After a three game test against power teams, BYU will close out the reminder of the OOC against lesser competition. This should give the coaching staff some time to trouble shoot some of the issues that came up over the past week. With this natural break, I thought it be a good time to reevaluate where the program stands.

Note, this is not an evaluation of yesterday's game (or it'd be called 3 negatives and things to monitor) but a summary of the season and where things are trending.

Positives:
1) This team is very balanced.
BYU has a lot of different guys that can be a leading scorer on any one night. BYU had 5 guys above 10 points against Ole Miss. The next game against NC state they only had 2 guys score above 10 points, but almost everyone who played scored 8 points. There's a lot of talent and vets on this team.

2) In bound plays.
There's some great execution on inbound plays, getting guys wide open shots. I saw a couple wide open 3's off inbound plays last night. They've been fun to watch.

3) Dawson Baker
I know it was only one game, but Dawson actually looked like the Dawson from UC Irvine last night. He was attacking matchups, getting to the rim, drawing fouls, and hitting threes. We need more of that Dawson.

Negative:
1) Three point percentage defense.
Three point percentage defense has been a problem this season. BYU has let teams shoot 37.9% from the three so far this season. That ranks as the 346 worst 3 point percentage defense. This scheme is build around switching to generate steals. The philosophy of peel switching and always having help allows players to gamble when playing passing lanes and attacking the ball. The problem is, this allows for open three point shooters when rotations are late or completely missed. This sunk BYU against providence. We could get the game close, and then Providence would hit 3 3's in a row. In contrast, opponents are only shooting 46% from the 2, which ranks for 86th in the country. I don't know if there's any easy scheming solution to this. You want an aggressive defense, but you can't leave so many shooters open. I'll be interested to see how BYU attacks this problem in there next three games, although, none of the upcoming teams use the three point line that much.

Things to monitor:
1) Mindset of players
BYU showed a wide range of readiness in their mindset over the past three games. BYU seemed decently prepared against Ole miss, then looked great against NC state. Putting down a bad team in a quick turnaround showed a lot of mental strength. Then they completely lay an egg the next Tuesday. Travis Hansen said it well in his tweet (I put it at the bottom of this post). The energy was bad. That screams to me that guys didn't have the right mindset. BYU saw a providence team on a three game losing streak. They probably expected a game similar to the NC state game, where they cruised to a win.

This needs to be monitored. They've shown this can be a strength, but yesterdays loss was bad.

2) Wide open B12?
The longer this season goes on, the more wide open the B12 looks. There was only 1 B12 team in the top 20 of the net rankings, and I think that's accurate. Only Kansas has looked the part this season. Iowa State, Houtson, Baylor, Arizona, while talented, have looked vulnerable. These teams are still very good, but there are openings for a team to get hot at the end of the season and generate some momentum.

3) Point guard play:
This offense seems to be built around great point guard play. A guard setting a ball screen is the start to most of our actions. So, what happens when our point guards have an off nights or can't beat the ball pressure? If Dallin and Egor can't beat the ball pressure and get to the rim, what happens to our offense? That will be a major question for our offense.

https://twitter.com/travishansen24/status/1864154561528909901