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| Photo Credit: BYU Photo |
Well, that got out of hand quickly — not that we expected anything different. When a Division II team comes to your house for what is essentially a pre-arranged slaughter, good teams take care of business and use the opportunity to get better. BYU did that tonight and, despite the massive scoreboard disparity, there were a number of interesting developments worth noting.
In lieu of a full recap (this is still the preseason after all), I will include some quick thoughts and instant reaction to BYU's 103-57 blowout of Southeastern Oklahoma State after the jump.
- Brandon Davies. My goodness. That, my friends, is what a basketball players looks like. Davies finished with 25 points and 6 rebounds in just 18 minutes of play — totals that could have climbed much higher had Coach Rose not pulled him for good a few minutes after halftime. Talent has never been Brandon's issue. He's always had plenty of that. The problem in the past has been persistent aggression. When he asserts himself and plays with confidence, he is nearly unstoppable. (See: 2011 Baylor game.) When he is tentative, he can be easily forgotten. So far this year, Davies is playing with fire and purpose. He has expanded his game to include a solid face-up game and even a three-point stroke. Granted, this was still only against a Division II team, but if he can stay locked in mentally moving forward? Look out.
- Rose went with an unexpected starting lineup tonight, including Craig Cusick as the starting shooting guard alongside Matt Carlino, and pairing Josh Sharp with Davies up front. While the Sharp move was particularly unexpected, I found Cusick's inclusion to be more interesting. For a year now, this has been Brock Zylstra's spot, with Cusick coming off the bench as the back-up point guard. And while I like Craig and his game, it's no stretch to say that he's not exactly a prolific scorer. So to put him in this position, matched with a similarly undersized backcourt mate, seemed odd. Now, it's certainly possible that Zylstra could be back in the starting five next game after his solid performance tonight, or that Rose is potentially grooming Raul Delgado for eventual inclusion, or he may see something I don't. But for the moment, I don't believe this lineup is sustainable.
- Speaking of Josh Sharp, I am continually warming to him. He simply looks better out there than he did last season — by a factor of fifty. He may not be the most talented player on the floor, but he has enough athleticism and motor to make him the ultimate garbage guy. He did a nice job grabbing boards and cleaning up junk around the basket tonight and, given the offensive strength present elsewhere on the roster, that's all BYU really needs from him. He may earn himself significant rotation minutes yet. (Although I'm still not sure about the whole starting thing...)
- I mentioned coming into the game that I would be interested to see how Rose would gameplan defensively this year, given the team's drastically altered identity. So far, everything looks pretty good. We saw a lot more man-to-man tonight than we saw at the end of last year, with a little zone mixed in for good measure. It was very effective. For context's sake, we should remember that this was still a Division II team, so we shouldn't pronounce the Cougars' defensive struggles cured. However, there was a level of aggressiveness there, particularly on the wings, that was missing for much of last year. As a result, BYU forced 20 turnovers, turning them into 19 points. I'd like to see more of this against the good teams, please.
- On Wednesday, Tyler Haws looked like he hadn't missed a day of practice while serving his mission. His game was so smooth, so fluid, that he may have even looked better than when he left. Haws looked somewhat more tight tonight — like he was finding his sea legs again in a game against actual competition — but he still finished with a solid stat line: 15 points on 5-for-10 shooting, with 4 boards, 4 assists, and 2 steals. His mid-range jumper is borderline unstoppable (he simply doesn't miss it), and if he can pull together 15-4-4 performance every night as a second option behind Davies, there will be many happy Cougar fans singing his praises in the coming months.
- Raul Delgado can shoot, y'all — and he isn't afraid to gun it up. He finished with 9 points on 3-for-5 shooting from beyond the arc tonight, which is a welcome addition to a team that struggled so mightily from distance in 2011-2012. If he can figure things out on the defensive side of the ball to the point where Rose feels comfortable with him, Delgado will likely garner a significant number of minutes off the bench as an "instant offense" weapon moving forward.
- Speaking of being unafraid to let the ball fly, Agustin Ambrosino was a pitiful 1-for-5 from three tonight. He made one early, but just kept chucking them up late despite his struggles. He was, dare I say, almost Tavernari-esque in his determination to take questionable shots. We'll give him a break this time since he also did nice work on the glass (8 rebounds), but I would like to see him be more discriminating in his shot selection moving forward.
- Matt Carlino quietly had a very solid night. He didn't necessarily score the ball much, finishing with only 4 points on 2-for-7 shooting, but he executed the offense with precision. He didn't turn the ball over and racked up 8 assists, and he could have had several more had his teammates knocked down a few more open looks. I know Rose wants Carlino to function more as a traditional, pass-first point guard this year, and he is currently doing that with aplomb, but I'm afraid to see him lose his aggressiveness completely. He is a talented scorer who deserves to look for his shot every once in awhile. BYU is better when Matt Carlino is a threat to score — and while he was steady tonight in all the right ways, I worry the scale may be tipping a bit too far in one direction.
- Memo to folks on Twitter: Lay off Brock Zylstra. Seriously. Some people treat him like he is the BYU version of Smush Parker. He is not a bad player. On the contrary, Brock is actually a good player who brings a lot of things to the table. Sure, he's not perfect, but if you're expecting him to be some transcendent offensive force, I don't know what to tell you. He is what he is — a solid spot-up shooter with good size, and an above-average perimeter defender despite his limited athleticism. Those are all great qualities to have on your team. So let's stop whining about him for a bit, OK?
- For the record, Zylstra's line tonight: 17 points and 6 rebounds on 7-for-13 shooting, all in just 15 minutes. The fact that anyone could complain about that kind of performance is mind-boggling.
- Cory Calvert was impressive after he got some early nerves out of his system. He shot the ball reasonably well, made smart, crisp passes within the structure of the offense, and wreaked some havoc in the passing lanes. All in all, a nice debut for the Colorado freshman. There's a lot to look forward to with him.
- Nate Austin played a nice, very Austin-y first half where he dove on the ground a lot and generally hustled his butt off. I can't complain about that. But he did somehow manage to pick up five fouls in only 13 minutes, which bodes ill for the future. The one thing Rose needs Nate to do this year is stay on the floor so he can make an impact on the game. However, if he can't cut down his foul rate, he won't be able to do that.
NEXT UP: BYU vs. Findlay, November 3rd, 7:00 p.m. MT
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