Utah State-BYU 2010 Hoops Recap

A win is a win, and BYU fans must be content with that, and Utah State fans must lament that it was not their win.  This was an ugly game, to say the least, which is not uncommon this early in the season.  Poor shooting, defensive lapses, rushing the offense, bad calls on both sides of the court (the refs are rusty too), etc.  The final 2 minutes, BYU's offense looked completely discombobulated.  Tai Wesley played most of the game like a bully (but within the rules of the game) and was punished for it late in the game with his fifth (and deemed flagrant) foul for throwing an elbow.

Lucky vs. Good
BYU had plenty of luck in this game.  The foul on Wesley was certainly not questionable/lucky, the man intentionally threw his elbows around and it connected with a BYU player (the connecting was not intentional, but the elbows flying through the air was), but they were lucky that Chris Collinsworth showed no regard for his own safety in putting himself so close to the elbow.  They were lucky that Utah State missed the front end of several consecutive 1-and-1 situations.  They were lucky that a few fouls got called that could easily have not been in the waning minutes.  They were lucky that Ryan Green was only 5-6 on threes (OK, that may not sound lucky, perhaps Utah State was lucky he made 5 in a row, but he missed the one in the crucial minute).

Post Problems
Tai Wesley is a good player.  But he is far from an elite big man in college basketball and he worked BYU to the tune of 9-11 shooting, 19 points, and 8 rebounds.  Brady Jardine is an average big man and he had 10 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 blocks.  And this happened with only BYU's best big defensive big men on the floor as weaker defensive Center Brandon Davies was ill and played only one minute.  Contrast the Aggies post performance to BYU's big men: Hartsock had 15 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 blocks, Collinsworth had only 1 field goal and 7 rebounds, Anderson had 1 rebound and 2 points (and two very ugly free throw misses), and Magnusson had 3 rebounds and 1 point.  They were drastically outperformed by an above average group.  Can they contain South Florida's much more athletic big men?  What about New Mexico or San Diego State?

Late-Game Offense
It appears the team read Jimmer's press clippings in the off-season.  With the game on the line, they were all content to just stand around and try to give Jimmer the ball and let him take Utah State 1 on 5.  Jimmer must have read them too, apparently, as he actually tried to do it.  BYU only scored one field goal in the last 6 minutes of the game.  There were a lot of long jump shots, fadeaway three-pointers, and short-armed layups in the closing minutes.  They did go 6 for 6 from the free throw line, so it appears they can close out games that way.  But they need to have the lead to salt the game away at the line.  That is a bit worrisome: they will need to find a better way to get better shots.

Forcing the Issue
Jimmer took a lot of bad shots.  It reminded me of the game at New Mexico last season, when Jimmer thought he could do no wrong and ended up 8 for 21.  Not surprisingly, he was also 8 for 21 against Utah State.  The main difference was that he was 5 for 14 from 3-point range against the Aggies (where he was 4-6 against New Mexico).  That means not only was he throwing it near the rim, but he was mostly chucking it up from outside.  It would be better if he took 14 2-pointers and 7 3-pointers than the other way around.

Good News
BYU shot horribly, did not defend very well in the post, had a usual starter only play 1 minute because of an illness, and they still won a game against an NCAA Tournament team from a year ago that shot 48%, including 64% from 3-point land.  This team will get better.  And it will definitely need to!  This was one of 6 or 7 potentially difficult non-conference games and they are 1-0 in those games.  Next Friday against a South Florida squad that went to the NIT last season is the next tough one to get through.  South Florida is having a slow start this season, which may help BYU.  They won't have the home crowd on their side in that one!