narrow but extensive experience with college ball.

Your most important point (I wholeheartedly agree with it, BTW) is that BYU is (ostensibly) "building something". But that's precisely what is the most frustrating about the team's performance so far. As I understand it, the idea of building something centers around recruits--specifically getting top-level talent to come to BYU. Correct?

Awesome. On that score, I think we're definitely seeing progress. But here's the problem with that: the talent isn't STAYING at BYU. Our two "NBA first-rounders" have eighteen, nineteen games left. Total. They aren't freshmen; they're essentially seniors. They won't get much more experienced. They'll be here until we get eliminated in the play-in game of the Big XII tourney and then lose in the first round of the NIT, if we're lucky enough to get there. And then we START OVER. You cannot build a program on kids that are gone in four months...unless those kids are good enough to win games.

It's a curious and difficult place for a new coach to be, and I am not envious of KY and the position he's in. He has to play Demin and Catchings, even if they are not significantly contributing to winning games (and statistically and visually they are not). He has to deliver on the recruiting rhetoric that he's getting guys to the NBA. This team thus becomes as much about the draft stock of those two guys as it does about the team's record. High draft picks lends punch to BYU's recruiting and allows us to continue to attract top talent. Granted.

But the whole point of getting top talent is so BYU can WIN BASKETBALL GAMES. If we get half the ESPN top 10 every year and we go 20-9 and lose in the Big XII second round, pardon me, but we were already doing that with a collection of future Turkish-leaguers from Lone Peak. You say that it's unreasonable to expect that freshmen will come in and replace Spence Johnson and Jackson Robinson without some dropoff. Okay, that makes sense. But if those guys are going to leave for the pros before they can make up that dropoff, WHY DO WE WANT THEM?

I'm picking heavily on two teenagers here, so let me reiterate that my problem with this team is not any particular player. I like Demin, and Catchings, and I hope they'll learn to play the game well at some point. But Hall? Fouss? Richie? Trev? That's a whale of a lot of veteran experience right there. Where is it on the floor?

Again, it's about the things a team does that lead to winning. Don't turn the ball over. Rebound (especially on the defensive end). Keep your feet on closeouts. Box out. Take good shots. Rotate on defense. Cut and pass. This team does not do those things with any degree of consistency. And while it may take 20 games to gel with your teammates (which is unfortunate, because they'll be gone ten games later), it doesn't take 20 games to box out on the weak side. Any reasonably decent high school player will do that. But here is Texas Tech's 6-foot guard getting a wide-open layup on a weak-side rebound with BYU down 5 inside of 2 minutes left. While Saunders airmails Hall on an inbound play a moment later. This inspires no confidence.

Maybe you're right and suddenly in mid-February the team will figure it out and start beating NIT teams like Texas Tech. I hope so. I'll be there in the MC regardless. I had season tickets to Tony Ingles' 1-win season, so there's no getting rid of me. But I remain very skeptical of this team's upside, its ability to mesh veterans with youth, its understanding of the long-term value of certain players to the team, and frankly, the quality of the coaching, especially in game.

I believe that Kevin Young will be a good head coach. I don't think he'll be even serviceable for five years, by which point much of his NBA cachet will be gone. I fear that his ability to recruit great talent will wane as his ability to coach said talent waxes. And I desperately hope my skepticism is totally unwarranted.