Vs Weber St

This was the best game BYU has played this year IMO. The game was bizarre for us, we played deliberately and put the ball in the post multiple times a possession. Defensively we were better focused on executing a game plan to shutdown Sengilin.



Mika was the first and second option on offense. Next was some else in post or an offensive rebound. The final option was for Haws to try and create by driving or with a pick and role.



LJ Rose just ran the offense. Emery was a defensive role player.



It was the way for us to have the best chance to win.

Qman wrote:
This was the best game BYU has played this year IMO. The game was bizarre for us, we played deliberately and put the ball in the post multiple times a possession. Defensively we were better focused on executing a game plan to shutdown Sengilin.



Mika was the first and second option on offense. Next was some else in post or an offensive rebound. The final option was for Haws to try and create by driving or with a pick and role.



LJ Rose just ran the offense. Emery was a defensive role player.



It was the way for us to have the best chance to win.

I think this is a good take. Some will say the opponent wasn't good enough to judge, but I don't think that keeps us from seeing that BYU finally got the formula right for the first time all season. They can improve on it, but they at least finally played the way that will help them get to where they need to be.

BYU played a 2-6 opponent. We won by 11, but we were favored by 13, and Weber State missed 15 free throws. It was ugly. Gonzaga would have beat them by 40.

Mars wrote:
BYU played a 2-6 opponent. We won by 11, but we were favored by 13, and Weber State missed 15 free throws. It was ugly. Gonzaga would have beat them by 40.

Yes, but we are nowhere near Gonzaga yet. We can really only compare ourselves to where we are now compare to where we were and where we need to be. We have a long way to go to be at Gonzaga's level, hopefully we get somewhere close by February.

BlueK wrote:

This was the best game BYU has played this year IMO. The game was bizarre for us, we played deliberately and put the ball in the post multiple times a possession. Defensively we were better focused on executing a game plan to shutdown Sengilin.



Mika was the first and second option on offense. Next was some else in post or an offensive rebound. The final option was for Haws to try and create by driving or with a pick and role.



LJ Rose just ran the offense. Emery was a defensive role player.



It was the way for us to have the best chance to win.

I think this is a good take. Some will say the opponent wasn't good enough to judge, but I don't think that keeps us from seeing that BYU finally got the formula right for the first time all season. They can improve on it, but they at least finally played the way that will help them get to where they need to be.

I agree. I think this was the best game plan the Cougars have played so far this season.

Mars wrote:
BYU played a 2-6 opponent. We won by 11, but we were favored by 13, and Weber State missed 15 free throws. It was ugly. Gonzaga would have beat them by 40.

Those are external measurements. I was referring to watching what they were trying to do and seeing that the players seemed for the most part to be trying to play the right way. They need to perfect the approach, but they for once didn't play all over the page or stray from the gameplan like we've seen so far. They will get better. I think we're closer. the 11 vs 13 point spread I don't think is significant. Sagarin would have predicted a 13 point win and actually moved us up a few spots anyway.



Not sure what to make of Weber's problems at the line. Maybe a common way of thinking would be to say it's completely independent of whatever BYU was doing because a player shoots from the line without being defended, so it's entirely on them. But I'm not sure it really works that way. Something got into their heads, and I think a lot had to do with how we wore them down by pounding it inside, similar to how a team in football pounds it on the ground until they have their way with the D by the end of the game. If this game goes five more minutes I think we win by 20. BYU stuck to their gameplan, and that was a good thing.

Here is the USC game PER:
USC.PNG

Here is the Weber St. game PER:
Weber St..PNG

Yeah, Rose had a very deliberate game plan with this one and while it wasn't sexy, it was nice to see the players adhere to it. Mika is just a beast and if he can stay out of foul trouble (and the refs don't call lame fouls on him) then we can beat just about anybody with him alone in the game. I still can't believe how bad we are with the 3 ball. While I never thought we had any Chase Fischer's on this team, I thought going into the season that we had several capable shooters. It would really help Mika to not get double teamed if we could knock down our 3s.



Here is the season summary:
BYU 2016-12-08.PNG

Great info byufan4ever

Two things that stood out to me. I thought Yeoli would have had higher PERs and TJ really hasn't been good.

Our guards have been much poorer than expected. Rose isn't a scorer, but it's too tough to have both Haws and Emery in shooting funks at the same time, especially from 3. And Bryant, when healthy, is even worse.

To the point of the thread, this was Haws' best game since the season opener against Princeton, while also being Mika's 3rd best game (out of 9) and Kyle Davis's 3rd best game this season. Emery's 5th best.

Mars wrote:
Our guards have been much poorer than expected. Rose isn't a scorer, but it's too tough to have both Haws and Emery in shooting funks at the same time, especially from 3. And Bryant, when healthy, is even worse.

I see that Emery shot under 30% in both games. Maybe he should drive to the hoop more. I haven't watched the USC game and just saw highlights of WSU. I hope his defense is really good.

A couple more observations:



Weber St' guards didn't completely blow by their initial defender and the help defensive scheme was better in this game.



Davis looks a lot more comfortable in a more rigid, role-defined offense. He made several nice little shifts in the paint to take advantage of all the attention Mika gets.



Childs had a possession that he got switched to a guard and he locked him down. He got into his stance and cut off the drive for 7-8 seconds. Then he challenged a desperation jumper. Childs is just so talented.



I think Haws was told when to attack. And he looked really good doing it. Maybe the lower level of competition helped him out.