Chief's Briefs - BYU Edition

[PAHusky]

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.

I don’t know how you’d quantify their inability to break the press but if you’ve seen them try to break full court pressure in the last few years it’s obvious they struggle with it. As you astutely pointed out it has nothing at all to do with winning championships but it’s very obvious watching they can’t do it consistently and need to work on that lest it become an actual issue when it matters.

 

[auror]

By the end of the year the '23 team was incredible against press. Jackson destroyed it.

I don't remember '24 struggling at all with presses. It certainly didn't lead to any losses. Maybe Seton Hall?

Last year had no PG, so yeah.

We had a couple turnovers last night, but got several dunks against the press, too.

 

[Ewekon]

Mullins' handle is for real and if you have watched highlights (granted high school and post HS tourneys), he keeps his head up and can go end to end to finish or pull up for 3 if we have bodies underneath to rebound. We will be an improved team and he does play some D too.

 

[HW611]

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

Win's a win

Do you mean someone else?

Ross didn't miss any 2 pointers in this game.

 

[caw]

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!

Just one question. Who are the big three?

I know most would say Karaban, Ball and Reed but I think it’s four with Silas included. He’s good enough and somehow people forget he averaged 13.5 in the SEC last year.

That’s my only quibble with your post.

 

[caw]

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.

2024 had zero issue with pressure when healthy. Last year was a problem but we all know why. This year is a one game sample and was an odd time of the game (mix of a lot of things IMO).

 

[RuffRuff]

Just one question. Who are the big three?

I know most would say Karaban, Ball and Reed but I think it’s four with Silas included. He’s good enough and somehow people forget he averaged 13.5 in the SEC last year.

That’s my only quibble with your post.

The Big 3 will be Reed, Demary and Mullins. AK the glue.

 

[homunculus]

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.

On the play where everyone is talking about the “step through” it looks to me like he elbowed Karaban in the face.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

On the play where everyone is talking about the “step through” it looks to me like he elbowed Karaban in the face.

That he did. Dybantsa got a “future NBA star whistle” for sure on Saturday.

I fully expected it, and expected Ross to likely foul out, Stewart to be in foul trouble.

They both contained him enough, and we got the win. Mission accomplished.

 

[superjohn]

Just one question. Who are the big three?

I know most would say Karaban, Ball and Reed but I think it’s four with Silas included. He’s good enough and somehow people forget he averaged 13.5 in the SEC last year.

That’s my only quibble with your post.

It's a big 5- Reed, Solo, AK, Demary, Mullins can all easily score 20 points any given night.

 

[HooperScooper]

The Big 3 will be Reed, Demary and Mullins. AK the glue.

We'll see with Mullins. You think he'll average more ppg than the 4 upperclassmen in the starting lineup? I'm sure he'll be good but I'm not sure he's going to do that. If he does we're going to be cooking on offense.

 

[AllHusky]

Reed's block rate last year was top 25 nationally. You're wrong. He's still not 100% recovered and will probably take a step backwards after being undercut last night.

Getting Reed 100% physically is imperative. We certainly can't afford to baby him during the "Gauntlet", but hopefully the schedule allows some light days at the office to get him healed and rested.

 

[ctbro1999]

Just one question. Who are the big three?

I know most would say Karaban, Ball and Reed but I think it’s four with Silas included. He’s good enough and somehow people forget he averaged 13.5 in the SEC last year.

That’s my only quibble with your post.

This year's team (albeit only 4 games in and only 1 game against a "real" opponent) is giving me vibes of the '23-24 title team where we didn't have 1 or 2 "GO-TO" guys, but we were a 5-headed hydra with Newton/Castle/Spencer/Karaban/Clingan. Any of those 5 guys could have lead the team in scoring any given game.

This year, I can see the 5-headed hydra return with Demary/Ball/Karaban/Reed and eventually Mullins. Who knows, if Ross keeps up the early season performance and Stewart improves on last year's campaign, we could have a 6 or 7 (harharhar) headed hydra this year. Though Ross or Stewart leading the team in scoring would not be expected most games.

 

[Chief00]

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

That’s a good point.

 

[Chief00]

By the end of the year the '23 team was incredible against press. Jackson destroyed it.

I don't remember '24 struggling at all with presses. It certainly didn't lead to any losses. Maybe Seton Hall?

Last year had no PG, so yeah.

We had a couple turnovers last night, but got several dunks against the press, too.

That’s my point, one needs to destroy the press by making them quickly pay on the other end. Taking close to 10 seconds to get the ball over half court does not destroy the press.

 

[Chief00]

We'll see with Mullins. You think he'll average more ppg than the 4 upperclassmen in the starting lineup? I'm sure he'll be good but I'm not sure he's going to do that. If he does we're going to be cooking on offense.

Mullins will help open things up for Reed and Karaban by giving us a consistent elite shooter who can stretch the court.

 

[ctchamps]

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.

I greatly appreciate your response. It’s too subjective unless I’m misunderstanding something. In both the second and third foul called on Stewart Dybansta is creating the step back movement to get space. In foul two Stewart had his right hand on Dybansta before Dybansta made his step back. I can understand why the ref interpreted it as a push by Stewart. In the third foul Stewart kept his arms vertical with no body contact until he dropped his arms. But that was after the whistle.

 

[ctchamps]

That’s a good point.

Disagree. Keeping out of foul trouble is only a part of defense. Poster did nothing to evaluate what Ross did on defense when he wasn’t fouling. I haven’t seen anyone who has argued the fifth foul on Ross was justified. In fact most of us feel it should have been called against Dybansta. That play was excellent defense by Ross.

The foul should have been called on the ref who called the foul.

 

[NJHusky]

This year's team (albeit only 4 games in and only 1 game against a "real" opponent) is giving me vibes of the '23-24 title team where we didn't have 1 or 2 "GO-TO" guys, but we were a 5-headed hydra with Newton/Castle/Spencer/Karaban/Clingan. Any of those 5 guys could have lead the team in scoring any given game.

This year, I can see the 5-headed hydra return with Demary/Ball/Karaban/Reed and eventually Mullins. Who knows, if Ross keeps up the early season performance and Stewart improves on last year's campaign, we could have a 6 or 7 (harharhar) headed hydra this year. Though Ross or Stewart leading the team in scoring would not be expected most games.

How good is Mullins' handle? The Newton/Castle/Spencer lineup had 3 excellent ball handlers. How does Silas/Solo/Bray compare?

 

[coachn]

Just one question. Who are the big three?

I know most would say Karaban, Ball and Reed but I think it’s four with Silas included. He’s good enough and somehow people forget he averaged 13.5 in the SEC last year.

That’s my only quibble with your post.

Add Mullins to make it a BIG FIVE!!!!!