The Prophecy: "Watch for the day where the score is tied at halftime, where the crowd begins to buzz at the sighting of solid play by role players. The game will remain in doubt through the second half. At the time when triumph seems imminent, opposing guards will drive with impunity into the lane. Big men will begin shooting ill-advised three pointers early in the shot clock. Tall skinny white forwards will make critical mental errors and turn the ball over. And thus will the season sink...BEEEWWWAAAAARRRREEEE"
The Reality: The score was tied with around five minutes left in the first half, there was some solid play by Haws and Emery. Kansas State blitzed them at the end of the first half with deadeye shooting by Pullen and overall general incompetence on the part of BYU's offense. Opposing guards were able to drive with impunity into the lane (how many times was Fredette seen five feet behind his man on defense after being juked into oblivion?), which then turned into kick-outs for three. Tall skinny white forwards made plenty of critical mental errors (see Hartsock and Miles NEVER being able to pull down critical rebounds, generally acting like their hands were made of stone on routine plays, and making some of the ugliest post moves I've ever seen.)
Of course, the greatest Moby Dick parallel was Jimmer Fredette's obsession to be the Man, to match Pullen dagger for dagger instead of facilitating the offense. Every offensive possession in the second half consisted of him spending at least fifteen seconds dribbling around trying to get into the lane for his own shot, which stalled the offense. And there was the "Ahab strapped to Moby Dick, waving to the rest of the crew" moment when BYU was down six and they were in semi-transition, and Fredette launched basically a turnaround three from about 25 feet, and the rest of the team all cried "Let's all shoot bad three pointers for a while!" resulting in the sinking of the season.
Oh, and I love how on the Deseret News, the writers keep wondering if this is the best team BYU has ever had. If this is the best, then there is no hope.
1 comment:
I am going to make a nomination for the best team BYU has ever had: Jeff Congdon, Dick Nemelka, and the NIT winners of 1966 (am I right on the year?). They had to play UCLA in the first round of the NCAA in 1965, right here in the Smith Fieldhouse; they played their hearts out but were simply outmanned. UCLA went on to take it all that year. I was on my mission when they won the NIT the following year. They were by far the most exciting team to watch I've ever seen at BYU (and that includes the Cosic years).
There be my vote.
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