1. Matt Carlino's Quiet Excellence
If I would have watched this game with no sound and no on-screen stat graphics, I don't know if I would have guessed Matt Carlino finished with 22 points. It wasn't an in-your-face type of performance, but it was an excellent one. He shot the ball at an exceptionally high rate (57 percent), dished out 6 assists, and even registered two steals on the defensive end. Combine all that with only two turnovers (I'm not hanging the third one on him, because it wasn't his fault), and what you have is another excellent game by a very, very good young point guard. Consider me bullish on Matt Carlino.
In fact, allow me to go out on a bit of a limb here. Don't send rotten packages to my house or flame me on Twitter or anything like that. But I feel this needs to be said.
Based on what I've seen so far, Matt Carlino is a much, much better player than Jimmer Fredette ever was at any point during his freshman season.
There, I said it. I pray the Basketball Gods do not strike me down for it.
Despite my bold statement, all of this obviously needs to be taken with a grain of salt. First of all, we have a small sample size on Carlino, albeit an extremely impressive one. Secondly, Jimmer was asked to play a much more limited role on that 2007-2008 team — he didn't start a single game and averaged only 18.5 minutes per game behind Ben Murdock. By contrast, Carlino has obviously already been installed as the main option at point guard and, through three games, is getting around 29 minutes a night. So it's not necessarily an apples-to-apples comparison, to be fair.
However, by both statistical measures and by "the eye test," Carlino appears to be leaps and bounds ahead of where Jimmer was at a similar point. That's not to say Carlino will end up actually being better than the greatest player in BYU history at the end of the day — while it's certainly possible, I am in no way predicting it —but he is definitely a more complete, skilled freshman. How he progresses from here is anyone's guess, but there is ample reason to be very optimistic about his future.
2. Sticking With The Starting Five
It has been interesting to watch Dave Rose's rotation change from game to game over the course of the season. It's very rarely been the same twice. For example, Anson Winder played only 3 minutes against Baylor last Saturday and briefly seemed to have fallen out of the regular rotation. On Tuesday, he played 19 minutes (and had 20 points) against Buffalo, playing a key role. There's just no accounting for which bench players Rose believes will give him the best chance to win on any given night.
On Thursday, it seemed like he decided the answer against UCSB was zero bench players — or at least as close as he could get. Four of the five starters played well over 30 minutes each and the fifth, Charles Abouo, only barely missed that mark due to foul trouble.
That left very few minutes for any bench players, and only Anson Winder broke into double-digits with 13 minutes — nobody else played more than eight. As a result, BYU had only 4 bench points, and even those came off garbage time free throws from Winder and Craig Cusick.
This wasn't the first time the Cougars have had anemic levels of bench activity. The reserves notched only 6 points against both Utah State and Nevada. Obviously one of those contests was a loss and the other two (including UCSB) were wins, so there have been mixed results.
What does this all mean? If anything, it should tell us that BYU has a variety of scoring options that can step up when called upon. If the starters don't have it going on for whatever reason, there are a host of bench players who can step up and put the ball in the hoop. On other nights when everything is clicking, like Thursday, Rose is completely comfortable rolling with the starters.
Would it have been nice to be able to get Winder or Nate Austin or Damarcus Harrison a few more minutes against the Gauchos? Yes. But why mess with something once it starts working? And if it stops working, then you go with someone else. That kind of depth and the ability it gives Rose to mix and match lineups to adapt to the pace and feel of a specific game should benefit the Cougars as they get into the heart of their conference schedule and beyond.
3. Solid Night For My Favorite Targets
I've been fairly critical of both Charles Abouo and Brock Zylstra in recent weeks, particularly over what I perceive to be their penchant for inconsistent production — and if I'm going to be fair, I need to laud them for their good games just like I criticize them over their bad ones.
Both upperclassmen had solid outings against UCSB. Maybe not superstar performances, but solid supporting efforts that helped make that starting unit so effective all night. Zylstra finally landed at a nice middle ground between magical and invisible, finishing with 9 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. He did a little bit of everything, and he even attacked the rim with a heretofore unseen ferociousness that particularly impressed me. If he can turn in those kind of numbers regularly (with his 20-point explosions mixed in occasionally, of course), the Cougars will be in good shape.
Abouo still plays like his hair is on fire whenever he has the ball in his hands — I literally get nervous if he takes more than two dribbles — but he did a great job of getting to the line repeatedly on Thursday. His perfect 9-for-9 performance from the stripe certainly helped pad his 16 point, 6 rebound night. Charles also made his only 3-point attempt of the game, further improving his ridiculous shooting percentage from beyond the arc. (He's currently sitting at a pretty 51.2 percent, good for 33rd in the nation.) Perhaps more importantly, Abouo also drew the tough task of defending UCSB's best player, Orlando Johnson — and while Johnson still scored 22 points, Charles made him work hard for every single opportunity, which is really all you can ask.
All in all, it was a solid night for both players, and a heartening one for a guy like me that's given them a fair bit of crap recently. Both are good basketball players that have some space left to grow, and it's fun to watch them improve and make the team stronger in the process.
UP NEXT: BYU vs. Cal State San Marcos, Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. EST
Photo: BYU Photo
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