Utep game = battle of attrition

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=300092638



we have 5 guys with 4 fouls with 4 minutes left and an 8 point lead.... crazy game

There have been alot of phantom calls against BYU tonight imo. If UTEP could hit frees, they'd have this game under control.



Let's see how BYU finishes with an 8 point lead and 2:30 to go

Huge win for the Cougars. They took out a good team on the road without Jimmer Fredette and against the refs.



Not clear to me why, but the refs were intent on bailing UTEP out. I believe that two of the refs were Conf-USA and 1 was MWC. Every so often, you could catch the BYU players looking at the MWC ref like "what is this" and he would kind of shrug his shoulders like he wasn't sure himself. There were so many phantom and-1s it was disgusting.



But, the Cougars gritted it out. Tavernari came up huge. Mr. Intangible Emery made key plays. Everyone contributed.

Character's cramps took most of the drama out of the game. Usually, I would feel like that cheapened the game, but with Jimmer sitting in his street clothes, I didn't feel like the big guy's failure to hydrate took anything away from this win.

i like that Rose or someone else...called this a conference type game since UTEP fans are so spiteful of BYU...I guess everyone's a rival... but regardless, I bet that place was rockin, and UTEP kept attacking even down to the final few seconds. Credit them for never giving up, even when it seemed like BYU had the game in hand.



Road wins like these I think help define a team, especially with Tav fouling out and Haws stepping up with some clutch free throw shooting.

The way I look at every game is that if we have a 2 possession lead with 2 mins left, we win. FT shooting is huge in bball and right now it is winning us games that we would have lost last year.

CougarPeasant wrote:
There have been alot of phantom calls against BYU tonight imo. If UTEP could hit frees, they'd have this game under control.



Let's see how BYU finishes with an 8 point lead and 2:30 to go

JT fouled out on a phantom call. As they showed multiple replays of the "foul," I thought that it was clear that he did exactly what the announcers were saying he "should have" done.

I have got to quit this basketball prediction game, because I actually found myself rooting for my team to miss free throws in the final seconds. I was really worried when I heard the mono diagnosis because my wife had it last year and she was worn out by noon for about six weeks. Now, I am feeling more and more confident that this team can win any game, except maybe @ UNM, @ UNLV and @ SDSU, WITHOUT Jimmer. Not to say we wouldn't be even better with him, but the depth on this year's squad is really impressive. Great recruiting and coaching by Rose and staff.

cougdoc wrote:
I have got to quit this basketball prediction game, because I actually found myself rooting for my team to miss free throws in the final seconds.

That's why I retired from fantasy sports after one season. Took away from the joy of the game to be cheering for a player to play well against a team I like, just because he was on my fantasy roster.