Assistants

AFter reading through the football forum, I decided to start a new gasoline fire over here on the basketball forum. :whistle: Let me start by saying I would never want to get rid of Rose, think he's about as perfect a bball coach as BYU is going to find. But... Is he having some of the same problems that Bronco is having on the football side regarding coaching staff. It's no secret that Howell just plain stunk it up this year, even before he lost a good chunk of his defense to injuries. I'm wondering why BYU always seems to struggle DEVELOPING big men. Kaufusi seems to be progressing nicely, but the last big that I felt BYU could really depend on was... Araujo? Plaisted was the same player his freshman year as he was his senior year. Nate Austin more recently seems to become more gun shy every year. Miles never really reached his potential. As far post play, I felt that even Steve Cleveland was able to get a lot more out of his bigs. Utah State always seem to have a big that can at least score a little and play some tough defense and who is improving. This year Utah had guys who came in and have played very well in the post.



I was really hopeful that Coach Pope was going to quickly address this issue. But, I'm not so sure anymore. Is this a recruiting issue? Coaching? soft environment? Up-tempo game that doesn't rely on half court sets as often? If BYU had a decent big man this year I believe (as I'm sure a lot of bball fans would) that BYU would probably be undefeated. I can't think of a game that a good center wouldn't have been able to make the difference....



Any thoughts?

I thought Mika progressed quite nicely last year as a Freshman. Worthington has improved quite a bit, albeit with a very limited skill set. Kaufusi has been impressive considering he hadn't played competitively since his Junior year in high school with a mission thrown in. Nielsen is Coming along as well for a Freshman. The current bigs aside from Austin are young and inexperienced, but I see growth happening. Coaching must factor in the equation somewhere.

You forgot Davies, who could scrape together a longer career in the NBA than Araujo, though Davies just got waived by the Nets.



I don't know what to make of our bigs. How much of it is coaching versus a lack of talent or effort by our bigs. It was well known Araujo put in a ton of work. He'd wake up early each morning and his wife would rebound for him while he practiced. Not sure about Davies, but apparently in the NBA he's known as a work horse. Plaisted, I never heard reports on his work ethic but the fact he wasn't any better after 3 years may hint at it. Bottom line, they have to put the work in it.



Another thing with bigs is there aren't as many of them. So a poor performing big really stands out as opposed to poor performing guard or forward. A big also carries a heavier load on the team so any limitations hurt the team more. Consequently, we notice the bigs more.



Throw in the fact athletic 7 footers don't grow on trees so any big with a lot of skill and talent will be recruited heavily and have their choice of schools. We had to go to Brazil to find Araujo and he was project. Davies was under the radar as was Plaisted. Mika is a good get and we are fortunate he wanted to come play at BYU.



[ Post made via Mobile Device ] http://cougarcorner.com/images/mobile.png" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

I agree with Gunk that we haven't had many talented bigs at BYU. And if we miss on one's career due to injuries, etc. it makes everything look bad.



When did Pope join the staff? Seems like he has helped our bigs make some progress.



Note I believe Austin's career has been sidetracked with shoulder injuries killing his offseason work.



On the work ethic thing it is rare to have a big who is will to put in the work. Heck it is rare to have a guard willing to put in the work. That is a part of what makes KC and Haws so special.

To echo you guys; Do we not get the talent to play underneath or do we not develop it? It's probably a little bit of both. You are right about the work ethic regardless and It does apply to every position. What would an extra 30 minutes do for some of these guys. We need it very much. If Mika were on the team now I'm confident we'd have won at least 2 of the games we lost and would be ranked. Can the ones we have now put in the time to get us to the next level. Will the coaches put in the time to help them get there?

I like BYU's assistants - even Terry Nashif. He helped make Ben Murdock into a serviceable MWC point guard.

SpiffCoug wrote:
I like BYU's assistants - even Terry Nashif. He helped make Ben Murdock into a serviceable MWC point guard.

Yes, I'd agree. I think it's the fact that often when we get a big it's the kind that doesn't know that he can actually dunk the basketball. At least we've seen more of that since Pope has been around. Mika was quite the exception in what we had seen and Davies developed into a very good big. I would agree as well that if we had Mica still around this season we very well could have picked up at least two of our losses.

Something else to keep in mind. BYU's bigs probably run the floor better than most bigs in the NCAA. Have to give them that. Even Worthington this season has made a defensive play at one and been down the floor at the other to help on the offensive side. Davies, of course, ran the floor better than any, which is probably a big reason he got the NBA's attention.



Regarding assistants, I do think we have some solid assistants. Pope has some legit experience as an NBA player, coach at Wake Forest and now a couple years at BYU. Nashif has been with BYU for a decade now. I used to bag on Nashif a bit till someone pointed out to me it wasn't entirely fair to bag on the guy coaching Jimmer. LaComb has both collegiate and high school coaching experience.



Then you have solid graduate assistants like Hartsock that actually run the floor with the scout team.

I think if Mika were here we wouldn't be having this topic. I'm sure coach Pope had a culture shock with his background coming in and seeing the physical attributes of our bigs. I like our freshmen but they are freshmen and should be developing on the bench for a couple of years while quality upperclassmen are on the floor. If we could only get 1 big each recruiting season of Mika's ability we'd have a nice pipeline and then a couple each year like Nielson or Worthington to develop a couple of years on the bench and give positive contributions as Seniors. It's no wonder we are starting 4 guards...that seems to be where our LDS kids are coming in at. I understand how hard it is to recruit quality bigs who are not LDS. I also understand a good LDS high schooler who has NBA potential has lots more options than BYU that make sense. I guess with what we have in the pipeline now and with Coach Pope our future does look better. I hope he hangs around for awhile.



Go Cougs!



L Hatton

Louisville, KY

Might need a bunch of gasoline and a lighter. No fire here.