Tonight BYU has a make or break their season type of game. Having dropped an in-conference home game (and one at New Mexico), they have to make it up by winning games on the road. Tonight against an up-and-down Utah team, they must win. A loss tonight shows me that they are an NIT-caliber team. While a win tonight doesn't necessarily prove their NCAA tournament worth, it'd go a long way towards saying they are still a darn good team and can win on the road.
With that said, Chris Miles and Jimmer Fredette are the reasons BYU is 14-4 and not 16-2. Jimmer plays amazing in the big games, but disappears down the stretch as he defers to JT and Lee Cummard. If BYU is going to win those games against the Wake Forests and UNLVs of the world, Jimmer is going to have to do it. Chris Miles has not established himself as a viable offensive threat in the post, which is vital to BYU's success on offense. He has a decent game down low, but he hasn't demanded the ball like Plaisted did, and Araujo and Wesley before him. Miles must start scoring 12 a game, with 8 boards and 2 blocks. Jimmer must start taking shots down the stretch. BYU must win tonight and beat Wyoming on Saturday to prove they really can be an NCAA tournament team. Anything worse than 11-5 in conference (that means closing at 8-3 down the stretch), and they are an NIT team. Anything better than that and they are headed for that coveted NCAA Tournament first-round exit. At 11-5, I think they are a bubble team, probably getting in because of their "quality losses" to Wake Forest and Arizona State, and they are still the lone team to beat Utah State. As much as I hate the cliche, it really is a must-win, if BYU has a desire to go dancing. Of course, it's certainly a must-win for Utah as well, their NIT and CBI hopes depend on it.
Well they were doing good until overtime and decided to go cold until it was too late.
ReplyDelete