Game #6 - BYU Wed 11/23 MGM Grand Main Event, Las Vegas 11PM CT

[bbtds]

Maybe Lutheran Volunteer Corps.

Too late but do you think Alec would have held off on two years of pro basketball to serve in the Lutheran Volunteer Corps. I doubt it because of his love for basketball but Alec is a very unique individual.

[a3uge]

Great great win.  I don't care what anyone says...BYU is a P5.  Two gutty wins in Vegas against big time opponents.

We need to get BYU on the schedule next year.  We can't kill this series. Two fantastic games separated by five points in championship environments.  Go to Provo next year and then get a neutral return game in Chicago or Indy.  Get it done.

Happy Thanksgiving.

As usual it takes two to tango. If you were BYU would you play Valpo next season? It depends on if you view your program as above Valpo or not. Many in Provo probably see themselves if not above Valpo at least very differently.

BYU plays one road game this year. I'm assuming they're not going to fly out to Indiana to play Valpo any time soon, but it would be great to catch them in some neutral court tournaments again.

[SanityLost17]

Lexus/Max =   combined 8 assists / 2 turnovers in 60 minutes of action.  If they keep this up, Micah will only get serious minutes if they are both in foul trouble.     

Caution =  6 man rotation works in the short term, but won't hold over a 30+ game season.  Will need some a few bench players to improve as the season goes on and be trusted for 8-10 minutes a game.  Overall, great win!  BYU has the potential to be a top 50 RPI team by the end of the season.   

[wh]

While the loss of Vashil is huge defensively, Jubril is a much greater threat offensively. When he drifts outside, his man has to go with him, which opens up the middle for easier penetration.

[M]

They can come to Valpo and we will play them in Salt Lake City...forget giving some other high mid (that we've beat twice in a row) a neutral court return game.  Ha!

What an exciting game! Did they have a bucket for AP on the sideline?

[oklahomamick]

Going to need to add some guys in the rotation.  We are an undersized team.  Going for a lot of height last year, we don't have bigs. 

The technical foul on byu should have been an ejection, correct?  Technical for the elbow above the head plus a technical for throwing the ball in Lexus face.  Should have been gone

[ValpoHoops]

The technical foul on byu should have been an ejection, correct?  Technical for the elbow above the head plus a technical for throwing the ball in Lexus face.  Shoulda hit foul have been gone

No. The elbow would be considered a flagrant foul, but was not deemed as such. And it didn't really seem like an elbow, so much as a push
with the forearm. They changed this a few years ago to give officials leeway to not just automatically have to call a flagrant any time there was contact.

The second instance is a dead ball contact technical. Basically, any contact that isn't just two guys bumping past each other can be deemed as such.

Even if both were called, there would not have been an ejection.

[oklahomamick]

Got it. 


Since we won the tournament, we get automatic invite next year?

[wh]

If I could use only 1 word to best describe BYU, here it is:

in·dig·nant
inˈdiɡnənt/
adjective
feeling or showing anger or annoyance at what is perceived as unfair treatment.
"he was indignant at being the object of suspicion"
synonyms:   aggrieved, resentful, affronted, disgruntled, displeased, cross, angry, mad, annoyed, offended, exasperated, irritated, piqued, nettled, in high dudgeon, chagrined;

Offended is especially good, as in offended that we would have the audacity to get up into their grill on defense, offended that we didn't submit after they hit their first 4 3's, offended that they couldn't get separation despite hitting 10-22 3's, and offended that all of their whining, crying, head shaking and eye rolling on "unfair" foul calls never seemed to get through to 3 thick-headed refs.

[a3uge]

Going to need to add some guys in the rotation.  We are an undersized team.  Going for a lot of height last year, we don't have bigs. 

The technical foul on byu should have been an ejection, correct?  Technical for the elbow above the head plus a technical for throwing the ball in Lexus face.  Should have been gone

I wouldn't consider the team undersized - just that we choose to start a small ball lineup by playing Jubril at center. J and Smits have size at backup center. Peters is still pretty tall, Shane and Tevonn gave size at 2/3. Like wh said, we have a Jubril spreads the floor on offense and allows us to break the zone much easier.

[ValpoDad89]

Wh, thanks for the vocabulary lesson, well played sir, very well,played sir.

As far as 6 man rotation goes, I don't expect us to utilize it in the long term but we are going to endure a stretch of 4 quality opponents. We more than likely can get away with 8-9 against BSU but things will change against URI. That's 2 days later. Then we don't play for 8 days so we can reload physically when we go against KY and on to Mizzou St. Agree or agree to disagree, our next 4 games are 2H/ 2A they are against #4 KU on the road and the rest of the teams are within KP top 155. MSU sits at 129 currently via KP and we get them on the road and 155 and 34 at home. We need to go at worst 2-2. 0-4 and we need to win the Horizon. 1-3 see last statement. 2-2, let's see the season play out with our OOC opponents and maybe we get in the NCAA through the back door. 3-1, man our hopes for and at large are big even if we falter, within a great HL season couldn't be better. 4-0 and we a nationally ranked.

[M]

I think Dad just set a record for commas used in an opening sentence that did not have a list!  🏆🎖🏅(I didn't see a championship belt or I'd have picked that one)

[ValpoDad89]

M, I always thought comma placement was so underrated. Especially, when you, are, out of, shape like me. You tend to write to what your diaphragm tells you.

[M]

I'm a math teacher and know little about proper comma use.  The more the merrier!

[vu72]

The BYU win will end up being very important as those guys are going to win a bunch of games.  As with Alabama, their roster is filled with highly regarded kids.  Mika, for example, was ranked #28 in his class by ESPN and he is joined by six other guys ranked in the top 100 by ESPN. Their coach has won 20 games for something like 11 straight years or some such stat if I remember correctly from the broadcast.

[oklahomamick]

The BYU win will end up being very important as those guys are going to win a bunch of games.  As with Alabama, their roster is filled with highly regarded kids.  Mika, for example, was ranked #28 in his class by ESPN and he is joined by six other guys ranked in the top 100 by ESPN. Their coach has won 20 games for something like 11 straight years or some such stat if I remember correctly from the broadcast.

The win helps a resume, for sure.  But I think it does wonders for the team confidence and experience. 

[wh]

The BYU win will end up being very important as those guys are going to win a bunch of games.  As with Alabama, their roster is filled with highly regarded kids.  Mika, for example, was ranked #28 in his class by ESPN and he is joined by six other guys ranked in the top 100 by ESPN. Their coach has won 20 games for something like 11 straight years or some such stat if I remember correctly from the broadcast.

Haws (the guy with the b-b gun biceps who forearmed Alec in the face and threw the ball at Lexus) has a highly impressive HS resume, as well.

http://byucougars.com/athlete/m-basketball/tj-haws

[a3uge]

The BYU win will end up being very important as those guys are going to win a bunch of games.  As with Alabama, their roster is filled with highly regarded kids.  Mika, for example, was ranked #28 in his class by ESPN and he is joined by six other guys ranked in the top 100 by ESPN. Their coach has won 20 games for something like 11 straight years or some such stat if I remember correctly from the broadcast.

Haws (the guy with the b-b gun biceps who forearmed Alec in the face and threw the ball at Lexus) has a highly impressive HS resume, as well.

http://byucougars.com/athlete/m-basketball/tj-haws

He's going to be great for BYU in 8 years.

[valpospartan]

That was a fun game, and our guys really stepped up.  It was back-and-forth, and we never caved in the second half.  If we play that way more often than not, we are going to have another special season.  You can tell that BYU fans are used to getting a lot of home-cooking foul calls, as they protest EVERY...SINGLE...CALL .  Lexus is looking really good, and appears to be primed for getting more minutes, as he has separated himself from Max.  Shane is now 1/18 from 3, and it seems like each is in-and-out in some form or another.

Not only did the BYU fans protest every foul, but some BYU players protested almost all of the fouls called on them (don't know if that was evident on TV, but it sure was in person).

P.S. Many VU fans also protested EVERY...SINGLE...CALL also. 

[StlVUFan]

I think BYU may well have gotten royally screwed on one over-the-back call in the 1st half, and Valpo may have gotten royally screwed on that Adekoya "Ghost foul" (per Reggie Williams) with less than a second to go in the 1st half.  There were probably a few other questionable ones that weren't all that aggregious.  By the way, the BYUTV guys on Friday were whining about the fouls too, though they are doing their best to fulfill their wager with our own Adam Amin to appear on screen for a future broadcast wearing Valpo T-shirts

My assessment: a lot of fans (in Valpo too - I lost count how many times I corrected Valpo fans sitting behind me who were screaming about a foul call) still have not gotten the news that the rules against interference are going to be enforced.  "Let 'em play!!!!"  Actually, folks, the refs *are* letting them play - by calling the rulebook fouls.

I thought it was fairly well officiated.  When I watched the replay on Thursday, I had to admit that Mika or Davis might have made contact with the Valpo player on their end of the court, though I still thought it should have been a non-call.  In person, watching the replay on the big screen, I thought there was a slight chance Jubril pushed off a bit on that play at the end of the half, though it probably wouldn't have been horrible if that was a no-call.

I was thoroughly impressed with how the team played both nights.  It was just a real treat to be there, plus the banquet Tuesday night was pretty good as well.  I didn't count how many people were there, so all I got is a wild-ass guess of maybe 100?  Maybe 75-100?

[valpotx]

BYU followed up our game by laying an egg at home against Utah Valley