*Stat that likely only interests me: I have been at BYU's last 3 regular tournament victories (I missed the first four win). If Kevin Young and staff want to fly me out to future games I am available.

*I really want to name a team MVP for the game on Thursday, but there were simply too many difference makers. So I will give them all special names so that everyone gets a trophy. 😉

*The he is your best player for a reason trophy: Richie Saunders. Saunders was a +8 in 30 minutes despite a rough outside shooting game (just 1-6 on 3's). Yet he managed to score a team high 16 points and was phenomenal in relieving pressure. There were at least a half dozen times that Saunders went and got the ball and brought it up on his own. I don't believe he even came close to having any issues with this. Saunders also played great D as always with 2 steals.

*The you are all over the entire floor and contributing so much to winning award goes to Mawot Mag. Honestly if I was going to assign one MVP it would probably be Mag as he was so good defensively. He finished with a team best +10 (despite some offense/defense substitutions when he literally could not improve i that category) 2 steals, 5 rebounds and 6 points in a team high 31 minutes. He was just so good. I know many on this board killed Fouss for the wide open dunk off of the pick and roll. While Fouss did not play it well it was Catchings who should have been the help defender. They ran the same play after Mag came in for Catchings and Mag shut it down easily as he beat the roll guy to the spot. Mag was incredible.

*The I'm not sure when BYU settles down if you weren't playing trophy goes to Egor Demin. Demin came out and saw that his team needed his offense and he provided it. He made 3 threes and had a few nifty drives to the basket including an OKey Doke that made the defender look silly. He played 31 minutes and is already a solid defender in terms of being in the right place at the right time. Demin had 4 rebounds and 2 assists to go with 4 turnovers. That being said only one of Demin's turnovers was loud as he threw it to the other team for a layup. He also had a couple of brilliant passes that guys missed or became hockey assists. If this Demin shows up the rest of the tournament then BYU becomes that much more dangerous.

*The old reliable award goes to Fouss Traore. First let me say I am so happy he could have this type of game after 4 years in the program. He finally was able to show his talents with the brightest lights on. I am SHOCKED they did not double Fouss more. The tape says that is what you have to do. But Fouss did make 2 brilliant passes on the day...one for a layup to Mag and one to a wide open 3 pointer to Demin in the opposite corner (which he airballed). Those are two of the best passes I have ever seen from Fouss. But what impressed me most was his tenaciousness inside. He grabbed at least two offensive rebounds he should not have gotten and it turned into 4 points for the Cougs. Overall he finished with 13 points, 9 rebounds and 2 assists with only one turnover and a +9 in 19 minutes. Great game Fouss!

*The I'm the biggest, baddest man on the court award goes to Keba Keita. Coming into the game I heard about VCU's pressure and shot blocking at the rim. Well it was a non factor. What was a factor was Keiba's 4 blocks on defense. It forced VCU into a perimeter oriented offense. Keba also finished with 9 points. Quite simply he was trying to dunk on everyone which I love to see. He made his first 3 free throws and then missed his next 5. Have confidence in yourself Keita! You can make them. But I love that Keita established early in the game that BYU had the better paint presence on offense and defense. His 9 rebounds were a huge part of the 40-31 edge we had in rebounding.

*The old man can still play award goes to Trevin Knell. Knell was good offensively going 3-6 for 8 points including 2 threes. But I watched a couple of possessions of just him on defense and he is phenomenal on that side of the court (I mean he isn't Mag, but he is really good). On one occasion he was switched with Keita so he was guarding a big down low. He denied entry of the ball from the wing. Then the ball was reversed and the wing on offense on the other side beat his guy baseline. Knell made it with such urgency that he was at least 8 feet from the basket when he cut him off. The offensive player tried to get it past Knell on the outside and he deflected it (we had lots of deflections in the game) out of bounds. That is A+ stuff right there defensively.

*The best chemistry with one player award goes to Dallin Hall for his chemistry with Fouss. Coach Young always plays Hall with Fouss and for good reason. The chemistry they have is incredible. My favorite is on the pick and roll when Dallin will put his defender in jail by walling him off behind him and then force the other defender to either take him and leave Fouss open or he takes Fouss away and Dallin takes it right in for an easy score. The "perfect" defense for this brings a help defender on Fouss leaving a shooter wide open. Then Hall has to decide if he wants to throw it to Fouss on a wing Dallin played 23 minutes and scored 6 points to go with his team high 4 assists.

*The came up big when needed award goes to Dawson Baker. Baker only played 13 minutes but scored 7 points including a much needed 3 and then 4/4 from the free throw line. He played his role perfectly. He was aided in plus minus by the offense/defense substitutions but still finished with a +9.

*I'm glad you didn't call it quits Trophy goes to Trey Stewart played 12 minutes and played good defense. It was not his best game offensively or even defensively, but he puts a lot of pressure on an offense. He also helped relieve pressure. Again not his best game, but I am glad we have Stewart as he is valuable to this team.

*Good to see you trophy goes to Kanon Catchings. Catchings came in and played 4 mins in his first time in almost a month. I was glad to see him back on the floor. He missed a couple of defensive rotations and didn't get a shot on offense but let's hope he continues to find his groove. He did have one time when a guy had beaten their guy off of the dribble and chose not to even attempt a layup because Catchings was there lying in wait.

*This one might be controversial to some. But I believe we have our first major BYU head coach (men's basketball and football...we have some other sports who have been A+) who is an A+ since Lavell. Kevin Young has already shown me he can recruit (In under a year he has our top 3 recruits of all-time (well 2000ish) according to 247). He has shown he can implement a system that works. It took us a few games to pick it up, but our system is great. He has shown he is a masterful tactician in games (something BYU has not had in a long time). Now I'm not ready to crown him as the greatest BYU basketball coach of all-time, he has to earn that. But Kevin Young has been an A+ hire and is an A+ coach in college basketball. I don't envy Wisconsin in trying to match wits wiht him and his staff on Saturday.

*Can we finally put to bed the notion that VCU was under-seeded? I'm guessing those of you tooting that horn will continue to do so. But the only metrics that VCU was higher than their expected seeding in were efficiency metrics. They had beaten nobody and really played nobody (no one in the top 40). They shot out of their minds from 3 against us and many were tough shots. But BYU still won comfortably. It was never really a game from about 8 minutes left in the first half on. So how was VCU overrated in the metrics? Well perhaps a team that likes to press against inferior opponents will turn them over and win by 30 points instead of a team that won't press and will just sit back and win comfortably by 20. I wish there could be a mark like efficiency against the top 100 or whatever as beating up on bad teams shouldn't make you higher on KenPom or Net as in my opinion winning by 40 instead of 30 or whatever does not make you better. But just like the 10 year old team that presses against inferior opponents the score can get lopsided quickly. Unfortunately for their opponents there is no college rule that they have to quit pressing after a 20 point lead.

*The team that is the most underseeded by a large mark is Gonzaga. Of course they put them in with Houston. So Houston and Gonzaga play in the round of 32 instead of what should be a Sweet 16 game. Kind of a travesty, but of course will eliminate one of those two teams for the Big 10 and SEC (if they have any teams left) to have to deal with.

*We seem to see this a lot, but man how much was the SEC overrated this year! The problem is that when all of the intra-conference games are in the pre-season it favors greatly a conference with veterans which is what the SEC has. So a few teams build up these incredible resumes in the pre-season and then when they play in conference it artificially boosts the numbers of the rest of the conference.

*For BYU Wisconsin will be a bit of a different opponent. They have two basically 7 footers who are skilled, but not that athletic. I can't remember playing a team like that this season. Will the length bother Keita and Fouss? I don't know. I do expect to see some Boskovic on Saturday. The other key is keeping Tonjue off the line where he is a 91% free throw shooter on 6.5 shots per game. He even had a game earlier this year where he shot 22 free throws. Hopefully the refs are not going with his foul baiting.

*For as much as we like to complain about refs, I thought the refs were pretty good against VCU. Sure they missed a few calls both ways, but overall they did a good job of not letting it get out of control while not calling every ticky tack foul (one of the early ones against Saunders might have been my least favorite).

*There is no way to classify this season other than a major success. Best season in over a decade. Best recruit ever commits to BYU. Highest finish ever in the Big 12. A tournament victory. Lots of boxes are being checked. But I am greedy. I want more. This team can achieve more. Wisconsin is tough, but I think we are at least just as good. Have to play well to win though.