Welcome to CrashUtah – Where BYU fans Talk Sports

I must admit that I was shocked when I heard that BYU was matched up with Texas A&M again. I remember the feeling last year and A&M just isn’t a really good match up for us. They just have more athletes. However, we were in the game and so I think we still have a chance. On top of this, I think there are a number of other reasons why I’m still optimistic about BYU’s chances against Texas A&M in the tournament.

Jimmer Fredette – Jimmer is the future of BYU and thankfully he’s here now. He’s the first point guard at BYU in my lifetime (or at least memory) that can take someone off the dribble, get penetration and take it to the hoop. Plus, Jimmer just seems like a big game guy who seems to really get up for big games and I think he’ll do the same on college basketball’s biggest stage.

Team Defense – I haven’t heard nearly enough about BYU’s defense this year. I mentioned this a while back, but I think that BYU’s help defense and rotating to cover the open man is the best I’ve ever seen it. Add in quick hands by Jackson Emery and the JT’s ability to cause steals and turnovers (which is a surprise to me) and I have reason for optimism.

Underestimating Lee Cummard/Jackson Emery – Let’s be honest. If you looked at Lee Cummard and Jackson Emery for the first time, would you be nervous? Sure, they’ll have a reasonable amount of tape and hype on Lee, but he’s so long that I think that it takes teams a little bit to realize what he’s capable of doing. Emery should surprise people even more. Just wait and see if the A&M coach isn’t singing these 2 guys names after the game.

Miles Free Throw Shooting – I’m too lazy to look up the specific numbers, but we’re all familiar with Miles past troubles at the foul line. I’m not sure what has made the difference, but I’m not getting a heart attack every time Miles goes to the free throw line. In fact, he really seems to have some confidence on the line and won’t be the reason we lose the game.

Any other reasons that I’ve left out? I can’t wait for the game!!

BYU’s early season success was due in large part to a few basic basketball principles. They played great help defense, they made the extra pass giving up a good shot for a better one, and along those same lines they played with a team first mentality.

Starting with a Dec. 20 loss at Arizona St., they started to drift away from those basic principles. Their defense appeared to get lazy. Their passing was inaccurate, and in short supply, and the cohesion of the team as a whole was lacking.

It was frustrating to see them come so close to knocking off two ranked opponents only to fall short at the end of both games.

It is hard to understand why teams change their style when it is successful, but it is not usually a concious decision.

No one decides they want to play poorly, they simply drift into bad habits that cost them games at the end. You also cannot discount the ability of opposing teams to impose their style on their opponents. Quality teams play their style no matter what, and whatever team holds true to their gameplan is usually the victor.

Luckily for BYU fans, this team has rediscovered their style and it is working to quite beautifully. In today’s dominant victory over TCU, BYU got back to basics.

Their defense was solid, repeatedly forcing TCU to kick it back out and take challenged shots. Chris Miles has really come into his own this season on both ends of the court, but especially on the defensive end. He was consistently strong on the low block and wasn’t giving up anything easy.

On offense they suddenly remembered how to pass the ball again. They were working it inside and out, and all around the perimeter. They were taking quality shots and giving it up when someone else had a better one. I was also impressed with the guard’s penetration, especially from the backups. The benefit of having such a quick, surehanded guard is immeasurable.

It was also nice to see a little fight back in the team. They seem to be playing with a little more of a killer instinct again. It is coming out at just the right time too. Now is the time for BYU to assert themselves on a national level so that when UNLV steals the most biased tournament in the country, they will still make it to the big dance.

It has been very nice of late to hear the names of Mountain West teams being mentioned on national sports shows. I have noticed that BYU is almost always mentioned as a quality win for Wake Forest.

Now I realize that being mentioned for losing a game is not exactly the best press you can have, but it says a lot about how far they have come as a program.

A huge part of that recognition is their dominance at home over the years. It is unfortunate that with their first quality opponent outside of the conference in years that they lost, but at least they put up a good fight. In some ways losing may actually have been good because they may be able to entice other quality schools into the Marriot Center and spring a few upsets.

In looking at early predictions for the NCAA tournament, I have also seen that writers are picking as many as 4 teams from the MWC. The four teams are BYU, Utah, UNLV, and San Diego St. It just goes to show that the conference as a whole is improving greatly, and that the balance of power across the country is being spread more evenly.

I also can’t help but think that the conference’s success in football has an impact on it. While having quality football teams does not directly impact your basketball team, it does lead to more attention for your school in general. The MWC is making a legitimate case for being included in the BCS and I can’t help but think that that is helping their case in basketball too.

So as much as it sucks having to go without a game this weekend, take heart in the fact that the conference is gaining respect, and that, more importantly, BYU is being noticed at a national level.

It has been quite awhile since I last wrote, I can thank my baby and job for that, but after reading a ton of comments about this story I just had to say something.

I am sure most of you are aware of the story. As I understand it Kyle Van Noy, a linebacker that was recruited by BYU, was pulled over for a dui last week. When sending in his letter of intent to BYU he included a letter apologizing to the coaches and the school for his actions.

Bronco offered him the ability to take back his letter of intent and go to a different school, or to wait a year and take care of his legal issues and prepare himself to be admitted to BYU in good standing, which was not required by BYU itself, but by Bronco. Van Noy stuck to his original commitment, and so did Bronco.

I simply cannot believe all of the completely stupid comments that people are making about this story.

First of all, the religious aspect. I have read numerous comments stating that because he violated the honor code he should never be admitted to BYU. What these people are saying is that if you want to be accepted to BYU you have to be perfect. Nevermind the true teachings of the gospel which give all people an opportunity to make mistakes, and then learn from them.

It would be a totally different story if he had tried to hide it and pretend it never happened. Instead he decided to come forward, admit that he was wrong, and in essence ask for help. Bronco did the right thing by offering that help, as long as he really wanted it.

How many other BYU students got DUI’s before they enrolled, but were given the chance to make changes and come to BYU in good standing. So many people want to say that the only reason he is being allowed to come is because he is a football player. I say that the only reason we heard about his DUI and not the DUI’s of who knows how many other students at BYU is because he was a football player. He is not being held to a lower standard, but simply a more visible standard.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not approving of his actions. Drunk driving is one of the most idiotic things you can do. Not only are you risking your own life, you are actually more likely to kill someone else through your actions. But, to say that if you make a mistake, however large, you cannot change and come to BYU is denying the very essence of the gospel.

From a football standpoint, this in no way helps BYU. Anyone who thinks that knows nothing about sports. This is going to force him to take a year away from football, with a whole lot of free time to possibly get into more trouble. Besides all of his free time, it will be a hinderment to him physically, as well as to his football instincts. After any extended time off you start to lose your edge a little.

Now I am not under the delusion that he will not be working out and training on his own, but he will not have the structured workouts that come with being a part of a team, and more importantly, he will not be giving and taking hits. At the very least, it is going to slow him down when he first comes back and has to reacclimate himself to not just the football he was used to in high school, but a faster, bigger and stronger football at the college level.

I also don’t agree with all of the comparisons between Kyle Whittingham and Bronco. Kyle is a good man just like Bronco. He is building a quality program based on whatever standards he sees as right. To say that one or the other has stepped away from those values because of separate DUI incidents at each school is childish. They each had unique situations that they responded to under the given circumstances and not one of us is in a position to judge what they did because we do not know all of the details.

I hope this isn’t digressing, but I also feel inclined to address the comments stating they were at parties where they saw BYU athletes and/or recruits drinking and thus breaking the honor code. My response is very simple: I am sure the athletes were not the only students there so why is it that you choose to single out the people that it would do the most damage too? It also dawns on me that you are probably a BYU student too, so what are you doing at a party like that if you are so perfect that you are in a position to judge other people?

My hat is off to Bronco for his handling of this situation. It would have been easy to simply tell this young kid go away and deal with your problems yourself. Instead he stuck with a guy that was very forthcoming about his problems and made a very clear statement. That the principles of the gospel, including repentance, are right at the top of his list where he says they are. He stuck to his commitment and may very well change this young man’s life forever.

To Kyle Van Noy, you screwed up big time, but my hat is off to you as well for allowing millions of judgemental BYU fans and other members of the church to criticize you for your actions. It says a lot about your TRUE character that you were willing to expose yourself to that in order to make a change in your life. You made a commitment, and when given the opportunity to take the easy way out and run away from your problems, you chose to take the high road and run into the fire head on. I look forward to watching you running into opposing running backs head on in 2010.

As a true BYU fan it is impossible for me to congratulate the heathen university to the north for anything, so let me thank Alabama for getting completely manhandled by a supposedly inferior opponent. Not only did you give me another win in my office pool, which I am sure no one else won, but you exposed the BCS yet again.

While I did not expect Bama to play that terribly, I knew that they were not the 10.5 point favorite that many expected. What was even more pathetic was how much the refs tried to help them win calling crappy pass interference calls throughout the game, and refusing to call anything on Bama.

I just love it when the better team wins despite having the odds, the fans, the refs, and the vast majority of America against them. It was truly an impressive showing, earned by a team that I truly hate.

What surprised me even more was all of the comments on the internet this morning in support of Utah as the number one team in the country. There were over 400 comments on one webiste, the vast majority of which agreed that Utah should be number one.

While it would be stupid to think they would kill USC, Texas, OU, or Florida, it would be difficult to argue that they wouldn’t at least give them a good game. Unfortunately the current system makes that impossible.

The case is actually quite simple for Utah: they are the only undefeated team in the country.

Some might say their schedule is weak. While the Michigan win lost its luster, no one would have expected that. Oregon St. beat USC, and while you could argue every team has an off week, apparently Utah didn’t, or at least they found a way to win on their “off” week. They also beat 3 teams that were in the final BCS standings (BYU, TCU, Alabama).

You could argue that the rankings were not accurate, but those same rankings that ranked those three teams, and kept Utah from a national title shot are the same rankings that put two teams with more losses than Utah into the national championship game.

Unfortunately, we are talking ourselves in circles because the powers that be don’t care about crowning a true national champion, they care about money. If the fans truly wanted to invoke change, they would boycott one or all of the BCS games. If the BCS lost all of that money they would be forced to make some changes. But that will never happen.

One comment I read asked how long the “mid-majors” like Utah, Boise St., BYU, and TCU would do nothing about changing the current system. This person obviously has no clue that all the non-bcs conferences have been begging for a long time for change, but the BCS refuses to budge.

What I really don’t understand is why the BCS is so afraid. If these other conferences are truly so inferior, they would never be ranked high enough to play in a BCS game, their “power conferences” would keep all of the money, and it would cease to be an issue. The reality is that just like in college basketball the playing field is leveling, and they want to keep their greedy little fingers on as much of the money as possible.

I place the blame on the NCAA for allowing a few money hungry people to control the biggest money maker in college sports. But, like everything else, I am sure the NCAA leaders get their cut and so they sit idly by letting someone else run their sport. Shame on them for letting the beautiful nature of sport and competition get taken away.

Let us all hope that someday they see the error of their ways and create a playoff system. It doesn’t need to be complicated, and it shouldn’t take an act of congress to make it happen.

The top 8 teams in the final standings of the season are selected regardless of conference affiliation, and regardless of how many times their universtiy presidents have gone fishing together. Their should be no automatic bids because some years you don’t deserve one (the ACC and Big East this year for example).

These four games are played at the four current BCS bowls (or you could add the Cotton Bowl and one more to save the bigger games for the “holy” BCS bowls).

The two semi-final games could be played at the remaining BCS bowls, if you chose to add the Cotton and one more.

The championship game location is selected just like the Super Bowl and gets played all over the country spreading the wealth and building the health of the sport as not only four cities in-turn get to profit from the game.

Once again we have seen that, just like the goverment, the BCS system is broken. Unfortunately, also like the government, the people that are in a position to make change care only about the money, and refuse to make a change. Thank you Bama for exposing them once again.

So i found this article on the deseret news website. I found it to be truly entertaining, and hope you get a good laugh from it. Somebody deserves some credit for it, but like they said in the article, the author is unknown. Here it is just in case the link doesn’t work:

BCS DECLARES GERMANY WINNER OF WORLD WAR II… US Finishes Ranked 4th

After determining the Big-12 championship game participants the BCS computers were put to work on other major contests and today the BCS declared Germany to be the winner of World War II.

“Germany put together an incredible number of victories beginning with the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland and continuing on into conference play with defeats of Poland, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark,Belgium and the Netherlands. Their only losses came against the US and Russia; however considering their entire body of work–including an incredibly tough Strength of Schedule–our computers deemed them worthy of the #1 ranking.”

Questioned about the #4 ranking of the United States the BCS commissioner stated “The US only had two major victories–Japan and Germany. The computer models, unlike humans, aren’t influenced by head-to-head contests–they consider each contest to be only a single, equally-weighted event.”

German Chancellor Adolph Hitler said “Yes, we lost to the US; but we defeated #2 ranked France in only 6 weeks.” Herr Hitler has been criticized for seeking dramatic victories to earn ‘style points’ to enhance Germany’s rankings. Hitler protested “Our contest with Poland was in doubt until the final day and the conditions in Norway were incredibly challenging and demanded the application of additional
forces.”

The French ranking has also come under scrutiny. The BCS commented “France had a single loss against Germany and following a preseason #1 ranking they only fell to #2.”

Japan was ranked #3 with victories including Manchuria, Borneo and the Philippines.

USU dominated the Cougars on the boards with 39 rebounds to BYU’s 29. Add in the 14-7 advantage in offensive rebounds and it makes you wonder what BYU’s big men were doing. I didn’t need to look at those numbers to know we’d been dominated. Just watching the game we all knew that USU was killing us on the boards, but those numbers sure drive the point home.

I’d be completely upset with our big men, but I think it’s probably more accurate to say that USU has some talented boys in the paint. USU is going to win a lot of games on the backs of Wilkinson and Wesley.

Despite USU’s talent, I thought BYU double teamed very well. In the past BYU has been regularly hurt by passes out of the double team that lead to open shots. This wasn’t the case against USU and it was fun to see BYU executed the double team so well.

Of course, my favorite stat of the night was BYU’s 12 steals. It sure is nice to have Jackson Emery back from his mission.

In the midst of my moping while at work about BYU’s terrible loss this evening, i noticed that the men’s basketball team was playing. Hoping that they could bring some happiness to my otherwise sullen day I decided to turn it on (thank you work for having DirecTV with all the channels).

It was an enjoyable game to watch, if not an exciting one. I needed a game where the outcome was not really in doubt for most of the second half. I will admit my outlook was very unsure coming into this year with the loss of some key players last year, namely Trent Plaisted. I was very impressed with the way they played though.

What a game Chris Miles had. He had some great moves to the basket, and continued to go for it, even when he missed a few. JT had a rough game, but every shooter goes through slumps, and he will work out of it. Cummard had another great game, and deserves all of the attention he is bound to get this year. When you are as good as he is, you find a way to score. It will be fun to see how teams try and stop him.

Perhaps the brightest spot I saw tonight was how well the cougars were with help defense. There were numerous drives where the defender got beat, but another cougar stepped in and filled the lane forcing the other team to kick it back out. I don’t think enough can be said about the importance of defense if BYU is to be successful this year especially once they start to play better teams with quicker players. We can’t expect them to go undefeated, but 5-0 is a great start. It should be another great year.

I don’t know if there is anything I hate more than losing. It just sucks no matter what. It doesn’t matter if the game is close, or a blowout. It doesn’t matter if you got beat or you lost(there is a difference). It doesn’t matter if it is any other team, or your rival losing just sucks.

So how was I rewarded on this day that could have been so beautiful? I was rewarded with a blowout loss, that we lost, to our biggest rival. I really wish I knew what was wrong today. I am a firm believer that no one person is to blame for any one loss, but it is hard to overlook the game that Max Hall had today.

Let me first say I am a huge Max Hall fan, and was thrilled when he was named the starter last year. I also believe he is absolutely on the same level as Graham Harrel, Sam Bradford, and Colt McCoy when he is on, but there is no doubt he was very off today. Throwing five picks, three of which led directly to touchdowns, is unacceptable. I am sure he would be the first person to admit that, and that he is beating himself up more than anyone else could, but it was just embarassing.

The saddest thing was that most of them weren’t even close. He was misreading plays like crazy all night long. I have just decided that even though he is a Junior, this is only his second year, so he was just getting the rest of his “sophomore slump” out that was left over from the TCU game. He will definately bounce back and come on strong next year. It’s just sad to already be looking to next year before Thanksgiving.

At times like these it is always fun to look back and think about the ups and downs we have experienced as fans. In thinking about The Holy War I can’t help but recall some of my personal experiences.

There have been plenty of memories I don’t want to remember to include getting beat in 2004, and lets just say I still hate the numbers 34-31. But lets focus on the good memories.

My first good memory was of the game in ’98. I remember watching the game and enjoying the clang of the goalpost. When I went back to school on Monday my teacher told us he had been sitting in the endzone right at eye level with where the ball hit the goalpost. It was a beautiful weekend.

Despite the short time that has elapsed I have very fond memories of the last two years. I don’t think a detailed description is necessary to any true BYU fan, though I believe video can be found on this website if you have forgotten Beck to Harline, or Austin Collie still being open down the sideline.

My fondest memory was Lavell Edwards last game as head coach, and my first ever BYU-Utah game. The season was less than stellar, but that final game was one for the ages. I was stuck sitting with opposing fans because my friends that bought the tickets attended school there, but luckily they were decent fans and we enjoyed teasing each other all day.

The game started quite sad with an early pick six that I am sure Mr. Doman would like to forget since it was his first start. Luckily the game got better. The fourth quarter neared an end with a touchdown catch by my neighbor at the time, Matt Nichols. I’ve never hated my neighbor so much. Luckily, Doman redeemed himself with an unbelievable fourth down pass near midfield, which was vaguely similar to a catch made last year. Then top it all off with a beautiful touchdown to end an historic career.

It is all of the memories that we as fans have that make a rivalry worth anything. Especially in college where the players come and go so much, it is the fans that are constant, and it is the fans that make it great. I look forward to hearing many other people’s stories making this rivalry even deeper for me.