I don’t want to sound like a snob, but as much as I love BYU, I just can’t bring myself to write a full recap for a throwaway game against an NAIA program. I’m glad the Cougars came away with the win and that they finally got in a little bit of a rhythm in the last 10 minutes, but overall that was some pretty uninspiring basketball. As such, I am only inspired to write the most cursory of posts about it, in hopes that I will quickly forget this game ever existed.
1. "Basketball Has Been Set Back 50 Years"
I received a text message from my father — the source of my BYU fanaticism — late Tuesday night. It read: “BYU vs. San Marcos… Basketball has been set back 50 years.”
That pretty much sums it up.
CSUSM is, quite frankly, not a good basketball team — in fact, they didn’t even exist before this year! I suppose I should be impressed that they hung with the Cougars for so long, and I would be if BYU hadn’t played like rancid, decomposing garbage for 30 minutes. Dave Rose’s boys racked up an inexcusable 14 turnovers, shot an abysmal 19 percent from deep, and refused to pound the ball inside when they had a clear size advantage.
They should have dominated CSUSM from buzzer to buzzer, but they just seemed out of it. And realistically, that’s why Rose scheduled this game when he did — most teams have at least one stinker coming out of the Christmas break, and a creampuff game against a crappy team usually allows them to get the gunk out of their system.
With a huge game against St. Mary’s coming up on Thursday, let’s hope the Cougars are now ready to buckle down and play to their potential.
2. Matt Carlino, Instant Offense
Matt Carlino may very well end up being the key to this team — and we saw another glimpse why against CSUSM.
His assertiveness in the last 10 minutes of the second half, on both ends of the floor, obviously sparked the BYU run that finally put the game away for good. Carlino’s personal 9-0 run (including a Reggie Miller-esque 3-pointer-steal-layup sequence that made me pine for the mid-1990s) kicked the Cougars into gear and they never looked back, but it shouldn’t take 30 minutes to get there.
It’s not that Carlino played poorly prior to that juncture — it was more that he was just invisible. Other than one 3-pointer, I don’t remember him taking any shots in the first half, nor do I really recall him playing all that much. He finished with 21 minutes, so he did spend more time on the bench than usual, but he has to make a concerted effort to impact the game from the very beginning. If he can bank 16 points in a frenzied few minutes, imagine how many he could have racked up with a more sustained effort.
Carlino's perimeter offense is crucial to the BYU attack and, as we saw in the second half, his success often begets more opportunities and a more favorable pace for his teammates. If he can learn to bring that kind of assertiveness consistently, beginning with the opening tip, the Cougars will be very tough to beat moving forward.
3. Pounding It In the Post — Or Failing To Do So
Both Noah Hartsock and Brandon Davies dominated down low against the egregiously undersized CSUSM defenders — the only problem was that they didn’t get the ball nearly enough.
Noah was (as always) the model of efficiency, finishing with 20 points on 8-for-10 shooting, and he could have probably had 15 more if he got more touches in the paint. Davies, on the other hand, was aggressive on the glass, grabbing 13 rebounds to go with his 14 points. Talk about doing work.
Obviously this was all against a very weak opponent, but this is the kind of production and aggressiveness Rose needs out of these two every night during conference play. Noah seems to always bring his “A” game no matter the opponent, so Davies becomes the real wild card — if he can duplicate Tuesday’s effort against teams like Gonzaga and St. Mary’s, then BYU should be in pretty good shape to win the conference.
Stray Observations
- Can I just say how beautiful Hartsock’s turnaround baseline jumper is? I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him miss it, and it’s near impossible to defend unless you have a 7’5” wingspan. It’s basically an automatic two points.
- As for the other two starters, Brock Zylstra was nowhere to be found and Charles Abouo was terrible. Zylstra took only two shots and pretty much did nothing else of note, while Abouo shot a ghastly 1-for-7 from the field (including 0-for-4 from deep) and 1-for-4 from the free throw line. They did get 9 boards and 6 assists between them, but you’d expect better production from two of your team captains against NAIA-level competition.
- The non-Carlino freshman guards also struggled shooting the ball. Damarcus Harrison did a nice job getting to the rim and finished with 8 points off layups and dunks, but he was woefully off-the-mark from beyond the arc, going 0-for-4. Anson Winder was similarly ineffective, going 0-for-6 and looking a lot more like his Utah performance than his Buffalo one. Both have struggled to find a consistent rhythm in the college game, and it will continue to be a struggle as they adapt and learn to make quicker decisions. For example, Harrison should have probably had 4-6 more points on transition baskets, but he got stripped in the open floor due to a lack of awareness. None of this means these guys won’t end up being very good college players, but Cougar fans will have to be patient as they continue to figure things out.
- The box score currently says Carlino did not record a single assist on the evening, but that’s not true. He threw a memorable ¾-court bomb to Harrison for a massive dunk during the BYU run, but the statisticians seem to have erroneously credited it to Josh Sharp. Anyone who has watched the Cougars this year knows Sharp can’t walk and chew gum at the same time right now, let alone place a perfect pass over the defense. After double-checking the tape, it was Carlino who threw the pass. This injustice must be rectified!
- How about the referee going down with a knee injury? You don’t see that every day. You also don’t often see the TV broadcast team breathlessly covering every development like this white dude from California is LeBron James. On the bright side, at least Robbie Bullough’s job is secure for another day. Silver lining!
UP NEXT: BYU vs. St. Mary's, Thursday at 11:00 p.m. EST
Photo: BYU Photo
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