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| Photo Credit: KSL |
Haws was doing it from all over the court against the Matadors, shooting 52 percent from the floor and going a perfect 12-for-12 at the charity stripe. He also took over the game when it mattered. When Northridge took the lead with just over three minutes left, the Cougars essentially turned the offense over to Haws, who responded by scoring 10 points in the closing minutes to secure the victory.
But as good as Haws was individually, the win was not without its dark clouds on the periphery. I won't caterwaul about BYU needing a herculean effort at the end of the game to finally put away a team from the Big West. Northridge is a greatly improved squad, and they should have a solid season. There is talent there. Nevertheless, the Cougars again showed a complete inability to consistently get stops on the defensive end, particularly because they cannot stop dribble penetration (as I lamented earlier this week.)
The Matadors got into the lane at will, causing the BYU defense to have to continually rotate to provide help. Unlike against Florida State or Notre Dame, who used the ensuing confusion to produce open looks from three, Northridge continually found open cutters and big men who were left unaccounted for in the fray. Throw in a massive 25-point performance by Stephan Hicks, whom the Cougars simply had no answer for defensively, and you begin to see a familiar outcome — an opponent scorching BYU for 75 points.
Put simply, if Tyler Haws doesn't do his best Jimmer impression for pretty much the entire game, BYU almost certainly loses — and deservedly so. Northridge is not a great team, but they are solid. If the Cougars play this kind of defense against better opponents, they will lose, no matter what heroics Haws can contribute on the other end. Giving up this many points on a consistent basis just isn't a recipe for success.
Granted, winning is what is most important, no matter what it looks like. Sometimes you win ugly, but you figure out how to get it done and that's what matters. So it was admirable that BYU could summon the internal fortitude to seal the win in the closing minutes.
Predictably, they finally gained that lasting separation from the Matadors only when they buckled down and got stops — the Cougars allowed only one point in the final three minutes of the game, which would have been enough for victory even without Haws' late surge. They suffocated Northridge into three turnovers and a handful of bad shots during that stretch, using aggressive perimeter trapping to speed up the game in the half-court.
Now imagine if they could duplicate that effort all the time. Or even for a majority of the time. That would be nice — and would almost certainly help them avoid future unnecessary nail-biters at home.
Stray Thoughts
• Not enough can be said about Tyler Haws. The guy is just so good. Think about what he has been doing, and then think about the fact that he's only played seven games since coming back off his mission — and that he still has two more seasons left in Provo after this one. Pretty amazing. There's no doubt in my mind he will end up as one of the all-time BYU greats when it's all said and done.
• Dave Rose changed up his starting lineup for this one, but it didn't come with great results. He went with Agustin Ambrosino, coming off a strong game against UT-San Antonio, over Josh Sharp at the power forward — and Augie proceeded to lay a massive egg, picking up three quick fouls and playing only seven minutes. He was almost universally terrible, which was disappointing after Wednesday's showing.
• Rose also swapped in Craig Cusick for Matt Carlino at the point, getting pretty much what you would expect. Cusick was solid as always, exuding a calming presence on the offense. However, he also doesn't bring much urgency to the offense — he kind of just walks the ball off and passes it off to a wing. He doesn't look to attack very often, which is fine, but it also leaves the offense without a certain aggressiveness. Nevertheless, Cusick was certainly good on both ends, and he played a ton of minutes, but it was interesting to see the contrast in styles.
• That being said, Carlino played spectacularly in his reduced minutes. He only got 20 of them, and I'm sure the benching stung a bit, but it didn't seem to affect his on-court performance. He repeatedly attacked in the half-court, penetrating into the lane and finding open looks for his teammates. He ended the night with 6 assists to only one turnovers, while also scoring 8 points. Sure, his three-point drought continued (0-for-2), but he made a conscious effort to get to the rim rather than continuing to bomb away from deep. Rose has to be pleased with what Carlino gave him.
• I am convinced that Carlino will only play better as his hair gets longer. He is like Samson.
• Brandon Davies was playing really well before a bizarre technical foul sat him down for the rest of the first half. He never really got into a rhythm when he finally came back in the second, finishing with 12 points and 8 boards. We'll give credit to the official — who appeared to tee Brandon up for simply saying "Let's go!" to Josh Sharp — for derailing his early momentum.
• After Davies sat down in the first, there was a brief stretch where Rose had both Haws and Davies on the bench at the same time. Let it be known that this should never happen again.
• In addition to being unable to stop penetration, BYU also struggled to defend the post tonight. Of course, much of this could be due to the fact that Northridge's bigs were catching extremely deep in the paint, mostly because of the Cougars' constant rotations. This often resulted in easy buckets or fouls. They'll need to do better moving forward if they want to keep their posts on the floor.
• Brock Zylstra has zero floor vision when he gets the ball in the open floor. I love the guy, but man, he is like bizarro Magic Johnson — his head goes down and he never looks back up.
• It appears that Rose has shortened his rotation a bit, particularly with the guards. Anson Winder got a few minutes, which was nice to see — especially because he is one of the only players who possesses the lateral quickness to stop dribble penetration. But beyond that, both Cory Calvert and Raul Delgado watched the entire game from the bench, which was surprising. Calvert had been contributing fairly consistently over the last few games, and many thought he would begin to see more time due to his strong performance. Delgado hasn't really found his stride yet, but most fans thought he would play a larger role this season. That just hasn't come to fruition. It will be interesting to see how Rose uses both players moving forward.
UP NEXT: BYU vs. Montana, Wednesday, 7:00 p.m. MST
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