Bucking the Trend

I am soaking up this victory like crazy, but i'm a little nervous. It seems like this year the trend has been the following: 1 huge win and then one huge failure.



Examples include:

1)Our first win over SDSU (huge victory) followed by a loss to New Mexico

2)Our win at SDSU (huge victory) followed by Davies being suspended and a huge loss to New Mexico

3)Jimmer's 52 point game and finally beating the lobos, followed by a pathetic loss against SDSU.



Now a huge trip to the Sweet 16, hopefully we follow it up with another great performance...



But then again, anything now is gravy. We finally made it to the Sweet, 16 go cougs!

Great pattern insight. I am hopeful that one trend is very different: time between games. Granted the sdsu win was what a wednesday? and then they had to travel to UNM for a saturday game. or saturday then travel to wed game.

We have five days before the next game to get focused, rested, and prepared for florida.

BUt good point. Hopefully they can learn from this trend.

too much negativity. BYU has Rose as the coach and Jimmer as its star player. I believe.

too much positivity? :-) The Jimmer cant do it all. our guys have to hit shots AND they did. If we have finally adjusted to having BD gone and are getting some swagger and rhythm back--then its great timing.

One key I saw tonight that has been completely lacking since the BD thing: Confidence. They had some of it against Wofford, as if the game was never in doubt, even though it was close. But tonight, they had more of their mid-season confidence. They were not pushing things, forcing shots, etc., and I think that level of relaxation and confidence was readily apparent. To me, that's a key element that may buck the pattern.

One key I saw tonight that has been completely lacking since the BD thing: Confidence. They had some of it against Wofford, as if the game was never in doubt, even though it was close. But tonight, they had more of their mid-season confidence. They were not pushing things, forcing shots, etc., and I think that level of relaxation and confidence was readily apparent. To me, that's a key element that may buck the pattern.

One trend that stayed true: Anderson had twice as many fouls as points :crazy: And I do not care one bit! He blocked Sacre twice and played some tough D. He helped us mightily tonight when Noah got two quick ones!

Those games were also within just a couple days of one another or less. In March you get 5 days off each round so everything is reset. Was this really some huge win though? Sure we made the Sweet 16, but it's not like we had to play out of this world to win either game. We had the Zags from the getgo.

BoiseBYU wrote:
One trend that stayed true: Anderson had twice as many fouls as points :crazy: And I do not care one bit! He blocked Sacre twice and played some tough D. He helped us mightily tonight when Noah got two quick ones!

Now that they have achieved their primary goal, making it to the 2nd weekend, hopefully they play more loose and without any monkeys on their back. They did look different tonight.



It feels like their is less pressure now to prove themselves. Playing with confidence and without pressure could help them keep that shooting % up.

Difference was we played as the underdog once again and people expected us to lose. We play better when we are the underdog. Most certainly the pundits will have Florida tagged as the favorite again next week... Good for us.



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Yup, #3 seed vs #2 seed, LETS "upset" them!

You know, I agree with the underdog thing. Our best games of the season (sans MWC championship vs. SDSU) have been played as underdogs. That bodes well for us moving forward. I don't see us favored again, even Wisc. Or Butler will be favored over us if we beat FL.



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MesaCougFan wrote:
You know, I agree with the underdog thing. Our best games of the season (sans MWC championship vs. SDSU) have been played as underdogs. That bodes well for us moving forward. I don't see us favored again, even Wisc. Or Butler will be favored over us if we beat FL.



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I would disagree. I would like to consider us dogs the rest of the way. BUt if we beat Florida, two things will be in play: first, the odds makers will see the trend and will regain confidence in byu; second, we will be the higher seed, so in the natural seeding of things, we will more likely be the favorite to win.

Odds makers always are forced to favor BYU. The majority of BYU fans don't bet on them which unbalances the line every time.



The national bobble heads will continue to diminish BYU (as they always have), and the many reasons why are and could be threads of their own. Don't get me wrong, but didn't every sportscaster behind the desk pick Gonzaga (11 seed) over the Cougs (3 seed)?



This trend will continue with Butler or Wisconsin. Which ever one wins will be favored by the guys behind the desk over BYU. Barkley might go with BYU over them. He seems to be impressed with us.



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BYU has only lost 4 games. More impressively, they have only lost to three teams. Of those three teams, BYU was 2-1 vs Top 10 SDSU and at least ended up 1-2 vs UNM. I was disappointed that we did not get a revenge match with UCLA - a team some were saying could win it all before they lost a tough game Saturday.



We have no embarrassing losses.



Many were saying Gonzaga played like they could beat anyone in the tournament Thursday. We beat them - no - We trounced them.



It will all get discounted. We have not beat a mighty power like Pitt. It will be overlooked that we beat Gonzaga after they demolished St. Johns - who beat several Big East leaders this season.



I am fine with that. It iwll keep us humble and focused.



Our first loss to New Mexico was a fluke. We lost two of our games while playing in total disarray after losing Davies suddenly and not quite knowing who we were for a few games. I don't know if we have that all out of our system - but it will be fun to see.



If we beat Florida - we will get quite a bit of respect back. But then whomever we play will also have gained respect by beating a decent team in the round of 16.



I refuse to look ahead to that. I can't wait for the Florida Vs BYU match-up analyses that are surely forthcoming. I think we came out healthy after Gonzaga. I think Florida got one bad ankle sprain - not sure how bad.



Go Cougs