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Dec 27, 2024
11:05:51am
jvr7 All-American
Conference play starting and there are still a lot of questions about this team
This started out as a short post, but turned into an article, Maybe I should start a blog.

Because of the Charmin soft (with a few exceptions) out-of-conference schedule, a lot remains unknown with this BYU team.

What we learned:
BYU's two new freshman are talented. Egor's passing has been a revelation and his shooting has been better than expected. Catchings has had the green light to shoot and we is on, BYU will be tough to beat.
Questions:
Can Egor control the offense as well against more capable defenders in the Big 12? Can Kanon adjust to the speed of college basketball in time to be the X-factor for BYU to win a lot of games.

What we learned:
Dawson Baker should contribute and Mihailo Boskovic will be more limited (barring injury). Baker could be a 10-12 point guy coming off the bench. His foot seems to be okay and is in competition with Knell to be the team's best shooter. While Boskovic has some incredible tools (moves exceptionally well for someone his size and has a buttery smooth stroke), his play has been erratic and with a deep team, consistent play will win the day.
Questions:
How will responsibilities be divvied up between Baker, Hall and Demin? All three seem to do their best work with the ball in their hands. What will Boskovic develop into? If you had told me that BYU has an 18 year old and 22 year old coming in the team, I would've guessed that Demin was the 22 year old and Boskovic the 18 year old. My guess is that we will see him make a big jump next year, but not expect much of him this year.

What we learned:
Demin is more than capable running the PG for the team. Hall is knocking off some rust coming back from his injury.
Questions:
How do Hall and Demin work together? I think many on here are ready to relegate Hall to the back-up PG position. To quote Lee Corso, "Not so fast my friend". Hall was one of the best PGs in the best conference last year. This guy was the key to BYU beating Kansas in the Phog last year (Self's teams average less than 1 loss a season in the Phog).

What we learned:
This team and coaching staff is still learning the ropes. BYUs defense has looked both great and terrible in different stretches. The peel and switch can be very effective when there is unity, effort and communication, but lead to a wide open shots when not done right. It's clear KY wants bring NBA concepts to college.
Questions: Which NBA concepts will work at the college level and what will need to be scrapped? Is there a balance between having a system that attracts NBA bound recruits and something that is easier to learn?

What we learned:
It appears KY is still experimenting with line-ups with a lot of guys getting game time. Further, redshirts seem not to be an important part of his roster-building strategy (makes sense in the portal era). This isn't terribly uncommon, but it seems the it is going deeper in the season than is normal.
Questions: There are still questions about who and how much playing time will be allocated.

I am optimistic about the team, but I think we will have a lot better sense 5-6 games into the Big 12. Lots of questions remain. Was the Providence game and an aberration, or will there be lots of growing pains this year?
This message has been modified
Originally posted on Dec 27, 2024 at 11:05:51am
Message modified by jvr7 on Dec 27, 2024 at 11:06:42am
Message modified by jvr7 on Dec 27, 2024 at 11:09:00am
Message modified by jvr7 on Dec 27, 2024 at 11:40:21am
jvr7
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jvr7
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