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!!

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.

BYU basketball season is upon us. I always seem to get lost in the football season and forget that basketball is starting up soon. Here’s a look at some key players we’ll have this year.

STARTERS RETURNING
• Trent Plaisted, C, freshman all-American, all-MWC
• Lee Cummard, F, 4.9 ppg, 2.3 rpg as freshman
• Keena Young, F, leading rebounder, all-MWC
• Rashaun Broadus, G, second in MWC in assist/TO ratio

HOPE TO RELY ON …
• Austin Ainge, G, team leader as combo guard
• Jimmy Balderson, G/F, 10 points a game off bench
• Fernando Malaman, F/C, forward scored 7 ppg
• Vuk Ivanovic, C, post play could move Plaisted to forward
• Mike Rose, G, outside shooter

PLAYERS LOST
• Brock Reichner, G, 10 ppg, team leader
• Jackson Emery, G, serving LDS mission
• Derek Dawes, C, discontinued playing due to injury

I went to the game and I can’t say much good about it. I did like the play of Jackson Emery. He looks like he has some good potential. For the rest of the guys I was mostly embarassed. It looked like they were a bunch of immature youngsters who were getting pounded by a more mature team here in Las Vegas. I know it’s a road game in Las Vegas with a very fast UNLV team. I just don’t know how BYU could show such immaturity in the game. UNLV let us in the game the first half with a lot of ugly plays and turnovers and we still couldn’t capitilize.

The only really good part of the night was when the UNLV player missed the layin-dunk.