Comments about ‘BYU falls to Gonzaga, tourney fate now in committee's hands’

NIT Bound

I can remember when Utah had some pretty good basketball teams!! Oops.......I was thinking of the JAZZ!!!

Good luck in the NIT if you get in there!!

Not quite ready for prime time this year. Hard to lose a Jimmer and bring in 9 freshmen and use 5 of them. All teams lose players to injury, but Rogers and Collingsworth would have helped. Still a pretty good year at that.

Would be shocked if the cougs get in. Most likely Gonzaga and Saint Mary's.

BYU stumbled? I think they were beaten by a better team and really shouldn't be included with the invited teams to NCAA tournament. That's one of the risks of playing as an independent or in a small conference where two teams are clearly the best.

BYU still makes the tourney. Utah fans will wait for the moment when they can post a message about yet another BYU game.

Gonzaga came out on fire and BYU came out flat. It happens. I'm hoping for a 10-12 seed with a decent first round matchup.

Basketball in March. One of the best things in sports if your team gets there.

@Ornery Code

"I can remember when Utah had some pretty good basketball teams!! Oops.......I was thinking of the JAZZ!!! "

You must have read the wrong article, this was about BYU not Utah.

As stated before, NIT Bound.

@ Ornery Code

"I can remember when Utah had some pretty good basketball teams!! Oops.......I was thinking of the JAZZ!!!"

Obviously you have short term memory. You only remember the post Majerus era.

Conference Championships: 36
NCAA tournament appearances: 27
Sweet Sixteen appearances: 15
Elite Eight appearances: 5
Final Four appearances: 4
NCAA Runner Up: 1
NCAA National Champions: 1

AAU Tournament Champions: 1
NIT Champions: 1

You said "I can remember when Utah had some pretty good basketball teams!! Oops.......I was thinking of the JAZZ!!!"

So this may help your memory detention.

Any time you win twenty five games, you've done well. Better than losing twenty five.

BYU is without question a bubble team. Their fate rests in how many conference tournament upsets occur. For every bubble team or out-of-nowhere team that wins their tournament, BYU's odds of getting in drop that much lower.

I predict BYU will be an NIT team (Sorry, Honor Code, the tournament selection committees don't hate BYU as much as you think) and in my opinion, that will be a good thing.

This season I'd rather see a Cougar go three or four rounds deep into the NIT than a Cougar team which ends up one-and-done in the big dance.

@ersorenson

You said - "That's one of the risks of playing as an independent or in a small conference where two teams are clearly the best."

And if there's one team which is learning about the risks of moving to a new conference, it's the Utes.

That's not intended as a dig. This season I've been willing to give the Ute basketball team the benefit of the doubt, not just because they're in a new conference, but because they have a new coach who practically had to re-build a team from scratch.

@News For U

Just as an FYI, as long as Ute fans continue to reminisce about their glory days, BYU fans will do the same thing.

Thank you D-News for posting only those comments you like and agree with!

BYU got Jimmered by Pango.

News For U

You obviously need a little work on your selective memory.

Post Majerus/Current Dave Rose era

Conference Championships
BYU 4
Utah 1

NCAA Tournament appearances:
BYU 5
Utah 1

(Utah's 27 appearances will soon be eclipsed by BYU, which already has 26 appearances)

NCAA Tournament wins:
BYU 3
Utah 0

Sweet Sixteen appearances:
BYU 1
Utah 0

National Player of the Year:
BYU 1
Utah 0

John Wooden Award Winners
BYU 2 (Danny Ainge 1981, Jimmer Fredette 2011)
Utah 1 (Andrew Bogut 2005)

btw, there are only SEVEN schools with multiple John Wooden Award winners; only TWO schools that have won more John Wooden awards than BYU

Duke(5), North Carolina(4), BYU(2), St. Johns(2), Texas(2), UCLA(2), and Virginia(2 - Ralph Sampson)

The list of schools that have won both a Heisman Trophy and a John Wooden Award is even smaller.

There are a couple of areas BYU could improve on, irrespective of raw talent:

1. Rebounding: BYU was a FAR better rebounding team in the first half of the season than they are the 2nd half of the season. The first half of the season BYU out-rebounded almost every team they played but now even the weak teams are beating us on the boards. Is it because of Rose's emphasis on transition or is it because BYU is playing more zone defense in the latter half of the season? I don't know. Abuo seems to be the only one hitting the offensive boards, whereas, earlier in the year all of our bigs were pounding the offensive boards really well. I think rebounding is an area where the players have gotten lazy over the course of the season and has had a significant impact in games.

(continued below)

2. Foul shooting: in conference losses, BYU has shot miserably from the foul line (much much lower than their 70% average) and not getting nearly as many attempts as their opponents (esp in the WCC). Poor foul shooting has cost us some games.

3. Turnovers. Opposing teams are capitalizing on our turnovers much better than we are on theirs. There is no question that BYU is getting sloppier with the ball than mid season.

B.Y.U. missed early shots and dug a deep hole and a good team like Gonzaga capitalized on our mistakes and won the game. To put this in perspective to you trolls who think that the state of Utah had some pretty good basketball teams this B.Y.U. team is one of 8 teams to win 25 games + in 5 consecutive seasons. This list includes Gonzaga and St. Mary's so we are in pretty good company. Coach Rose deserves tremendous credit for losing the Jimmer and Emery from a team that scored 81 points a game and went to the sweet 16 to bringing in new talent with a scoring average of 79 points a game as well as another 25 win season and a possible NCAA or definite NIT bid. All in all our season is not over yet since we will still be playing basketball after all the conference tournaments are finished.

Clearly, the Cougs are now, at best, a 50/50 proposition as regards the NCAA tournament; however, 25 wins count for a lot, and it can't hurt to have a national fan base that guarantees ticket sales no matter where they go. I'm hoping they end up where Joe Lunardi had them originally--in Albuquerque as a twelve seed playing Notre Dame.

BYU is a bubble team. Recason for cougars fans to be hopeful: many bubble teams make it to the dance, the comittee will take in their recent success, those silly "play in" games which include some of the 12 seeds, and their win over Oregon.

BYU, with an RPI between 45-50, is likely to get an 11 or 12 seed, but it will depend on the conference championships and any "less deserving" squads getting an auto bid. For BYU, things such as Cal winning the PAC-12 tourney will help.

Personally, I think BYU should be in, but except for possibly winning that play-in game, they will probably be one-and-done. That's not a knock on BYU, that realistic, and for sure that's better than not being there and/or losing 25 games as worf would say.

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BlueCoug said:
"You obviously need a little work on your selective memory.
Post Majerus/Current Dave Rose era
NCAA Tournament appearances:
BYU 5
Utah 1

NCAA Tournament wins:
BYU 3
Utah 0

Sweet Sixteen appearances:
BYU 1
Utah 0"

Don't we all need some work, BlueCoug? For you see, in the "post Majerus era," the Utes have two tourney appearances, two tourney wins and a sweet sixteen (Ray G and the 2005 Utes).

Further, Bogut, as a sophomore, was the AP POY and Wooden winner in 2005. Although he was recruited by Majerus, those accolades occured after the so called Majerus era. If you don't think that matters, recall several well repected recent BYU players were not recruited by Rose, even though you count them as the Rose era.

And it's true, BYU is closing in on tieing Utah with tourney appearances, but they are no where near the Utes in actual tourney wins, which I see you've chosen to leave out.

In the end, "Selective Memory" can strike anyone, even Oremites.

MiP

The Utes only have one NCAA tourney appearance during the Dave Rose era, 2006 to 2012, and zero NCAA tourney wins.