A "Fight" to the Finish

Well, the second half of the BYU-Utah game sure was entertaining for everybody.  The first half was probably only entertaining to BYU fans.

First an explanation of what happened with the Marshall Henderson situation.  He was fouled and would have been shooting two free throws.  However, since he subsequently punched Jackson Emery and was ejected (very classy move, by the bye) he was not around to shoot his free throws.  BYU would get possession as a result of the flagrant foul.  So Utah shot what looked like technical or flagrant foul shots, but it was really Marshall Henderson's free throws from the foul during the play.  If I'm not mistaken it was a 1-and-1, so if he would have missed the first one, that would have been it.  Then BYU shot their flagrant foul shots and got the ball.  On a side note, because an elbow or punch (in this case a punch) was thrown, the refs had no choice but to eject him from the game.  The league will have no choice but to suspend him at least one game.  I would be surprised if it was more than that.

His lapse in judgement was really the culmination of a very physical/dirty game.  Utah in the first half had several dangerous undercuts on BYU layups and landed a few well-placed elbows as well.  BYU responded in kind in the second half with a lot of shoving that they were allowed to get away with, particularly when the Utes were running in transition.  If you want to avoid situations like the unfortunate incident down the stretch, you just have to get the whistle out and call some stuff early in the game.

I think BYU is going to be in trouble, after watching the past few games.  They have become too reliant on Jimmer, particularly in the final 4-6 minutes.  One of these days he is going to have an off-night or teams are going to take the ball out of his hands down the stretch.  Guys are getting out of the habit of stepping up and making big plays.  That is troublesome for the road game at UNLV and the home game against SDSU.  BYU needs someone to be confident that is actually playing well.  Abouo and Emery are playing with confidence but, at least in terms of shooting, probably should table some of that for a while.

We shall see.  As it was, Jimmer was amazing for long stretches tonight.  He forced a few things and dribbled too much on several occasions.  He took a few ill-advised shots.  But hey, everybody else is standing around watching, so I don't really blame him.  The O needs to move around a little bit more and create open shots for everybody for 40 minutes.  Right now they do that in spurts, but the rest of the time they are just trying to get Jimmer open shots.  It's a team game.

When I saw the starting lineup for tonight's game I was excited.  Jay Watkins was starting, which meant when Tavernari came in off the bench, he'd be guarding Watkins' backup, instead of Jay Watkins.  As I said to my buddy Shane prior to tipoff: Watkins would eat JT up if they had to play opposite of each other.  Sure enough, in the second half he went at him 3 straight times and scored.  Bring in Hartsock: Watkins missed 3 shots in a row before he made another one.  He also didn't get another offensive rebound so Noah kept him off the glass.  JT cannot handle guarding a low-block physical specimen like Watkins.  Chris Miles and his molasses-ly slow feet did a better job in his 2 or 3 possessions guarding Watkins than JT.

I wouldn't be too worried about the rematch in Salt Lake.  I think by that time Ute fans will become disinterested in their hoops squad that will essentially be eliminated from all post-season play by that time.  It will be more like a neutral site game than a road game, in my opinion.  Unless the Utes find a way to turn it around, I anticipate another Y victory on the Hill.