Chief's Briefs - BYU Edition

[Chief00]

Overall we did not play “generally very good” defense last night.

-We gave up 84 points.
-they shot 49% from the floor.
-they had 10 offensive rebounds and out rebounded us overall. This will make Danny insane.
- we didn’t protect the rim late. Few offensive charges, poor help rotation, few blocks. Reed is not a rim protector in the UConn big man tradition. He can get better.

A lot to work on but a great learning experience.

I need to call you out on a deceptive post. Basically, I said our defense was very good until our late collapse. But you excluded the second part of my sentence. Why?
“Our defense was generally very good until
Our late collapse”

 

[Spaceman213J]

Getting the win is great, but there are clearly some things that need to be worked on.

The team needs to remember that when you attack the hoop you draw a lot more fouls. When BYU made its charge, the team was not attacking the BYU defense like they did in the first half.

I thought the refs called a few week foul calls on Stewart and Ross. I get that the kid is the #1 freshmen, but make him earn everything. He had a great game, but he lowered his shoulder into Ross and don't get the foul on Stewart with his hands straight up on the fadeaway.

Hopefully, that was Stewarts bad game for the season. Definitely need more from him. Ross was solid when he was out there, but needs to be out there more.

Speaking of which, I said it on another thread, but Ball has to realize how important he is to the offense and needs to be on the floor and not take himself out with fouls, a few of which where silly and avoidable. He's more than just a shooter.

Finally, aside for a few drifts on the defense end where he gave up being between the defender and rim, AK had a great game. He was mostly very solid on defense and had an elite shooting night.

Hopefully, everyone is able to shake off the nicks and bruises and are ready and roaring to go against 'Zona.

 

[stickybuddy]

We saw Wright last season. He torched us then as a freshman. We knew he was very good.

Wright is excellent. Their big 3 will carry them far

 

[RuffRuff]

Give BYU credit but we did not seize the opportunities in the second half. Demary made some key plays late for the win.

Tonight, Karaban looked very relax with good body balance on his shot. No leaning forward or backwards. When Alex has this approach he is a very valuable weapon. We needed to
look for him more tonight. He won the game for us. Reed also shot well with a high FG% but needs to improve his foul shooting.

Our defense was generally very good until
Our late collapse and took our opponent’s best player out of the game. Reed still needs to not to chase guards with the ball. Additionally, we allowed too many offensive rebounds. Twice as many as we had. Not enought boxing out.

Demary is a great team guy, creates environment of unselfish ball sharing yielding 3x’s the assists as the opposing teams.
We really missed Mullins with Ball having a subpar game.

Ross played good defense and had some good dunks.

We got screwed by the refs the second half and we imploded. With Mullins injuried we don’t have enough of offensive answers if one of our Big 3 has an off game.

Only once we ran a good play to make them pay for pressing. We need to do much better than that from a coaching and player perspective. Also not sure why we put the ball in Smith’s hand when they were likely to foul.

Next!

I'm not one to normally complain about the refs, but AJ used an arm bar into the chest (of Ross I think) to create separation on one take - how that isn't a foul is beyond me. He is a contact merchant in general and knows how to find ways to create separation. That one was just so far over the top.

 

[ctchamps]

Rewatching a play where Stewart gets his second foul. Dybansta pushes Stewarrt with left arm. No call. Did not see what Stewart did to get a foul. Calling @auror for his observation. Around the 1hr28m mark.

 

[boog204]

Only once we ran a good play to make them pay for pressing. We need to do much better than that from a coaching and player perspective. Also not sure why we put the ball in Smith’s hand when they were likely to foul.

Next!

We have struggled against pressure far too often the last few years. A 1-2-2 is not a difficult press break. The soft spot is the middle for quick kick to the wing and if done right you have an odd man break. It’s kinda basketball 101. Hurley, Nardi, and Kimani were all point guards, yet we press break like we generally have no clue and it completely kills our offense. When we didn’t turn it over, we would barely get it over before 10. That and the continuing issue with inbounding are just perplexing.

 

[gsmooth]

Thanks for the praise, @CL82

Some reasons for the defensive lapses:

1) Once Keita went down w/ 9 minutes left in the first half, that forced BYU to play smaller and less in the low-post. Bošković is more of a perimeter guy and although he had a crappy game, just having him out there allowed for more space to Dybantsa to cook. Prior to Keita's injury, Dybantsa had just one FGM. Even a guy like Mboup got some minutes at the five, but he's so darn athletic where even though he doesn't have a perimeter shot, that athleticism creates space, when needed. Bottom line, when you have a 6-9 215 offensive creator, removing a low-post piece could actually help since the lower usage guys replacing Keita did a better job getting out of Dybantsa's way.

2) Adding onto Dybantsa stepping up following Keita's injury (7 FGM over final 28 minutes). Dybantsa was clearly uncomfortable early on and it was almost like Keita's injury shook the butterflies out of Dybantsa's anxiety/trying too hard. He had more of a killer instinct and just clearly looked more comfortable as probably being the most nervous of his collegiate career. He is literally one of the main reasons why this game was in Boston in the first place.

3) Didn't help that Stewart and Ross, two of the guys assigned to guard Dybantsa, were in foul trouble. I love Ross' defensive intensity, but he fouled out in just 12 minutes. Ross had four fouls w/ 8 minutes remaining and Stewart had four fouls w/ 7 minutes remaining. Overall, Steward had a bad overall game too.

4) Defensive issues were also compounded once Reed fell ackwardly and that clearly affected his small space movement. Personally, I would have liked to see Reibe, heck, even Komora, after that fall.

Right on the money with #1 and #2. From what I understand, usually Dawson Baker and Richie Saunders are not on the floor together because they are both bad defenders, but with Keita out and Kennard Davis being unable to play, both Saunders and Baker were in the game. This spread the floor out more and left a more vacant lane for AJD, but not completely vacant because Mboup isn't a shooter.

In the first 10 minutes of the game Dybansta was clearly rattled and nervous which lead to his shaky ball handling and travel violations (some called and some were not). Once BYU was down 20, there was nothing to lose and Dybantsa could say "fack it", just play and don't worry about anything else. What's the worst that can happen we already down 20?"

 

[gsmooth]

I'm not one to normally complain about the refs, but AJ used an arm bar into the chest (of Ross I think) to create separation on one take - how that isn't a foul is beyond me. He is a contact merchant in general and knows how to find ways to create separation. That one was just so far over the top.

AJD made some great shots with a level of degree of difficulty and he is a baller. However, you are correct, he was foul baiting the entire game. After some bad fouls were committed early by UConn (correct foul calls) in the 2nd half it looked like the officials were reflexively calling fouls on UConn (which were not fouls) which put BYU in the bonus early. BYU started aggressively creating contact (shoulder charges, off arm forearm shoving and forearm bars) and none of them were called but if the UConn defenders resisted by pushing back a little, they were called. This is why you saw UConn defenders not standing physically stout when BYU players were creating physical contact.

 

[auror]

Rewatching a play where Stewart gets his second foul. Dybansta pushes Stewarrt with left arm. No call. Did not see what Stewart did to get a foul. Calling @auror for his observation. Around the 1hr28m mark.

I don't have the same timestamps. This one?

Stewart is entitled to verticality only if you're stationary or moving backwards. If he makes contact even while straight up and is moving towards the shooter, it's a foul. It's hard to tell if he actually hit Dybantsa from the angle. Maybe on his elbow. If he did, it didn't seem to affect the shot at all.

 

[ctchamps]

I don't have the same timestamps. This one?

Stewart is entitled to verticality only if you're stationary or moving backwards. If he makes contact even while straight up and is moving towards the shooter, it's a foul. It's hard to tell if he actually hit Dybantsa from the angle. Maybe on his elbow. If he did, it didn't seem to affect the shot at all.

I was asking about the second foul. This was his third foul which I felt shouldn’t have been called. As an aside this film shows how tough Stewart was guarding Dybansta.

 

[Chief00]

I said this in the chat but I was surprised at how much a few of the BYU players were able to push off and create space for themselves on offense. Saunders and Dybansta did it at will. I’m not sure why it was being allowed, I feel like every other season those would be charge calls. Without some of these plays the clearest one being when Dybansta charged through one of defenders, traveled then threw up a shot well after the “foul” which went in and was counted. There were a few similar plays (missed travel and goaltending all on one play). This felt more like an 10-12 point more comfortable win. Give BYU credit, they battled back, but the game was not nearly as close as the final score. We were by far the better team. I thought we also stopped going into Reed. BYU did a better job of denying him in the 2nd half, but when that happens we need to make the other team pay by hitting 3’s or driving if Reed is double teamed. Learning experiences for our team.

The last few years the refs have been all over the map and consistency of calls have been lost. Sometimes we write a lot off as a dispute with Hurley (Gaffney) but it also appears we need to establish what is a travel, a push off or a block.

 

[Ewekon]

Overall we did not play “generally very good” defense last night.

-We gave up 84 points.
-they shot 49% from the floor.
-they had 10 offensive rebounds and out rebounded us overall. This will make Danny insane.
- we didn’t protect the rim late. Few offensive charges, poor help rotation, few blocks. Reed is not a rim protector in the UConn big man tradition. He can get better.

A lot to work on but a great learning experience.

We still miss too much at the rim and within 3 feet imho. Karaban and Ross guilty here.

Win's a win

 

[Chief00]

In his short time on the court, Reibe didn't seem comfortable --but he didn't look our of place either. If he can spell Reed and get accustomed to the pace and intensity of these bigger games, he should grow a lot this year.

He will develop a good skillset but Reibe needs to get in the weight room.

 

[Lafayette]

The last few years the refs have been all over the map and consistency of calls have been lost. Sometimes we write a lot off as a dispute with Hurley (Gaffney) but it also appears we need to establish what is a travel, a push off or a block.

yes having an objective reviewable standard on video would be excellent for keeping the refs shall we say “sharp”. Would be daring for Fox to show an accurate defense where an offensive foul was called (textbook defense) and then show the game footage to compare. Likely filed under this will never happen.

 

[Chief00]

We still miss too much at the rim and within 3 feet imho. Karaban and Ross guilty here.

Win's a win

I agree and wonder why? We have very intense practices which last year had both Reed and Johnson as shot blockers. Sometimes it is a trick of the trade to do a bankshot off the glass with a soft touch. Other times it is not rushing the shot ad footwork.

 

[Chief00]

Getting the win is great, but there are clearly some things that need to be worked on.

The team needs to remember that when you attack the hoop you draw a lot more fouls. When BYU made its charge, the team was not attacking the BYU defense like they did in the first half.

I thought the refs called a few week foul calls on Stewart and Ross. I get that the kid is the #1 freshmen, but make him earn everything. He had a great game, but he lowered his shoulder into Ross and don't get the foul on Stewart with his hands straight up on the fadeaway.

Hopefully, that was Stewarts bad game for the season. Definitely need more from him. Ross was solid when he was out there, but needs to be out there more.

Speaking of which, I said it on another thread, but Ball has to realize how important he is to the offense and needs to be on the floor and not take himself out with fouls, a few of which where silly and avoidable. He's more than just a shooter.

Finally, aside for a few drifts on the defense end where he gave up being between the defender and rim, AK had a great game. He was mostly very solid on defense and had an elite shooting night.

Hopefully, everyone is able to shake off the nicks and bruises and are ready and roaring to go against 'Zona.

Agree Alex and Solo need to stay on court and understand sometimes that means being wise on defense.
The thing that prevented us from blowing them out though was not making them pay on the other end when they pressed us. Only one time did I recall we ran a brilliant full court play that resulted in a lay up. It looked so easy but we did not do it again.
Sometimes we get too comfortable with Luke’s Euro Ball. While sometimes we do that brilliantly we need to be more aggressive in executing the running game. The other team pressing us should be considered a great opportunity for a quick easy basket not a reason to implode.

 

[Kitaman]

This team is built for January, so they better get us now. Everyone is seemingly trying to figure out Hurley's offense (newcomers), players' tendencies (advantages), player's spots, who is great at help side defense and who's not, when to shoot/pass/solo, etc... Practice ain't games. They need time a lot more playing time together especially now with shorten rotations.

If we can beat a top 10 team without Mullins and Furphy, (btw handled MSU without Reed) this confirms what we know. This team is scary good! We will probably lose some until this all comes together but I think come January we will be ready for the conference and reclaim our Title (goal number one).

When Mullins and Furphy return and the team masters Hurley's offense and playing together (chemistry) we will be dominant. We still don't know what these two will do, which means they have no stress to impress. Just be freshman and contribute.

All of our Championship teams that had new pieces had a strong veteran leader (Bazz, Kemba, Taliek) who could take control of the team especially in tense times. Leaders who pulled the team up after bad losses. I think Karaban is that same leader and is capable of taking this team back to the top where he twice stood. Come March we will all be saying the difference is "we have Karaban and they don't".

 

[Chief00]

We have struggled against pressure far too often the last few years. A 1-2-2 is not a difficult press break. The soft spot is the middle for quick kick to the wing and if done right you have an odd man break. It’s kinda basketball 101. Hurley, Nardi, and Kimani were all point guards, yet we press break like we generally have no clue and it completely kills our offense. When we didn’t turn it over, we would barely get it over before 10. That and the continuing issue with inbounding are just perplexing.

Can I give this two Likes?

 

[ArizonaHsky]

Give BYU credit but we did not seize the opportunities in the second half. Demary made some key plays late for the win.

Tonight, Karaban looked very relax with good body balance on his shot. No leaning forward or backwards. When Alex has this approach he is a very valuable weapon. We needed to look for him more tonight. He won the game for us. Reed also shot well with a high FG% but needs to improve his foul shooting.

Our defense was generally very good until
Our late collapse and took our opponent’s best player out of the game. Reed still needs to not to chase guards with the ball. Additionally, we allowed too many offensive rebounds. Twice as many as we had. Not enought boxing out.

Demary is a great team guy, creates environment of unselfish ball sharing yielding 3x’s the assists as the opposing teams. We really missed Mullins with Ball having a subpar game.

Ross played good defense and had some good dunks.

We got screwed by the refs the second half and we imploded. With Mullins injuried we don’t have enough of offensive answers if one of our Big 3 has an off game.

Only once we ran a good play to make them pay for pressing. We need to do much better than that from a coaching and player perspective. Also not sure why we put the ball in Smith’s hand when they were likely to foul.

Next!

Ross fouled out in 12 minutes. I would not call that good defense.

 

[cordeodato]

in most of the games I have seen, regardless of the sport, the refs always play the score board. They think they are safe doing it because they feel no one will come after them, and at the same time they get to blow the whistle, so they think they are doing their job.

 

[80shusky]

Give BYU credit but we did not seize the opportunities in the second half. Demary made some key plays late for the win.

Tonight, Karaban looked very relax with good body balance on his shot. No leaning forward or backwards. When Alex has this approach he is a very valuable weapon. We needed to look for him more tonight. He won the game for us. Reed also shot well with a high FG% but needs to improve his foul shooting.

Our defense was generally very good until
Our late collapse and took our opponent’s best player out of the game. Reed still needs to not to chase guards with the ball. Additionally, we allowed too many offensive rebounds. Twice as many as we had. Not enought boxing out.

Demary is a great team guy, creates environment of unselfish ball sharing yielding 3x’s the assists as the opposing teams. We really missed Mullins with Ball having a subpar game.

Ross played good defense and had some good dunks.

We got screwed by the refs the second half and we imploded. With Mullins injuried we don’t have enough of offensive answers if one of our Big 3 has an off game.

Only once we ran a good play to make them pay for pressing. We need to do much better than that from a coaching and player perspective. Also not sure why we put the ball in Smith’s hand when they were likely to foul.

Next!

Disagree that the team doesnt have enough offensive answers without Mullins. They have plenty of offense. Should be able to win every game scoring 86 points. The defense will again be the issue if there is one. Dybantsa is a pro now. Stew was in his jersey most of the game and he still did what NBA lottery picks do. Combination of occasional defensive lapses, turnovers mostly unforced and they have an NBA player. Great experience for the team to pull it out with big game pressure at the end.

 

[Spaceman213J]

I think with Reibe, going against Reed in practice will really help him over the course of the year. Reed is strong, but he also has learned how to get low and leverage guys out of position. Reibe needs to learn how to 'sit' in his spot and not let guys get lower than him and push him around.
To be fair, Clingan struggled with this at times his freshmen season, too. As big as he is, I remember watching games with my dad and we my dad used to yell at the tv because Clingan was letting smaller/weaker guys get underneath him and move him around. To Clingan's credit, it was something he really rectified.

 

[gtcam]

Fouls plague this team and probably will all season - plus the refs we cannot control.
The game changer, in my eyes, was an inability to solve any press. Getting the ball over at 10 exactly screws this offense all up and keeps players out of position to hit the boards. That is on the staff.
Beautiful opening turns into a horror show BUT a win is a win and this one is worth something come seedings.

 

[auror]

I was asking about the second foul. This was his third foul which I felt shouldn’t have been called. As an aside this film shows how tough Stewart was guarding Dybansta.

Stewart expects Dybantsa to back down again. Instead AJ starts his move, so in bracing himself for contact Stewart puts 2 hands on him and bumps him off a dribble line. Since he's a dribbler, it's a hand check.

It's a problem with the way post play and driving are reffed differently. One of my least favorite interpretations of the rules.

 

[Mots010]

We have struggled against pressure far too often the last few years.

Is there any data to support this claim? The last 3 seasons include two national champions. One was historically great and dominated the season to an overall one seed.

There was a lot we could have improved on last season, but we didn’t have the horses in the backcourt, and Mcneeley’s ankle injury didn’t help.