't say that about 90% of the college ball players today.

Great post, sometimes in our desire for the best, we through the greats under the bus. Haws would benefit greatly from having anyone else on the team who was a threat offensively to free him up some space. Unfortunately there's not another guy on the roster right now that can hit a jump shot, nor that I would trust with the ball in his hands in the final seconds of a close game. That makes it very easy for teams to pressure Haws.