BYU has 3 legit bigs, who can play on both sides of the court. Atiki is limited on the O end of the court, but his defense, athleticism, and offensive rebounding more than make up for his lack of scoring, especially as a backup.
If you can’t see the value of Khalifa, who will be able to play with both Atiki and Fouss, once Fouss returns, I don’t know what to tell you. His passing and court vision is some of the best from a BYU big, I have ever seen. He is coming off injury, and out of shape, but that is changing and he is doing great with more minutes. I can’t wait to see a line up with Fouss at the 4 and Khalifa at the 5. They could even play Waterman at the 3, with Johnson or Robinson at the 2, and Hall at the 1. It would be a fun, huge lineup, that can actually play inside and outside. Khalifa’s job is to facilitate and get buckets in the paint, off of rebounds. He is not the scoring focus but has shown enough that teams have to respect him.
Waterman and the rest of the tweeners who play 2-4, are doing great and driving and kicking out for the open 3. It has opened up the paint, and allowed Khalifa to also lead the offense from the High Post. Look at all the lay ups they have gotten, many missed, and many that were completely open after Khalifa sent them up with the Give and go. They are playing a very complete game on offense, along with playing tenacious D, that resulted in a lot of turnovers. Had they not gone through that first half stretch where they missed a ton of easy shots, BYU would easily have scored over 100 last night.