Utah Positives

- Abouo.

- Good rebounding effort - limited Utah to only 7 offensive boards.

- Aggressive offensively - lots of drives to the basket, which led to lots of FTs (and probably should have led to even more FTs).

- Great off-the-ball movement. 17 assists on 24 baskets is a great ratio

- Awesome defense - 12 steals, 17 forced turnovers, Utes under 44% FG and under 27% 3P.

- Continued unselfish play by the Jimmer - 17 assists last three games

- Bye week - a chance for the guys to rest and get ready for the stretch run. A chance for Jimmer to calm himself and forget about all the non-called muggings of the last week.

-Watching Kupets made a damn fool of himself.



I'd love to play utah in the tourney and complete the triple crown.

declocoug wrote:
-Watching Kupets made a damn fool of himself.



I'd love to play utah in the tourney and complete the triple crown.

A triple crown with a monetary value of horse crap. Thanks utah.

spanking utah 3 times on their way to the pac-10.... priceless.



EDIT: Anyone else think that the way BYU has held the nations attention with football (independence announcement, not so much the playing part) and basketball this year, the pac-10/big12 is regretting not locking BYU up earlier? I think the new independence and WCC deal is going to be sweet. Good buy MWC and your refs, TV deal and for the most part low class schools.

Anyone got the link to the intro before tip?

YBrit wrote:
Anyone got the link to the intro before tip?

Check Drew's blog.

another positive:



BYU now leads the alltime series by 2 games instead of just one. and we're on a 9-1 run I think.

Play like that vs. SDSU and we lose. Same with the NCAA tourney after round 1. Not a great game, other than Abuou, who was a monster. Shot selection was dreadful, and Jimmer looked crap for 30 minutes with many of his shots that did not even hit rim. Luckily, played a bad Utah team.

Lawboy wrote:
Play like that vs. SDSU and we lose. Same with the NCAA tourney after round 1. Not a great game, other than Abuou, who was a monster. Shot selection was dreadful, and Jimmer looked crap for 30 minutes with many of his shots that did not even hit rim. Luckily, played a bad Utah team.

BYU has a bye to rest a bit, then take it to the home of the empty purple...can't wait.

Lawboy wrote:
Play like that vs. SDSU and we lose. Same with the NCAA tourney after round 1. Not a great game, other than Abuou, who was a monster. Shot selection was dreadful, and Jimmer looked crap for 30 minutes with many of his shots that did not even hit rim. Luckily, played a bad Utah team.

Did you watch SDSU today struggle to put up 63 against UNLV? They're not world beaters. Jimmer scored 12 points in less than 3 minutes, a stretch like that against SDSU and they're going to have all kinds of pressure on them.



Remember the Aztecs will be the team under the microscope.

I did. I also saw them hold UNLV to under 60 at the T&M. They are not as skilled on the perimeter as we are, but htey play better defense, especially on the interior. Plus, they won at UNM.

Lawboy wrote:
Play like that vs. SDSU and we lose. Same with the NCAA tourney after round 1. Not a great game, other than Abuou, who was a monster. Shot selection was dreadful, and Jimmer looked crap for 30 minutes with many of his shots that did not even hit rim. Luckily, played a bad Utah team.

Davies made Ostertag look nimble.

Y 4 Ever wrote:

Play like that vs. SDSU and we lose. Same with the NCAA tourney after round 1. Not a great game, other than Abuou, who was a monster. Shot selection was dreadful, and Jimmer looked crap for 30 minutes with many of his shots that did not even hit rim. Luckily, played a bad Utah team.

Davies made Ostertag look nimble.

You're right, and that's why I'm a little bewildered by the negativity. Two of our three most important players had MAJOR off-nights tonight. It's a given that every player will struggle from time to time, and when it happens to two players, it's pretty easy to dismiss this game as an anomaly that still produced a victory by a decent margin.



Last month, I was extremely worried about a total lack of production from the bench. In the last week, Abouo and Rodgers have both had big games, and have provided big boosts when we needed, and I've worried a little bit about our starters. I guess you can't have it both ways.

Lawboy wrote:
I did. I also saw them hold UNLV to under 60 at the T&M. They are not as skilled on the perimeter as we are, but htey play better defense, especially on the interior. Plus, they won at UNM.

Not so sure that was all sdsu's doing, unlv kept themselves pretty impotent as well.



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Lawboy wrote:
I did. I also saw them hold UNLV to under 60 at the T&M. They are not as skilled on the perimeter as we are, but htey play better defense, especially on the interior. Plus, they won at UNM.

They also needed a last second shot to beat CSU on the road with a whopping 56 points of offense.



They also needed a 6-2 run to finish the game at UNLV to win. BYU won with much more ease at CSU and UNLV did. Yes, they won at UNM, but it wasn't as if BYU was demolished and never in the game and never had a chance to win.



BYU is no slouch defensively. Don't get fooled by their numbers because of their low points allowed number.



If you look at the offensive and defensive numbers per 100 possessions, they're pretty even with BYU. Which is what you expect.



Per 100 possessions offensive points: BYU 118.3; SDSU 113.6

Per 100 possessions defensive points: SDSU 87.7; BYU 89.6



You seem to be implying that SDSU is a much better team than BYU. They're not. Both BYU and SDSU are very good teams. Stop selling your team short.

Lawboy wrote:
Play like that vs. SDSU and we lose. Same with the NCAA tourney after round 1. Not a great game, other than Abuou, who was a monster. Shot selection was dreadful, and Jimmer looked crap for 30 minutes with many of his shots that did not even hit rim. Luckily, played a bad Utah team.

So to bring us back to the original post, did you see any positives from the Utah game, or are you taking up the mantle of "keeping us all real and grounded for how bad this team really is this week?"

Couple other postives:



Jimmer all time BYU game winner.

BYU has never been 24-2...EVER. best start in history.

BYU cheerleaders are getting hotter.

kitic77 wrote:

Play like that vs. SDSU and we lose. Same with the NCAA tourney after round 1. Not a great game, other than Abuou, who was a monster. Shot selection was dreadful, and Jimmer looked crap for 30 minutes with many of his shots that did not even hit rim. Luckily, played a bad Utah team.

So to bring us back to the original post, did you see any positives from the Utah game, or are you taking up the mantle of "keeping us all real and grounded for how bad this team really is this week?"

We didn't play like that against SDSU. When/IF we ever do, then you can talk about that then...



I don't know how many times I have to say this. Good teams play average against bad teams. It just happens. Even sometimes in rivalry games... BYU played well enough to win, which is what it did. When we "play like that" against other teams, then you can all talk about how bad we played. I think we get a little spoiled because we expect 100 points in a 30 point blowout every night.



A win, is a win, is a win. (is a win)



And who cares if Jimmer had a bad 30 mins when he had a stellar 10 mins?



When your "off" night is 7-19 w 23 points and 5 assists do we really have anything to complain about? Including 6 for 7 from the stripe, which should have been more like 16 for 17 with all the non-calls.



I agree with nearly 100% of everything you say Lawboy, but I think you gotta scale it back a little here.

I think the critique was fair. This was not a great performance, but it was a win. Best positive is that Abuou and Emery played well. Good to have supporting guys get it done when the star struggles--which he did. And you take a win over Utah anyday. But not a marquee performance overall. Lacked balance.



I have noticed that Rose has really shortened his bench the last few big games. That is telling. Looks like in big games, only about 7-8 guys will get many minutes at all. In the UNM game, 6 guys got more than 10 minutes, vs. SDSU and Utah only 7. Rogers is the wild card who could get more when he plays well. But BYU is basically in a 7 man rotation in tight games. At the MWC tourney, more guys gotta contribute or that could be a real issue with 3 games in 3 nights.

Good points.