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| Photo Credit: BYU Photo |
It's amazing what happens when you play a little defense. BYU found that out first-hand Wednesday night, using their first really solid defensive outing of the season to create offensive opportunities on their way to an 85-60 victory over Montana in Salt Lake City.
If the Cougars' main problem so far has been defending the perimeter, they showed great improvement against the Grizzlies. Their closeouts were more under control, leaving them in better position to move laterally to cut off dribble penetration. With a few exceptions, BYU was able to keep Montana's guards almost entirely out of the lane, and the visitors from the north notched just 16 points in the paint on the evening as a result.
Furthermore, because the guards could not penetrate deep into the heart of the defense, the Cougars' back line did not have to rotate over to help protect the basket, allowing them to stay home and successfully challenge perimeter shooters when the ball was inevitably kicked it. Montana still got some looks from three — and even made a few of them — but they simply weren't as high quality as the Grizzlies would have preferred. As such, they shot only 37.5 percent from deep, rather than the 46.5 percent they had been averaging for the year. This was an excellent all-around effort from BYU on the defensive side of the ball.
Another nice side-effect of playing good team defense is that your bigs don't have to bail you out quite as much, which means they are less prone to foul trouble. Brandon Davies played 33 minutes in this one (after playing only about that many minutes total in Brooklyn over two games) and never picked up a foul. He was sensational all night. If your starting center can give you a line of 21 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals, and 2 blocks, your team will probably win the game — and Davies is capable of turning in that kind of performance every night if he can stay on the floor. He is that good.
Overall, this was a strong performance for BYU. Montana was obviously not at full-strength, so this win will likely look far better on a tournament resume in March — after the Grizzlies win 20-plus games and their conference — than it feels right now. If BYU can defend like they did on Wednesday, and therefore create easy transition opportunities for themselves going the other way, they should have no problem picking up another quality win in Ames, Iowa on Saturday.
Stray Thoughts
• BYU shot well for the first time in awhile last night, particularly in the first half — and (surprise, surprise) I think this is largely attributable to better defense. The Cougars got a ton of great outside looks in transition off forced turnovers, which made them much easier to knock down. They had 20 points off turnovers in the first half and shot 60 percent from three, while they only had 6 off turnovers in the second and shot 27 percent from beyond the arc. Maybe that is just a coincidence, but I think the better looks available to BYU in transition opportunities created by their stellar defense played a huge part. Of course, they still had to knock those looks down — but it's easier to do that when there's no hand in your face.
• Tyler Haws was very good again. Perhaps not quite on the level of his 32-point outburst from last Saturday, but he didn't need to be. He scored extremely efficiently, finishing with 18 points on 12 shots. He is just an amazing basketball player. However, if I have one quibble with Tyler, it's that he sometimes plays weak with the basketball. On three separate occasions, Montana defenders essentially muscled Haws off the ball and took it out of his hands. If there's one thing he can work on, that would be my suggestion. Otherwise, I've got nothing but praise.
• Josh Sharp worked that backside cut to the basket to perfection, and got a career-high 13 points for his efforts. Montana's weak side defenders repeatedly failed to rotate down quickly enough when their counterparts doubled Davies in the post, which left a veritable freeway down the middle of the lane for Sharp to waltz down, straight to the goal. Credit goes to Sharp for exploiting this weakness to great effect, and kudos to Davies for being able to hit him with a multitude of nice passes.
• Davies' free throws though? Yikes. He missed a ton, which is uncharacteristic of him. He has actually turned himself into a solid free thrower, and he'll need to continue to be that moving forward. Not many teams have a good defensive answer for him, so he will get fouled a lot.
• In the latest iteration of Point Guard Controversy 2012, both Craig Cusick and Matt Carlino played well against Montana, turning in virtually identical stat lines. Cusick was who he always has been — a steady hand who plays great defense and can knock down an open jumper. He is a known commodity at this point. Dave Rose knows exactly what he will give him on any given night. That is part of his appeal. Carlino had a solid game too, playing with good pace, running the offense well, and even making his first three in approximately 358 years. But he also lacked some of the aggressiveness we're used to seeing him play with, which was kind of disappointing. I don't know if it is because he feels he needs to pull back on the reins to please the coaches after being benched, but Carlino didn't look to create nearly as much as he has in the past. He finished with only two assists, and he usually has more when he successfully gets into the lane and draws the defense. It could be that his teammates just missed shots when he put them in positions to score (this did happen a bit), but I'd still like to see him try and initiate more draw-and-kick action.
• Also, Cusick and Carlino played an almost equal number of minutes, 27 and 24 respectively, so that pleased me.
• Raul Delgado got some burn finally, and he made the most of it. He went 2-for-3 for 5 points, and mostly looked comfortable operating within the flow of the offense. It will be interesting to see how Rose chooses to use him going forward.
• By the same token, who did Cory Calvert tick off? He was playing great a few weeks ago, and many felt he was earning more time on the floor. Now, he hasn't played outside of garbage time in a week, and those minutes he used to get appear to be going mostly to Delgado. I'm not quite sure what's happening there, but the precipitous drop-off in Calvert's playing time is curious.
• Nate Austin has essentially become the invisible man. He got only two minutes against Montana, and I don't even remember when those two minutes occurred. For a guy who was expected to hold a spot in the starting lineup coming into the season, it has been disappointing to watch him struggle thus far. I know he's had a few injuries, but I still feel he could and should be doing more. I'm not really sure what is going on there.
• Anson Winder was the second guy off the bench, which gave me the false hope that he was going to get some increased minutes. Not the case. He ended with just four. He was fine while he was out there, but he's still not much of an offensive threat. It's possible this is why Rose continues to limit his time. He currently appears to be a one-way player, and it's hard to justify giving a big chunk of minutes to a guy who isn't helping you on both ends. Or maybe he just needs more time to get back to full strength.
UP NEXT: BYU at Iowa State, Saturday, 12:00 p.m. MST
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