The Mo Jinx

Well, I will take full credit for BYU's crappy performance.  The Mo Jinx is definitely still alive.  I say BYU looks like a tournament team, they go 2 for 25 from three.  I say BYU could beat just about anyone in the country at home, and they lose badly to a team that won't even make the NIT.  I say they don't have any really bad losses yet, and they go out and get one.

A co-worker (looking for a betting tip) asked me about BYU's 17-point spread against LMU.  I told him I'd shun it like the plague.  BYU SHOULD beat an average-at-best Lions team at home, that they beat on the road by 8, easily.  However, this is still a young team, and they might assume that, because of the relative ease of the road game, despite playing poorly, coming back home to play the same squad would be a walk in the park.  LMU turned up the intensity and BYU didn't respond.

There was a lot of effort, but it was a bit of a panicked effort.  This was not a cool, calm collected from a team that can stay composed during the frenetic pace of an NCAA Tournament game.  Now it's time for the real BYU to show up.  They've got to dispatch Pepperdine easily and get ready for the brutal 3-game stretch that will define their season.  The sins committed on Thursday night can be repented of with a nice 8-game winning streak.

And they were some big sins.  This went from a bubble team looking assuredly to be on the right side to a bubble team certain to be on the wrong side unless it proves otherwise in the next 10 days.  The big stretch starts today on the road, against a poor Pepperdine team that has lost 6 games in a row, all by double digits.  Win by 20, and get some momentum.  Win by 8 or 4 or lose, and lose the fanbase.  While the Loyola loss doesn't quite equate to the football team's loss to Utah, it may have the same impact: fans getting tired of beating the scrubs, struggling against decent opponents, and losing the big ones.  The fans stopped showing up to football.  They already struggle to come out in FULL FORCE to basketball games.  Win big today.  Beat Va Tech on the road on Wednesday.  There are no moral victories any more, I'm not sure there were any BEFORE the loss to Loyola Marymount, but after it, no chance.  The fans won't take it any more.  BYU 88, Pepperdine 60.