Keys to Beating Zags

...and making it to the big dance! Oh baby! Win tonight and we are in!



I am not nearly as informed as some, but here are my takeaways from St. Mary's that must apply again tonight.



1. Bench play. All compliments to Yoeli and Eli for delivering, but the quality from Nixon and a few others off the bench was Trump-esque yuuuuuuge. Must have it again. Seljaas too, please hit a few 3s off the bench.

2. TJ Haws. Get him to 10+ points and something like 6+ assists and we have a great shot.

3. Luke Worthington. His D on Landale was a tone setter which the rest of the team fed on. I don't recall the leading scorers for ghe zags, but having the same kind of intensity from Luke, and we have a great shot.

4. Win or go home. The Zags are already in the big dance, and BYU is not without the W. I think this helps BYU.

5. Gonzaga winning again. I think it is hard for Gonzaga to pin down a hungry BYU team another time. This one has the feel of the regular season finale from last year when the Zags were #1. Only BYU and UNC beat them. And that is awesome. In college hoops there is something extra hard about consistently beating a good matchup, which BYU and Gonzaga are.



It's March baby! Take us to the dance Coach Rose! Beating two top tier teams AND winning the tourney to get there would be like, the coolest.

6. Childs and Bryant have to match their scoring that they had against SMC.

7. Three point shooting. We need some 3s to stretch the floor and I would prefer they not come from Childs.

Gunk wrote:

7. Three point shooting. We need some 3s to stretch the floor and I would prefer they not come from Childs.

Yes. Gonzaga smothered us defensively in our last meeting.

I'm calling it again. Cougs by 6. Zags have already punched their ticket. BYU is hangry. Tough to beat a good team three straight times.

BoiseBYU wrote:

I'm calling it again. Cougs by 6. Zags have already punched their ticket. BYU is hangry. Tough to beat a good team three straight times.

Methinks I better keep my day job

Don't go to Vegas.

Last night was a good example of what happens when you meet up with a better team offensively and defensively. It wasn't even a contest. BYU has a long way to go to compete with Gonzaga. They both smothered us defensively and BYU had no answer to stopping that offense.

I think BYU needs more than 2 good players. Haws is probably our 3rd best, much he's much worse than Tavernari, and JT made a great 6th man.

Mars wrote:

I think BYU needs more than 2 good players. Haws is probably our 3rd best, much he's much worse than Tavernari, and JT made a great 6th man.

Childs and Bryant are very good college players. IMO Childs is the first big man we have had in years that has draft potential as long as he keeps improving his outside shot. If BYU wants to get to the next level, Haws, Hardnett, and Seljaas need to consistantly hit their jumpers. If Haws and Seljaas alone could get into the 40+% on their threes, BYU's offense would become lethal along with the newfound defense they can potentially play it could mean a WCC championship and a NCAA tourney run. If Seljaas got back to his freshman levels of 3 point shooting, he alone would open up BYU's offense to near unstoppable levels.

frdbtr wrote:

Last night was a good example of what happens when you meet up with a better team offensively and defensively. It wasn't even a contest. BYU has a long way to go to compete with Gonzaga. They both smothered us defensively and BYU had no answer to stopping that offense.

Let's be honest, the odds of BYU consistently competing with GU are slim. Sure we might have a year or two where we get a win on them, but they are at a different level.



A deep tourney run last year and a likely Sweet 16 run this year will just get them better and better recruits. Top players that would have gone to Oregon, USC, or some top Pac 12 school will now consider going to GU. Meanwhile, BYU will continue to get who we get.



We should certainly focus on beating GU, but in doing so hopefully we cement at-large invites. If we beat Pacific, LMU, and SD this season like we should have, we'd be a bubble team, possibly edging out SMC for an invite.

From the 2:59 mark if the 1st half when Yeoli Childs hit a three tied the game at 27 to the 8:59 mark of the 2nd half when Payton Dastrup also hit a three to make the score 65-36 for Gonzaga, might some of the worst basketball I have ever seen a Dave Rose coached BYU team play.



For 12 minutes in between the Childs and Dastrup shots BYU was simply atrocious on both sides of the court. The offense was awful. The defense was abysmal. That 38-6 run was amazing to watch. The ineptitude was only matched by Gonzaga's supremacy.



During those 12 minutes, BYU made just 4 of 21 shots with 4 turnovers. While the Zags made 14 of 20 with 1 turnovers.



Just pathetic.

SpiffCoug wrote:

From the 2:59 mark if the 1st half when Yeoli Childs hit a three tied the game at 27 to the 8:59 mark of the 2nd half when Payton Dastrup also hit a three to make the score 65-36 for Gonzaga, might some of the worst basketball I have ever seen a Dave Rose coached BYU team play.



For 12 minutes in between the Childs and Dastrup shots BYU was simply atrocious on both sides of the court. The offense was awful. The defense was abysmal. That 38-6 run was amazing to watch. The ineptitude was only matched by Gonzaga's supremacy.



During those 12 minutes, BYU made just 4 of 21 shots with 4 turnovers. While the Zags made 14 of 20 with 1 turnovers.



Just pathetic.

And Gonzaga had a lot to do with that. They smothered BYU on defense and carved our defense to shreds. They were superior in every way.

frdbtr wrote:

From the 2:59 mark if the 1st half when Yeoli Childs hit a three tied the game at 27 to the 8:59 mark of the 2nd half when Payton Dastrup also hit a three to make the score 65-36 for Gonzaga, might some of the worst basketball I have ever seen a Dave Rose coached BYU team play.



For 12 minutes in between the Childs and Dastrup shots BYU was simply atrocious on both sides of the court. The offense was awful. The defense was abysmal. That 38-6 run was amazing to watch. The ineptitude was only matched by Gonzaga's supremacy.



During those 12 minutes, BYU made just 4 of 21 shots with 4 turnovers. While the Zags made 14 of 20 with 1 turnovers.



Just pathetic.

And Gonzaga had a lot to do with that. They smothered BYU on defense and carved our defense to shreds. They were superior in every way.

No, no, no. It was because of Rose, frdbtr. I mean what else was Rose telling the team during the 3 timeouts he took other than for them to keep playing atrocious ball?

Gunk wrote:

SpiffCoug wrote:

From the 2:59 mark if the 1st half when Yeoli Childs hit a three tied the game at 27 to the 8:59 mark of the 2nd half when Payton Dastrup also hit a three to make the score 65-36 for Gonzaga, might some of the worst basketball I have ever seen a Dave Rose coached BYU team play.



For 12 minutes in between the Childs and Dastrup shots BYU was simply atrocious on both sides of the court. The offense was awful. The defense was abysmal. That 38-6 run was amazing to watch. The ineptitude was only matched by Gonzaga's supremacy.



During those 12 minutes, BYU made just 4 of 21 shots with 4 turnovers. While the Zags made 14 of 20 with 1 turnovers.



Just pathetic.

And Gonzaga had a lot to do with that. They smothered BYU on defense and carved our defense to shreds. They were superior in every way.

No, no, no. It was because of Rose, frdbtr. I mean what else was Rose telling the team during the 3 timeouts he took other than for them to keep playing atrocious ball?

Oops! I forgot about that! ;)

That stretch was indeed some bad basketball. When the the Zags ended the half on a little run, then came out and started the second half on a run, BYU was done. It felt like the game was out of hand with 15 min left.