It seemed pretty clear to me that BYU was going to struggle with solid defensive teams. Carlino flails too much to handle it. Cusick is too slow to do anything about it. Delgado is too inexperienced to consistently deal with it. The Seminoles have now given the WCC a blueprint for beating BYU.
Now the team battled back in the first half, but they were clearly overmatched against an above average ACC team, maybe even a good ACC team. They couldn't stay out of foul trouble. They couldn't finish at the basket (i.e. absorb contact and shoot strong: which draws fouls and makes you more likely to make it). Instead they wilted under Florida State's physicality. They couldn't defend the three. The bench was clearly not up to the task on either side of the ball. If not for Haws, BYU would have been down 20 or more going into halftime. If not for Davies' risky 5 minutes played after his second foul in the first half, BYU also would have been down 20 at the half. Neither one ended up mattering in the second half.
Either way, BYU has a long way to go. The Cougars needed to calm down and play basketball. They got panicked by pressure. They got impatient. They couldn't defend the three or at the rim. They looked like an overmatched mid-major against the big, bad ACC. It'll probaby happen again tonight too against Notre Dame (but replace ACC-for now-with Big East).
The combo of Haws and Davies will be tough for most teams to stop on BYU's schedule. But the lack of talent around them this year makes this look a lot more like an NIT team than an NCAA team. Luckily for them, few WCC teams can apply the same type of pressure consistently for 40 minutes like Florida State did. The bad news, however, is that there are enough of them that can, making a third place WCC finish look all the more likely.
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