BYU basketball: How the Cougars slew the giant
Tactical coaching
We all know head coach Dave Rose is not perfect. To hear it from a certain Lawless Republic co-worker earlier in the season, he’s apparently only bearable. But the most buck-toothed naysayer must admit: he and his staff put together a marvel of a game plan against the Zags
When referees whistled Gonzaga head coach Mark Few for a technical foul in the second half, Rose could have sent any number of his players to shoot those free throws. TJ Haws shoots a high percentage of freebies, and he had been hot from 3-point land. Elijah Bryant was just coming off of a game where he hit a perfect 12 of 12 from the line.
Instead, he sent Nick Emery.
Nick had put up an 0-fer from the field to that point in the game. The sound of his clanking shots echoed over the sound of the rabid Bulldog crowd. But Rose trusted Emery, and sent him to the line to hit a pair of free throws just when BYU desperately need to get back in the game after a Gonzaga run
Emery coolly stepped to the line, like he had many a time before. He missed.
Nick could only smile ruefully, since literally nothing had gone in for him to that point. But like magic, that seemed to drain tension from him. He hit the second free throw. And then moments later, after a defensive stop, TJ Haws got him a wide open look from 3-point land on a pump fake. And Nick nailed it.
Then another defensive stop, the Cougars in transition, and what does Emery do? He splashes in another 3-pointer, deeper, to get the Cougars back in the game.
And all it took was confidence from Coach Rose in him taking those foul shots.
Another coaching example: with the score only separated by a bucket and the clock ticking down, BYU did something that BYU just does not do. They stood around, dribbling, waiting for the shot clock to get to 10 before they started their offense.
The always attacking, run and gun, fourth-fastest offense in Division 1 basketball took the air out of the ball on almost every possession in the clutch.
Then with St Mary’s-like efficiency, as the last seconds of the shot clock neared, the Cougars took good shots and buried them.
The Zags made no effort to put pressure on the Cougars, even when BYU had seized the lead and time was running out. There was no game plan for what to do if the league’s fastest team decided to sit on the ball. And so by the time they started trying to adjust, the game had trickled away.
Coaching, people.
Honorable mention: setting Kaufusi to guard Karnowski. Obvious, but oh so successfully executed. The big Pole ended up with only 10 points, well below average, and was mostly stifled when BYU’s defensive end bodied him up.