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| Photo Credit: ESPN |
Also. . . Mommy, please make Brady Heslip stop. *SOBS*
The BYU beatwriters can just copy-and-paste to make their deadlines, as they probably have something similar to this in their columns from the 2011 BYU-Baylor basketball game. The 2012 game wasn't much different.
OK, it was a little different — but the similarities are there.
Before the game, the KSL radio broadcast crew made a point of mentioning how much this year's BYU team talks about their loss to Baylor a year ago. That game clearly made an impression and the Cougars came out fired up for the rematch. BYU looked confident and energetic to start the game, building a nice cushion during the first 10 minutes.
In those minutes, the BYU zone was as effective as it's been in awhile. Craig Cusick in particular was very active at the top of the zone, wreaking havoc and forcing the Bears into turnover after turnover. The Cougar's interior defense was also outstanding during the game's opening 10 minutes. Nate Austin (who has taken Josh Sharp's starting job these last two games) played his best basketball of the season, fighting for rebounds on both ends of the floor while not allowing the Bears extra-big bigs to score in the paint. On the other end, Tyler Haws looked like the Tyler Haws from a few weeks ago, cooly knocking down 15-footers and leading the BYU offense.
Perhaps BYU's energy surprised Baylor and they quickly adjusted, or maybe BYU wore themselves out defensively, but the last five minutes of the first half were an absolute disaster. Silly errors, bad officiating, lackluster defense, some Reggie Evans-esque flops from Baylor, and foul trouble for Haws sparked a 21-2 Baylor run to close out the half.
The second half was more of the same as BYU never found its footing while Baylor's shooters started to come alive, turning the game into a blowout.
There were plenty of problems in this one for Dave Rose and the coaching staff to address. Many BYU fans will (and did) point to BYU's offense as this team's weakness. But after the game, Rose rightly singled out defense as the team's key struggle. After starting strong, the defense completely fell apart for the last 30 minutes of the game.
While Baylor finished shooting a modest 45 percent from the field, Brady Heslip continued to terrorize BYU fans, going 3-for-5 from three (mediocre compared to last year's 6-10 effort) while Baylor as a team managed to go 9-for-18 from behind the three-point line (50 percent). What's most unfathomable is how they consistently let Baylor shooters get free.* All five of the Baylor starters finished in double figures and the team scored a total of 79 points.
* I've spent the last year having a reoccurring nightmare about Brady Heslip knocking down wide-open threes, so I have a hard time imagining how the Cougars weren't prepared to make sure he never got a good look. Instead — again — he went 3-for-5.
It's hard to beat anyone when giving up 79 points in a college basketball game. In Dave Rose's system, BYU has to play defense in order to effectively run their offense, which is predicated in large part on fast breaks. And of course, it's hard to start a fast break without getting stops on the defensive end. BYU's fast pace offense works best in situations similar to what occurred in the game's opening minutes. Once the defense stopped getting stops, the offense quickly went into a drought.
All that being said, three-point shooting continues to be the most frustrating thing about this year's squad. The numbers continue to get worse — the Cougars were just 2-for-12 from behind the three-point arc in this one, bringing their three-point shooting percentage to 20.9 percent this season in the five games played away from the Marriott Center or EnergySolutions Arena*.
* In games played at the Marriott Center or EnergySolutions Arena, the Cougars are shooting 37.9 percent from three, with their season total now at 31.5 percent. For a point of reference for just how bad that is, going into tonight's game the median team three-point shooting percentage for Division I was 33.5 percent.
For the last year, the standard response from the BYU coaches and players has been "the shots just didn't fall tonight, we're better shooters than this." But it's been a year since the Cougars' three-point shooting slump began, and at some point that response is no longer valid. Frankly, it may be time for the BYU coaches and fans to face the reality that these players just aren't better shooters than this. This group of players has neither the confidence — nor the ability — to be consistent three-point shooters.
Brandon Davies will continue to be a dominant post player (after his 26 points and 17 rebounds tonight, I'm more and more convinced that Davies will be the best player in the WCC this year), and Tyler Haws will be a force for years to come. But BYU can't hope to compete for an NCAA tournament spot (much less a WCC championship) with a team compromised of two scorers and a bunch of three-point specialists who can't shoot threes.
It's just one loss in December, and a lot can happen between now and March, but so far every BYU road game in which they've played even mediocre competition (face it, Baylor and Iowa St. are OK teams, but they're not world-beaters) has turned into a blowout. Those things matter on an NCAA tournament resume. BYU now looks like they need at least two or three wins against the top teams in the WCC — with at least one of those wins coming on the road — in order to have a shot at an at-large NCAA tournament bid. With this team's three-point shooting and defensive issues, it's hard to imagine them beating Gonzaga, St. Mary's, or even Santa Clara on the road, and as we saw last year, they're capable of losing any or every one of those games at home.
Unless BYU quickly becomes a 40 percent three-point shooting team (which seems unlikely, if not statistically impossible) and a more focused defensive squad, the Cougars will soon find themselves in a position they haven't been in since 2006: the NIT.
Stray Thoughts
• If there was one bright spot in this game, it was the play of Raul Delgado. He scored 7 points in 17 minutes (including BYU's only three-point make), while making a few hustle plays along with solid defense. Delgado has been playing better as of late in limited minutes, and he could be one potential fix to BYU's three-point shooting woes. There's a large enough sample size from Raul's time in junior college to know that he can indeed shoot threes at a high percentage. He just needs more minutes on the court to get adjusted to the Division I game. With Brock Zylstra giving BYU absolutely nothing, maybe Delgado can start getting a few minutes and a few more three-point looks.
• I continue to be more than underwhelmed with Agustin Ambrosino. From everything I heard from the team throughout the offseason, I really think Dave Rose expected Ambrosino to play a big role on this team. But he routinely looks lost out there, uncommitted to rebounding and defense, content to shoot threes. The best bet for BYU at this point may be to tighten up the big man rotation to Davies, Sharp, and Austin, with Ian Harward serving as the next in line. I'm just not sure BYU is going to ever get enough from Ambrosino offensively to make up for his poor rebounding and defense.
• Did I mention Brock Zylstra was terrible in this game? Brock has always struggled to find consistency throughout his career at BYU. He routinely follows up good games with a few no-shows, before breaking out again. But this may be his longest run of poor form in his BYU career. Right now, BYU is playing 4-on-5 when he's on the court.
• The killer sequence for BYU was a six-point swing back Baylor's way that occurred when Craig Cusick was given a flagrant foul for throwing an elbow, soon after Baylor had been charged with a similar flagrant. The replay looked as if it obviously showed incidental, minimal contact, but even after review, the officials went ahead and charged Cusick with the flagrant. The officials were pretty bad throughout this game for both teams, but giving a makeup flagrant foul is about as bad as it gets.
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