Brandon Davies

needs to stop picking up stupid fouls and stay in these games. Last night didn't matter, but to all of you wondering why we don't go to the post anymore, look no further.



He had his 4th foul with 19:40 left in the game. A couple of the fouls were on pushes, and trying to slap the ball out of people's hands (after rebounds, etc). I hate to turn something bad out of such an AMAZING game, but if he can't learn to not foul, then he shouldn't be starting. (I just looked it up, he played 15 mins in the game, and at least 5 of those were with 4 fouls in the last of the game when we were already up by 20 . He played with our second team for crying out loud! Last game vs. Air Force he played 19 mins.) Even the oblivious MTN announcers were talking about how everyone on the team looked pissed at him for picking up his 4th that early in the game.



I don't mind people being aggressive, but reactionary, stupid fouls like that have no place on a good BYU team. If I were the coaching staff I'd give him a few more games, and if he keeps picking up dumb fouls then I'd make him come off the bench for a few games. (NOT SDSU, we need him for that game. Probably the game before it, just to send him a message)



We need him out there, and we need to work the ball down low. Jimmer isn't going to shoot 60% percent forever. Davies, you are too good to sit on the bench! Clean it up, kid! Clean it up!

We can play and win games like this for most of our conference regular season, but for SDSU, the MWC (UNLV invitational) and the NCAA tourney we need Davies battling to the end.

We need him for games against Colorado State, UNLV, SDSU, and UNM.



We need him for every game in the conference, and in the tourney. But MORE IMPORTANTLY, we need him playing in the game against bad teams, so he can get a feel of what it is like playing with the offense, and the offense having him on the court. Right now a fade-away Jimmer 3 is getting it done, but there will be times when he is fatigued and not playing great, and we need an inside presence to score a bucket or two. Right now out inside presence is on the bench because he "thinks he should've gotten a foul on the other end" so he pushes a guy going up for a shot, or swiping at the ball when his man gets a defensive rebound (and successfully boxes him out). Leave the steals to Jackson, my friend... he does them pretty well, YOU don't.

Big men not fouling to me, a arm-chair point guard, seems to be the hardest task that they learn. We have seen the same issue with just about every one of our larger post players since I've been actively watching BYU this last decade. Most suck the first year and then, as is expected, they finally understand more and more that they are not the tallest creature on the court like they were in HS where most of the players were so much shorter that it was actually hard for these guys to foul them, if that makes sense.



I honestly don't know what accelerates this process toward position mastery, but I don't remember not seeing a BYU player during that span not improve from year to year. Davies is just not progressing at a sufficient pace seeing that this is his second season in a row playing.



I don't know if sitting them down is the answer or not, but they need to go to some camp in the off-season and get some appropriate training/coaching. It's so much more scarier to see Anderson on the court instead of Davies, but I did love Anderson's stuff of the jam by one of the Pukes in the 2nd half last night. That foul was worth it. The stupid ones are the ones that do nothing but throw the shooter on the line and last night Utah did will on the line. Had that Puke fulfilled his desire, the Puke fans would have gone nuts. Anderson stuffing him took the charge right out of the potential situation. Great foul.

Andersons foul was classic. Loved to see that. I love a "not in my house" type of foul, and I think that you do one or two of those a game to send a message (depending on whether or not they keep flying in after the first one). But I am talking about Davies' ticky tack fouls, swiping at the ball under their hoop, pushing a guy getting the rebound, and just throwing your body around when not in position. He is a talented athlete, he just needs to get his head around things. He could be amazing, but until now he's been a big disappointment game to game, for me.

It was a great foul by Anderson. One thing Anderson doesn't really do is foul softly. If he fouls you, you're shooting two, not an and-1.

Andersons foul was by far the best thing he has done all season. Davies needs to save his fouls for putting guards on their asses when they come into the lane, not for tapping people on the wrist when they arent even attempting to score.

BlueIsBetter wrote:
Andersons foul was classic. Loved to see that. I love a "not in my house" type of foul, and I think that you do one or two of those a game to send a message (depending on whether or not they keep flying in after the first one).

That statement reminded me of one of the classic BYU chants last night, "This is Our House". It was wonderful. Puke fans just didn't know what to do other than to get obscene and stupid (er). I don't think I've still come down to earth from that experience last night.