Comments about ‘BYU men's basketball: Cougars survive scare from San Francisco, 80-76’

After a nail-biting game, we are grateful for a win on the road! Way to rally from behind, Cougars. Practice free throws this week.

Go BYU!

After my Utes could not pull off the upset of Arizona (who really did deserve us upsetting them after the refs GAVE them the previous game vs. Colorado), I was really hoping for the Dons to beat the Cougars. But, alas, I was disappointed twice tonight. Despite my thrill at seeing Davies foul out and Haws FINALLY miss some free throws, Carlino has to come out again as a leader and will his team to victory.

He and Doolin had a little battle going. While Doolin had 3 times the assist Carlino had, it was fun to see Carlino pick the other guy's pocket a few times. Ha, ha. Good stuff. And Josh Sharp is becoming the next Dennis Rodman, rebound king. And the frosting on top??? Bronson Kaufusi comes in and pads his stats w/ another basket and a rebound. Good stuff.

Again, you make me think I oughta be a Cougar fan...

What did the refs have against Brandon Davies?

For those who thought every game in the WCC, except Zags and SMU, would be a cake walk, hopefully this was a wake up call. SF is a very good team and capable of knocking anyone off who doesn't bring their A game.

I've been very impressed with Carlino and Sharp the last few games. Carlino is performing like I thought he would all year, and Sharp is a beast on the offensive boards and very good defender.

I was a little surprised that Kaufusi came in and that Ambrosina didn't.

Very happy to see the Cougs get a tough, hard fought road win.

2,000 was the turnout? I realize that the WCC has some tough teams to beat at home, but I can't help but feel like the conference is small-time when I read figures like that. I long for the days of UNLV, New Mexico and SDSU. Still no Big 12 or Pac 14/16 invite coming, alas. BYU has a good basketball program going, but they need to get a better schedule ASAP or recruiting is going to fall off a cliff. With only about 5 good WCC games a year, we should have zero non-conference patsy games set up.

Key stat for BYU this season - 80 points:

BYU is 10-0 when scoring 80 or more points.
BYU is 2-4 when scoring fewer than 80 points.

Utah(61-58) and Weber State(78-68) are the only teams BYU has beaten while scoring fewer than 80 points.

Interestingly, the Utes haven't scored 80 points against a D-1 opponent this season.

BYU has to somehow learn to defend off the penetrating dribble.They need to recruit some players who can penetrate off the dribble and then they can learn to defend it better -- I liked the way they hung in all the way despite not playing as good as they normally do.

IN past years I've seen BYU charge out and do great for the first half of the season only to tire and fade and stumble into the NCAA tourney.

I'm hoping this year is different... stumble at the start, not have the act together, and the 3rd, 4th, 5th and bench guys doing little. Then, they learn to play together and go into tourney time with a head of steam.

Nice thing about sports, Andy, is there's always hope. And hope is a good thing.

@CougFaninTX

A 7-8 Dons team with an RPI of 173 is a good team?

Yet you are on Utah boards telling us how bad we are at 8-6 with an RPI of 103?

BYU played a horrible team and survived, that's all there is no need to talk up a horrible opponent.

Snack PAC

"interestingly" you bring the Utes into your comment though no Ute fans had posted a comment prior. Obsessed much?
Also, if Utah was playing an uptempo run and gun system as the Cougs do then your comment would mean something. Since they don't, you're simply comparing apples and oranges.
I'm pretty sure a 3 point loss to the #3 ranked team in the country at their house tells Utah fans which style of play will eventually win the bigger games. And just think, Utah is coming that close despite having a retooled team fresh off their worst season ever. I guess we now understand why you're so nervous.

@Snack PAC

Interestingly, the Utes haven't scored 80 points against a D-1 opponent this season.

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And who has scored 80 on us?

#3 Arizona State on the road? Nope, held to 16 points below their average.

ASU on the road? Nope, held to 18 points below their average.

The #2 WCC BYU on the road? Nope, held to 18 points below their average.

12-2 Boise at home? Nope, held to 25 below their average.

We don't have to score 80 points, we actually play defense. Unfortunately our offense isn't as good.

Thanks to the ute trolls for giving me an update on Utah basketball, in which I have no interest. If I did, I would read an article about them. BYU played down to their opponent last night as did Arizona. San Francisco was 7-1 at home before playing the Cougars. The Dons don't play well on the road and the Marriott Center will be difficult for them.

Utah doesn't really play great D, they just play a really slow, boring game. Running down the shot clock until 8 or 9 seconds doesn't really mean you play great D.

You people have to realize that most of the schools in the WCC are private religious schools with a student body of 6000 or less so why would they build a center that holds more than 6000,BYU is the exception because their student population is near 30,000 so a big place makes sense,but as for the conference not being good is another thing,Bill Russell,Steve Nash,and John Stockton are all alumni of the WCC.

@motorbike
Nervous no, happy to see the Utes holding their own and will keep watching for better things to come and they will if they can keep their coach.
The Cougars played like they had their heads in the clouds after the game on Wednesday then this game started and they got smacked in the mouth and they had to keep fighting a very young opponent who if they can keep their players will be really good in a couple of years

Uteology - RPI, really? who uses RPI in this day and age besides weak sports news sites and the ever behind the times NCAA? Do you know that CBSSports shows BYU at 30 in their RPI? I am a BYU Fan, but that is ridiculous!

As a Utah fan I would think you would not want to quote RPI stats since RPI generally doesn't include how close the win or loss was.

I chose a couple of the most respected rankings below that take into account all D-1 opponents and how close the game was through 1/5/13:

Sagarin Pomeroy
BYU - 55 Rank, SOS 97 47 Rank, SOS 132
Utah - 88 Rank, SOS 128 116 Rank, SOS 298
SF - 143 Rank, SOS 51 131 Rank, SOS 128
AZ - 9 Rank, SOS 55 14 Rank, SOS 107

As you can see the rankings and SOS are all over the place, especially the SOS. They do tend to come together at the end of the season, but RPI is famous for being even more inconsistent and a team can often jump 30 places in rank after one game using RPI.

@motorbike
Nervous no, happy to see the Utes holding their own and will keep watching for better things to come and they will if they can keep their coach.
The Cougars played like they had their heads in the clouds after the game on Wednesday then this game started and they got smacked in the mouth and they had to keep fighting a very young opponent who if they can keep their players will be really good in a couple of years

@ 4601

Actually it was Snack PAC who first gave this thread an update on the Utes and bothered to do his research on point totals.

@ LindonMan

What you said SOUNDS real nice, but have you actually done your research or do you prefer just pretending your opinions are facts? You might want look at who the number 7th ranked team in the country is at opponents field goal percentage - which has little to nothing to do with pace of the game. For kicks and giggles, Utah is ranked 21st in Opponents points per game.

@motorbike
Nervous no, happy to see the Utes holding their own and will keep watching for better things to come and they will if they can keep their coach.
The Cougars played like they had their heads in the clouds after the game on Wednesday then this game started and they got smacked in the mouth and they had to keep fighting a very young opponent who if they can keep their players will be really good in a couple of years

@LindonMan
Lindon, UT

Utah doesn't really play great D, they just play a really slow, boring game. Running down the shot clock until 8 or 9 seconds doesn't really mean you play great D.

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True. But holding your opponents to a low shooting percentage does mean you play a great defense.

BYU shot 31% against our defense at the Marriott Center.
Arizona shot 36% against our defense at McKale Center.
ASU shot 37% against our defense at the Wells Fargo Arena.
SMU shot 33% at Moody Coliseum.

BYU held Weber State to 42%, Iowa State 48%, FSU 58%, Notre Dame 52%, Baylor 45%, and the Dons to 50% shooting at War Memorial Gymnasium.

Result? Utah in year one of rebuilding the program has been in every single game while BYU has been blown out 4 times.