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BYU-UNM for a 3 Seed?

by Mars · 2/22/2010

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Mars
http://www.sportingn...t-now-contender



" The Mountain West has waited nearly a dozen years for a conference basketball game this big, this competitive, this essential. Surely the rest of us can wait another half-dozen days. It has been a while — since, like, forever — that MWC hoops last was appointment television. Set your DVRs or clear your schedule, however you prefer to manage these matters: Saturday at 4 p.m., Versus will televise No. 12 New Mexico at No. 16 BYU. It's a game that should decide the league champion and could propel the winner into a top-three NCAA Tournament seed.



With guard Jimmer Fredette averaging 21.5 points and 5 assists, BYU is 25-3, 10-2 in the conference. The Cougars lost by only four when they visited The Pit to face the Lobos back in late January. New Mexico is 25-3, 11-2 in the conference and hasn't lost since Jan. 9 — a string of 11 consecutive victories led by the constant threat that 6-7 Darington Hobson might pull off a triple-double.



...There never has been a top four seed from the Mountain West. That should not be a problem this year. The only question might be whether it's one team or two getting that kind of seed — and, if it's only one, which will it be. Saturday at the Marriott Center won't answer that question definitively but should give us some pretty clear direction. "
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SpiffCoug
I think the winner of Saturday's game could be a 3-Seed in the West. Here's what I think it will take for either BYU or UNM to get a 3-seed:



- Win on Saturday.

- Finish the MWC regular season at 14-2.

- Make the MWC tournament finals.



Both teams are 25-3 right now. BYU wins and then makes the final, they'll be 31-3 going into the MWC final. UNM would be 30-3. Both would be in the Top 10 of the polls and Top 15 of the RPI more than likely. Either would be very deserving of a #3 seed (or even a #2) if they then went on to win the Rebel Invitational.
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craigoscarson
Before and after unm there's a lot of hoops to be played. UNLV made the mistake of putting all their eggs in one basket and dropped 3 after their performance against us.

Losing to UNM doesn't hurt us as bad as losing to anyone else. I'd love to beat UNM (and I think we will) but losing any of the rest of our remaining games would hurt worse (seedings wise)



I think we have a shot to win out, but there's more to this season than UNM at home. We need a good showing in the conf tourney, wins against sdsu , @utah, @tcu etc.



A 3 seed is in sight but we gotta win em all, I just hope we dont' have the same type of letdown that UNLV had after their big win.



sdsu has the horses inside; I think we're in for a game on wednesday... depending on what sdsu team shows up
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BroncoBot
Carson, I agree that wed will be tough but it is in the MC and I think the Cougars put that one away. I also think that BYU beats NM @MC without too much problem. BYU didn't have a great game and only lost by 4 to the lobos at the pit. If BYU even plays half way decent they should win that game at home. We'll see though. It would be great to see a number 3 next to BYU in the bracket, I still doubt the selection committee is going to give them that kind of love. Although, everyone that knows anything about basketball would agree that BYU deserves it, they've got a great resume.
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JamieVallen
I'm going to say what I've said before and I'm officially calling it right now, BYU will have more trouble against SDSU on wednesday than they will against New Mexico. I think we beat NM by at least 10 but I sense the game on Wednesday is going to be much closer. Who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe SDSU comes in and we just blow them away, but I just doubt it, I feel like they're going to be playing that game with a high level of intensity. Although I'm sure the house will be rockin' next Saturday, (hoping for a Wake Forest type atmosphere). I just hope we have a good crowd out for wednesday as well.
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GolfDiveNCougs
So, uhh, is anyone else PISSED that Versus and DirecTV are STILL screwing the fans over???
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Dcr36
jmvcougar wrote:
I'm going to say what I've said before and I'm officially calling it right now, BYU will have more trouble against SDSU on wednesday than they will against New Mexico.


This.



SDSU's top 3 scorers are all bigger guys. If I'm remembering correctly, we beat SDSU @SD because of our bigs getting some crucial blocks at key moments and a strange abandoning of the inside game on SDSU's part. I don't think they'll make that mistake again, and SDSU's strengths are a mirror image of our weaknesses. Hopefully the home crowd plays a factor and we get some strong performances where we need them.
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Dcr36
jmvcougar wrote:
(hoping for a Wake Forest type atmosphere)


That game was great (crowd-wise). I was expecting some chairs to fly after the 4th crap officiating call in like 1 minute's time.
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mizzoucoug
jmvcougar wrote:
I'm going to say what I've said before and I'm officially calling it right now, BYU will have more trouble against SDSU on wednesday than they will against New Mexico. I think we beat NM by at least 10 but I sense the game on Wednesday is going to be much closer. Who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe SDSU comes in and we just blow them away, but I just doubt it, I feel like they're going to be playing that game with a high level of intensity. Although I'm sure the house will be rockin' next Saturday, (hoping for a Wake Forest type atmosphere). I just hope we have a good crowd out for wednesday as well.


Agreed. SDSU should be able to beat us IMO, but they won't. Had they kept pounding it down low last time they would've won. In contrast, the UNM was very frustrating because there was nothing I noticed about them that made me think they are any better than us. Nothing. UNM will be an easier game than SDSU, but due to ranking that game is getting all the hype. This is the biggest week of games all season and will jump us into the top 10 for sure if we go 2-0.
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Mars
jmvcougar wrote:
I'm going to say what I've said before and I'm officially calling it right now, BYU will have more trouble against SDSU on wednesday than they will against New Mexico.

New Mexico is the bigger game and has the bigger fan build-up. I hope the team comes to play for both of them. We should win both by a couple points, but each is losable if we play poorly.
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nogbody
GolfDiveNCougs wrote:
So, uhh, is anyone else PISSED that Versus and DirecTV are STILL screwing the fans over???




Oh Yeah!!!!



I work so hard to get all the right packages and tv provider just so I can get all the games, and then versus has to go and get in a contract dispute with a satellite giant... I don't care whos fault it is, I just want cougar sports!



of course, they put all big games on versus as well.. (football and Bball)



FSU, TCU, UNLV... Does anybody else see a trend here, we lose all the games on versus, hope that's not the case against UNM!
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EM_Puma
Dcr36 wrote:
(hoping for a Wake Forest type atmosphere)


That game was great (crowd-wise). I was expecting some chairs to fly after the 4th crap officiating call in like 1 minute's time.


I've been attending BYU BB games since moving to Utah in 2001. That Wake Forest game was the most FANtastic one I ever attended. I've never heard that level of noise at the MC that we had in that game. I missed the UNLV game this year at the MC, I heard it was loud, but I don't know if it reached the level of the Wake Forest game. Although we lost to Wake, the crowd didn't give up and contrary to some of the old "blue hairs" at BYU, a crowd can make a difference.



We need that noise for both SDSU and NM. Those both will be very trying games.



My belief is that if we win the regular season crown, that we'll fare no worse than a 4 seed, unless we lose the first game of the MWC tournament.
B
bball
Unless our big guys start playing better and smarter, we may not win either game this week. Teams know our three guards are 90% of our game, so they scheme to shut them down, and ignore the big guys because they can't hurt you. So Hartsock, Miles, Obouo, and Davies better wake up and play; oh BYU goes down in flames and out of the top 25 in a flash.



Having played college basketball, I know good, experienced players are unaffected by crowd noise, they don't even hear it, they zone it out and just play. Crowd noise is only important to the fans. Oh yes, having the crowd there is a motivator, having the MC full is very important, but the noise is not.
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cougarsunited
I hate to throw this into the conversation, but after New Mexico and SDSU, we still have to go into Salt Lake and play the :utard: s. Yes, they are stupid, ugly, a bad team, they stink (literally) and for those reasons and many others like them, they happen to compete with BYU, especially in their own sorry arena.... Even after a win over New Mexico we still have a ways to go. Having said that, if we win out, including the tournament, don't rule out a 2-seed, it's very possible.
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craigoscarson
The reason we do so well against SDSU in spite of their bigs, is that the zone defense is their achilles heal. They can't shoot outside and our zone has given them trouble. If they hit shots (which they won't in the MC) then we could be in trouble. If not, they simply will not have much success trying to pound the ball inside vs a zone d.



UNM has shooters and our zone d hasn't proven as effective against them. I'd still zone them for a portion of the game so that dairese gairy doesn't think he can just drive to the hoop unopposed.



Both games are huge, and both are games that we potentially would could lose; but it is the Marriott Center and we certainly will be favored. We dont' have to play the best game of our season to win, but we can't play our worst. SDSU and UNM might have to play their best games to beat us and I dont' see that happening in Provo (but I wont' exhale til after the weekend)



There is little doubt that this is the biggest weekend for BYU in recent memory.
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SpiffCoug
If UNM and BYU play the exact same games, but the refs don't parade UNM's PG to the foul line every time he goes to the rim, BYU wins. BYU is a better team than the Lobos. If the Lobos don't soot more than 20 FTs, they're going to lose. If they don't shoot more than 10, they're going to get blown out.
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imuakahuku
Aside from the seeding thing, has anyone noticed two things on Bracketology? First only one pac-0 team is in, and 2 they don't draw attention to it by listing that in the "bids by conf." column.
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bigbluepuma
craigoscarson wrote:
Before and after unm there's a lot of hoops to be played. UNLV made the mistake of putting all their eggs in one basket and dropped 3 after their performance against us.

Losing to UNM doesn't hurt us as bad as losing to anyone else. I'd love to beat UNM (and I think we will) but losing any of the rest of our remaining games would hurt worse (seedings wise)



I think we have a shot to win out, but there's more to this season than UNM at home. We need a good showing in the conf tourney, wins against sdsu , @utah, @tcu etc.



A 3 seed is in sight but we gotta win em all, I just hope we dont' have the same type of letdown that UNLV had after their big win.

sdsu has the horses inside; I think we're in for a game on wednesday... depending on what sdsu team shows up


UNLV focused on Byu all year, then lost 3. TCU focused on BYU in football all year, then lost to :utard: . I think (I certainly hope) that BYU isn't putting that kind of focus on UN. Rose should have them ready for SDSU, and for next week.
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SpiffCoug
bigbluepuma wrote:
Before and after unm there's a lot of hoops to be played. UNLV made the mistake of putting all their eggs in one basket and dropped 3 after their performance against us.

Losing to UNM doesn't hurt us as bad as losing to anyone else. I'd love to beat UNM (and I think we will) but losing any of the rest of our remaining games would hurt worse (seedings wise)



I think we have a shot to win out, but there's more to this season than UNM at home. We need a good showing in the conf tourney, wins against sdsu , @utah, @tcu etc.



A 3 seed is in sight but we gotta win em all, I just hope we dont' have the same type of letdown that UNLV had after their big win.

sdsu has the horses inside; I think we're in for a game on wednesday... depending on what sdsu team shows up


UNLV focused on Byu all year, then lost 3. TCU focused on BYU in football all year, then lost to :utard: . I think (I certainly hope) that BYU isn't putting that kind of focus on UN. Rose should have them ready for SDSU, and for next week.




TCU killed Utah worse than they beat us in football. Now, last year that would be case where they lost to Utah, but I don't think losing a 3-pt game was due to a let-down because of playing us.
K
kjjson
GolfDiveNCougs wrote:
So, uhh, is anyone else PISSED that Versus and DirecTV are STILL screwing the fans over???


Yes, but in this case, it actually worked in my favor as I was able to further justify getting tickets to this game to my wife since: "We can't watch it at home".
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