Alabama or Valparaiso

We've played powder-puffs thus far in the season. Wednesday night will be are first game against an opponent that can beat us.



We'll play the winner of Alabama vs Valparaiso - both teams went to the NIT last year. Alabama lost in the first round of the NIT to Creighton and Valparaiso, as we know, went to the finals after beating us.



In the 1st ten minutes, Valparaiso came out hot hitting their first 5. Alabama came out cold. There is still plenty of game left, but I'm betting Alabama wins this one. Valparaiso is turning the ball over a bunch, giving Alabama some fast breaks and they, like us, get up court. Our guards will have trouble defending.

I was wrong. Valparaiso won. Looks like we get a rematch. Was a low scoring game, 66 to 60. We're going to have to watch Peters. Will be a good game. We win this one and my hopes for an epic season will start to creep up.

Oh it would have been fun to beat Alabama, but it's not disappointing to have a rematch opportunity with Valpo.

Princeton was supposed to be a pretty good team. Granted, they lost their next game, but they did have everyone back from a team that won almost all their games last year. Valpo is probably a little better, and their win last night against Alabama is a good one for them, as Bama was ranked pretty close to them on most of the different computer ranking systems out there. This will be a pretty good win for us if we can get it. I think we've improved more than they have since last year.

A quick look at the matchups:



Peters is a 6'9" 235 combo forward-He will probably matchup with Davis to start. Davis struggled to guard him last year. So Childs may have to step up. Or maybe Davis has learned to be smarter.



Hammink is a 6'7" 210 lb forward that might be a real matchup problem for us. If Bryant was healthy he might be our best matchup. Or Guinn will have to step up. Or we will have to play zone. Or maybe LJ Rose is superman on D.



On the flip side they don't have anyone to handle Mika. Their starting center is Adeyoka a 6'7" 235 lb senior. So I expect they will go zone or double down on Mika. If Mika is making the right pass, I hope we get Haws and Emery going from 3.



Mika needs to stay out of foul trouble for this game and we need to slap Emery and Haws until they stop taking terrible shots. But I feel pretty good about of chances.

Between Mika and Davis down low, we should be able to control the post.



Peters will stretch Davis on defense. Peters can shoot and post up a bit. His turnaround is killer. We'll probably have to throw a couple different bodies at him.

Additionally, Rick Schmidts, kid may get some time. He is 7'2" freshman. Would like to see how Mika handles his length, however, Schmidts is still pretty young and raw and shouldn't be ready for Mika. he will likely be pretty good down the road though.



If we control Peters (who is very good), we will win this game.

Ken Pomeroy current national rankings, adjusted for SOS:



Defense:

BYU 40th, Valpo 63rd



Offense:

BYU 45Th, Valpo 105th.



End of last season:



Defense:

BYU 69th, Valpo 8th



Offense:

BYU 48Th, Valpo 124th.



BYU appears to have improved well on defense, slight improvement on offense. But keep in mind these numbers are adjusted by SOS, and last year's SOS was way better as a whole then the first four games of this year. So actually, it's quite possible we've improved quite a bit more than is currently being reflected in here, but we'll have to see as the competition improves.



In the game last year against Valpo they beat us by 2 points in the NIT semifinal. From looking at the stats from that game, our defense was ok but our offense was terrible, which would seem to go along with having faced a really good defense that night The numbers this year seem to indicate Valpo is not as strong defensively.

Valpo played good defense against Alabama, but really benefited from Bama's inabililty to shoot. Bama had some really athletic guys, but no one could get to the basket and finish or make open shots. Granted, some of that was due to Valpo's defense, but more of it was just Alabama not having a go to guy or two.

How we looking? Unfortunately, I can't watch it. Score looks good.

Bigs in foul trouble in the 1st half. Mika, Davis, Childs with 2 each. We're holding our own with Aytes and Dastrup for now.

BYU needs to pull it together and the refs need to stop calling dumb fouls on our bigs.

Our bigs need to stop pushing with their elbows and going over the back. Mika with 4 fouls now.

What kind of lazy pass was that from Emery??

The wheels are falling off. Can't make a layup and can't go a min without a foul.

As anticipated, our perimeter defense is atrocious.

There are two things worse than the reffing in this game: the indamnable disaster that is Elijah Bryant-selfish selfish selfish; and Emery who seems to be in a selfish stupid play contest with Bryant. Horrible.

Yeah not impressed with Bryant at all. And that should have been over the back on Val on that last Off Reb. They've been calling that on us all night.

So many mental errors tonight and thena mental error by Coach Rose not to get a time out and a good set play and look for a three. I know time wasn't ideal but

Rough game. Refs were horrible, but this game was winnable.



Mika still hasn't learned not to foul. Despite our size we had trouble rebounding the ball. Haws and Emery m ake great plays only to make a stupid play. Guinn goes 3/3 from the arc with some key shots and Rose sits him. Last but not least, once again opponents have a career night shooting 3s. We're going no where with such a porous perimeter defense.