A depressing weekend in BYU sports

It's not very often that my two favorite sports teams lose three times in two days. Sigh . . .

I guess I do have to say that the weekend wasn't 100% bad in the BYU sports world. I caught the end of the BYU women's soccer game on Saturday right before the football pre-game show, and it was INTENSE. I'm not a huge soccer fan, but I've gotta give major props to those girls. I could tell they thought they were going to lose-- they were clinging to each other and shaking, with tears rolling down their faces as each different member of the team stepped up to take a penalty kick. They somehow held on through 8 rounds of PKs and came from behind to beat Marquette and make it to the elite 8 in the NCAA tourney. Way to go!

Now onto the tough stuff . . .

Auggie Ambrosino and Nate Austin fight for the ball vs FL State
From www.ksl.com

Loss #1: BYU basketball vs. Florida State

I knew that BYU had to keep turnovers to a minimum to have a shot in this game. When Matt Carlino committed 2 turnovers within the first minute of the game, I knew it wasn't going to be pretty. They shaped up a little bit as the game went on, but it was still very messy. The refs were also horrible and called really nit-picky fouls. Brandon Davies got in foul trouble early on and spend most of the first half and a good chunk of the second half on the bench. He still managed to score 19 points, and Tyler Haws added 23, but it wasn't enough. We struggled defensively and couldn't knock down shots when it mattered most.

Loss #2: BYU basketball vs. Notre Dame

This loss was pretty heartbreaking. BYU really should have won. But again, unnecessarily called fouls and an inability to make easy shots was the story. BYU led by 1 at the half, but fell behind in the second fairly quickly and never recovered. Brandon only played 18 minutes because of fouls. Coach Rose wanted to limit Nate Austin's time so he could heal from an ankle (I think?) injury sustained in the FL State game, but had to play him when Ian Harward got in foul trouble and eventually fouled out. The team as a whole only shot 38% from the field and 21% from behind the arc.

Morals of the story from these two basketball losses:

• They've got to keep Brandon out of foul trouble. Haws is amazing, but he can't carry the team, and we need Brandon in the post, both offensively and defensively.
• They've got to keep their heads in the game. Matt Carlino in particular tends to panic. He's very frantic and makes some costly mistakes. Even if they're down with just a few minutes left, they need to concentrate and stop throwing up desperation shots that never go down or passing the ball in traffic and getting it turned over.
• They need to shake up the lineup. Cory Calvert is my unsung hero of the season so far. That kid is incredible-- not the best shooter in the world, but he is an assist machine! He's got quick hands, is great on defense, and is an amazing passer. I think he's just as feisty as Carlino, but he works much better under pressure. They also need to play Craig Cusick more often. 
• Anson Winder needs to get healthy again. I was happy to see him in for a few minutes at the end of the FL State game. Hopefully he is healing well and can be back on the court soon. We could really use him.

Riley Nelson breaking tackles left and right.
From www.heraldextra.com

Loss #3: BYU football vs San Jose State

I hate to admit it, but even I gave in to the temptation to go to bed early on this one. I gave up with about 5 minutes left (when they were down 20 to 7), paused it, and went to sleep. I hit play again on Sunday morning and watched the rest. I started hyperventilating when they managed to get one more touchdown and completed a successful onside kick-- they had a shot! A good shot! I was kicking myself for not hanging on a little longer on Saturday night! But then, of course, my dreams were dashed when that SJSU linebacker jumped over Jamaal Williams' head (how in the world did he do that?!?) and sacked Riley Nelson to effectively end the game. So close, yet so far. The story of the season.

Despite the bad outcome of this game, overall I was impressed with the way BYU hung on. There were some great moments (a career-high 13 Cody Hoffman catches, a spectacular on-side kick, an amazing zig-zagging sack from KVN, and an awesome juggling interception from Daniel Sorensen, to name a few), but of course, there were some very painful moments, too.

I must state my firm opinion about Riley Nelson, though-- Riley is not a terrible quarterback. He may not be the best QB that BYU has ever seen, but he's definitely not as bad as everyone seems to be making him out to be. He was breaking tackles all over the place and made some incredible passes. However, it seems like the opinion of the day is that Riley should have been benched in favor of James Lark in the second half because Riley was playing so badly. I disagree. I don't think Lark could have made a big difference in that game. I think he would have played just as good as (or maybe worse than) Riley. I don't think he could have won us the game. The only reason Riley maybe should have been pulled was because of his injuries-- NOT because of his playing performance.

To prove that Riley isn't the ultimate downfall of the BYU football program, I cite this tweet from Greg Wrubell:

He has fewer turnovers than Max Hall for heaven's sake! That's amazing! Granted, Bronco's obsession with Riley Nelson has definitely gone overboard, and I think it has cost us a few games this year, but SJSU was not one of them.

Why did BYU lose this game? The defense didn't show up until the second half-- that's why. It's true that Riley was far from perfect (yes, I know there was a turnover on downs and an interception in the blue zone), but he is still clearly having back problems AND he dislocated one of his ribs! I'd like to see anyone play as well as he did with those injuries. I don't know why the BYU defense couldn't stop SJSU on their first 3 drives, but that was what ultimately cost us the game. Well, that, and an amazing play from the SJSU linebacker who sacked Riley with 1 minute left in the game. But I don't think there was anything anyone could have done to prevent that one.

I close by making a plea to Bronco Mendenhall: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE play James Lark against New Mexico State. That's right-- James Lark at QB for the ENTIRE GAME. NMSU has one of the worst teams in college football right now-- certainly Lark can handle it, and he deserves to play a game as a senior QB. Let Riley take a month off, take a much-needed vacation to the hospital, get fixed up, and come back ready for the bowl game on December 20. Please stop shooting your team in the foot by overplaying Riley. PLEASE. We all know you adore him-- that point has been abundantly clear. Now please make the smart decision and let him sit out next Saturday. It may not even be the worst idea to sit Cody, too, since he is now nursing a shoulder injury.

Alright, Cougars, time to pick yourselves back up and go get 'em. First up, basketball vs UT- San Antonio on Wednesday night. You know I'll be there!

BYU Basketball Exhibition vs. Southeast Oklahoma State

Dunkin' Davies

Oh basketball season, how I have missed you. Friday night's game against Southeast Oklahoma State (who???) was quite interesting. I was a little bit surprised at two members of the starting lineup: Of course there was Brandon Davies, Matt Carlino, and Tyler Haws . . . along with Josh Sharp (his dunk at the tipoff was amazing, but was it really THAT amazing?) and Craig Cusick. Hmmmm . . . Winder is injured (he wasn't even in uniform), so I can understand leaving him out, but what about Zylstra? Ambrosino? Delgado? Granted, they all got playing time, but I'm super curious why Sharp and, to a lesser extent, Cusick were on the starting lineup. It will be interesting to see how that changes as the season goes on.

Haws for 2

My second big surprise was true freshman Cory Calvert. He actually played a lot, and that kid can PASS. THE. BALL. He kind of blew my mind. He was attempting passes similar to the crazy ones Carlino did way too often last year . . . except he actually succeeded in getting them to their target without a turnover. (No offense, Matt. I still love you.) Behind-the-back, no look, or cross court, Cory was doing it all. And of course, the crowning moment of the evening was an awesome alley-oop to Davies (see the video below).

Now for the down side-- despite the blowout win (103 to 57), play in general in the first half was really sloppy. Wild passes were going out of bounds, several feet away from or above the intended receivers, and there was a whole lot of rolling around on the floor, fighting for the ball. It was just messy. I think maybe they had too much adrenaline. Matt Carlino was also looking eerily similar to last year, with his frantic scrambling around the court and behind-the-back passes to himself that don't go as planned. I'm not sure what happened at the half, but there was a definite shift in the second as the BYU boys got into more of a rhythm and seemed to be much more in sync.


Now we must check out some awesome Brandon dunks. The one in this video I actually got a really cool picture of from my perspective (see above, right):

And the second one in this video below was just AWESOME. There are no other words. As I said before, Cory Calvert has some mad passing skills!

I LOVE Brandon's scream, too! He gets so into it!

I'm glad we're starting out with a few easy games because, as the first half showed, I think they need the practice to get up to par before they start playing the big dogs in November and December. But mark my words-- they'll get there. And, unlike most of the "experts", I think they've got a definite shot at the WCC title this year. Yes, it would help if Elias Harris, Kevin Pangos, and Matthew Dellavedova (and his gigantic hideous mouth guard) would go away, but you've got to play the best to be the best. So I say bring it on!!! Go Cougars!!!