Is BYU basketball team tired?

The starters are playing a ton of minutes and in our up-tempo offense, followed by spurts of tough defense, is this a reason we had an off night in Scar-amie?

I think we are tired. I think we took last night off mentally. I'm excited for a break in the action. I think the team is looking forward to having two of the next three at home and three of the last five. Our last two are at home so we should have a chance to rest before the tournament.



If we beat SDSU in San Diego and have the MWC wrapped up before the final game, I'd love to see us rest our starters against Wyoming and only play them 15-20 minutes tops.

I don't think they are tired I really think they are starting to play to the level of their opponents. It seemed, to me, that this started with the AFA game and other than the Utah game it seems BYU has just put it into cruise control. If that doesn't get corrected it will come back and bite them in the butt because every team gears up for BYU especially now it will be the last time they play them in league play.

Well if we play to the level of our opponents, I'll take it. If that's the case, I can't wait until we get deep into the tournament and start playing at the level of a Kansas or Texas!

I think they're tired and it's more of a mental tiredness than it is a physical tiredness. Playing down to the level of your opponents signifies a lack of game-time mentality. Rather than be your own master, you're letting the opponent dictate how you'll play. Instead of saying, "I'm going to play to the best of my ability," you're saying, "I'm going to play to x-level according to the skill set of y team."



I sure hope they aren't playing down because sooner or later they'll be caught sleeping. You can bet our opponents are putting forth their best games against us, so I don't get the whole attitude of playing to the level of the opponent.



I sure hope it's just because they're tired. Either way, it's a mental issue.

I think it's mental as well. I think it's smart that Rose has closed practice. I wouldn't be surprised if he shuts it down for a while. We may not see Jimmer on SportsCenter much the next little while. No more Jim Rome, Dan Patrick, etc in back-to-back days. I think we'll hear less from the players and more from the coaches.

Gunk wrote:
I think they're tired and it's more of a mental tiredness than it is a physical tiredness. Playing down to the level of your opponents signifies a lack of game-time mentality. Rather than be your own master, you're letting the opponent dictate how you'll play. Instead of saying, "I'm going to play to the best of my ability," you're saying, "I'm going to play to x-level according to the skill set of y team."



I sure hope they aren't playing down because sooner or later they'll be caught sleeping. You can bet our opponents are putting forth their best games against us, so I don't get the whole attitude of playing to the level of the opponent.



I sure hope it's just because they're tired. Either way, it's a mental issue.

This is basically what I meant, you just said it a whole lot better than I did.

Give the opposing coaches some credit; they are not dumb, and they figure out how to beat you--it doesn't always work, but it kind of works. And with Emery going cold the last few games, that doesn't help. Collinsworth has got to mature into a seasoned veteran; he's kind of disappeared the last few games as well.



I don't buy the "tired" thing. An athlete who's in shape, and I think these guys are, playing a 40 minute game twice a week does not tire you; the travel might, studying, dating girls, other stuff--but not just playing basketball.



They'll come back, Emery will find the range, and so will the other players. Look, they aren't a collection of the ten best players in the nation, they have limitations too. And basketball is game that when you shoot well, you look good, when you don't shoot well, it doesn't matter what else you do, you look awful. Basketball is a game of shooting the ball--it just comes down to that, and every team goes through shooting slumps...and they come back too. So will these guys.

bball wrote:
Give the opposing coaches some credit; they are not dumb, and they figure out how to beat you--it doesn't always work, but it kind of works. And with Emery going cold the last few games, that doesn't help. Collinsworth has got to mature into a seasoned veteran; he's kind of disappeared the last few games as well.



I don't buy the "tired" thing. An athlete who's in shape, and I think these guys are, playing a 40 minute game twice a week does not tire you; the travel might, studying, dating girls, other stuff--but not just playing basketball.



They'll come back, Emery will find the range, and so will the other players. Look, they aren't a collection of the ten best players in the nation, they have limitations too. And basketball is game that when you shoot well, you look good, when you don't shoot well, it doesn't matter what else you do, you look awful. Basketball is a game of shooting the ball--it just comes down to that, and every team goes through shooting slumps...and they come back too. So will these guys.

I agree with your analysis. Everybody has a bad day. One thing I hate is when someone says to me "oh, you guys wouldn't be any good withoug Fredette" or "you guys wouldn't have near as many wins without Fredette". BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. All I say to that is NO SHIZ DICK TRACY, what team WOULDN'T be worse off without their top player/scorer?! Take ANY team's top scorer away and there will be a negative effect. Why should BYU be any different? It's like they expect me to say, "oh, OK, excuse me, sorry that Jimmer is so good".

Yep. Unfortunately BYU does have Jimmer, so the argument that we wouldn't be as good without him is stupid and irrelevant. Without Tom Brady the Patriots wouldn't have won three Super Bowls. Without Peyton Manning the Colts wouldn't win four games. Without Michael Jordan the Bulls won't have won six championships. But they do and did.

kitic77 wrote:
I think it's mental as well. I think it's smart that Rose has closed practice. I wouldn't be surprised if he shuts it down for a while. We may not see Jimmer on SportsCenter much the next little while. No more Jim Rome, Dan Patrick, etc in back-to-back days. I think we'll hear less from the players and more from the coaches.

Yep! From what I've heard Jimmer has his own PR handler at BYU and he does at least an hour of interviews a day on top of the ESPN and CBS montages.



I don't care how level headed you are, sooner or later it starts to affect a person. Imagine everyday spending several hours preparing and talking about yourself to the nations' top reporters. Just because of the time and energy involved you're automatically thinking more about yourself, whether consciously or subconsciously.



Then, as a member of the team you're stuck watching one guy get treated like a rock star everyday. Sure, you may not be putting up 40 points, but you're running down the court just as much, setting screens, playing defense and trying you're hardest.



Very wise for Rose to switch things up. If I were him, I'd take it a step further and cut off all the interviews. Reporters will keep covering Jimmer and BYU as long as we win. We win, we get the press. Do a round of interviews after each win and call it a day.

I really think that Rose will tighten up the screws and fix the problems after this last dismal performance, we're definitely not playing as well in the last few as we were early. Rose is familiar with being on a team that's in the spotlight and I'm confident he knows what to do to get the team rested and ready for the rest of the season.

Rose's teams have typically been stronger 2d half of the season teams, so I am sure he'll fix what's ailing the team.

Jimmer looked tired at the pit. I don't think it is all of the media coverage on Jimmer is the lack of a back up point guard. If Lloyd was here he could steal 3 minuetes here and there. He has a chance to win the Wooden award these interviews could sway some votes because people cannot see him on the MTN. Also it will help his draft stock, the word Jimmer has become a household name.

If Lloyd were still here he'd be in a whole lot more than 3 minutes--once we figured out how good he was last season it made more sense to put Jimmer at the 2 and keep them both on the floor.



Nevertheless, I am a believer that the publicity has tired out Fredette to an extent. At the same time though that publicity is going to carry us to a higher seed in March then we would have otherwise gotten so it is serving its purpose wonderfully. I doubt all interviews will get shut down but, yeah, no sense in taking up too much time on Fredette's heroics unless it's vs SDSU again later this month.

ByuIcoug wrote:
Jimmer looked tired at the pit. I don't think it is all of the media coverage on Jimmer is the lack of a back up point guard. If Lloyd was here he could steal 3 minuetes here and there. He has a chance to win the Wooden award these interviews could sway some votes because people cannot see him on the MTN. Also it will help his draft stock, the word Jimmer has become a household name.

Jimmer was tired at the Pit because he was battling a cold, not much was said of it because I don't think they wanted it to seem like an excuse for the loss.