In all honesty thanks for clicking on this post and taking a few moments to read. Hopefully I don't make it too long...:)

*(Only two of the three officials participated; I thought one was actually good) Giant elephant in the room (My only comment on the subject): I have watched thousands of basketball games. That was some of the worst officiating I have ever seen. I don't want to focus in on the why as it doesn't matter at all (and I don't know the why). But at the very least those officials should not work another tournament game. You could tell at halftime they had been told they had given BYU the shaft as they started out giving us a couple of decent calls to start the half and then quickly reverted back to their first half calls.
Calls I was shocked to see:
*Slap across Fouss' face and wrists with an official 3 feet away go completely uncalled
*Richie makes a layup and then is knocked sidewards in the air just after letting it go and no whistle
*Wisconsin player drives at BYU player and falls over while BYU player gives ground and a foul is called
*Said player points up at the video board replay and receives a technical foul (a move I have seen over a thousand times before without a technical)
*Three officials decide that a step through is not clearly accidental contact to the groin and kick out Dawson Baker.
*Wisconsin player throws his head back and an immediate whistle regardless of what actually happened (OK I wasn't shocked the 6th time I saw this)

*Kevin Young is an incredible coach. I watched the Pitino/Calipari game from the day before and those are both historically good coaches. I honestly think that Coach Young will become like them in that people will say you don't want to see a Kevin Young coached team in the tournament. Here we are in year 1 and he has accomplished what has been done just one other time in the last 40 years: A Sweet Sixteen Berth

*Richie Saunders is now an all-time great. How can he not be? He is the clear best player on a Sweet Sixteen team. 25 points and 7 rebounds for him on 56% from the field, 75% from 3 and 100% from the line (I hate to jinx him, but it has been a long time since Richie missed a free throw...good thing I don't believe in jinxes). He was the best player on the court despite what some would tell you (and Tonje did make some big shots). Richie is a 3 level scorer who is a tenacious defender and in this game when needed rebounder. Closest BYU comp I can give you in my lifetime was Travis Hansen. Hansen never had a tournament game like that and his numbers were put up in a much worse basketball conference. I hope Richie returns. I know he loves BYU and is a great representation of BYU. I do think he is climbing up draft boards (a Denver media guy was salivating at the idea of getting Richie for the Nuggets in the 2nd round).

*Mawot Mag is everything I hoped for and more. Mag played 27 minutes and had a solid 7 points to go with 1 rebound and 2 assists. He had a steal. But most importantly he played fantastic defense despite getting called for horrible fouls. His defense at the end on Tonje was perfect. Like if you are teaching a class on how to play defense against a foul baiter who is decently good at shooting that would be exhibit A. Thank you for coming to BYU Mag. I am not sure if the NBA is in your future (I know people have asked about him) or it is high level overseas. But you have made a lasting impact on our program here at BYU.

*Dawson Baker, what a game! Baker played 17 minutes and scored 8 points on 3/5 shooting. He added two rebounds and 2 assists. He was a +15 in those 17 minutes. Offensively he is just a weapon who is unlike anyone else on our team. He is Chris Paulesque in that he probes and he may be the best I have ever seen at this level in making his defenders think he is either passing outside or dribbling outside only to get an easy layup. The Flagrant was ridiculous, but for anyone that thinks Dawson might leave for more playing time I would tell you to watch him on the last possession in the locker room. That is not a guy I believe will go. I guess we will see.

*Keba Keita and Fouss Traore were dominant once again. Both guys undersized playing against two 7 footers in the starting lineup. And yet BYU won the rebounding total 41-32. I can't understate that enough....BYU dominated the glass. Keita had 3 blocks and 2 steals and made it so hard for Wisconsin to score. I love that we start him and put the fear of Keita in the other team at the beginning as you see them drive the ball less after a couple of big blocks. I still think Keita is the 2nd best player on this team which is crazy to me as I never thought I would say that. Fouss was 3-4 from the field for 6 points in 16 minutes. He did have 3 turnovers although it is hard to be to upset with his first one when they simply hit him in the face and wrists and took the ball. He finished with 5 rebounds. The two bigs for Wisconsin were mostly non factors as they finished with 16 points on 6-12 shooting including 2-7 from 3 in 51 minutes. One thing of note is when they were both in the game Kevin Young attacked whichever big was on a smaller guy for BYU. He attacked it and it worked as they were too slow.

*Egor Demin played a masterful game. He was only 3-10 from the field but finished with 11 points, a team high 8 rebounds and a team high 8 assists to go with 1 turnover (he needs to be more patient on that inbounds play, but other than that he was great). Demin's next move in his maturation is to attack when the shot clock is winding down. Right now he takes difficult 3's and doesn't make very many of them. This is probably an unpopular opinion on this board, but I think Egor is going to be a very good shooter. The form looks great and when he is in rhythm he hits a high percentage. His problem is the late shot clock 3's.

*Knell can't shoot in big games. Oh really? So far in the tournament Knell is 6-11 from 3 including a blistering 4-6 on Saturday. He was involved in two of my favorite plays of the day: the first a behind the back pass from Demin to him at the top of the key for 3 point dagger. The 2nd was an amazing bounce pass from him in traffic after driving for an easy bucket. Knell is scrappy on defense as well and actually a pretty good defender. I write this in almost every post I make and then watch the game and watch him make plays defensively. Knell is example #1 on this team of guys accepting a smaller role. Knell is shooting 44% from 3 on the year on mostly quick catch and shoots with little space. He plays very good defense (he isn't Mag, but he is very good). Yet he plays 20 mpg on the season and had 17 in this one. What a Senior leader (I used to think Hall is the emotional leader of the team, but I honestly have switched to Knell...not that Hall isn't a great leader as well, you can certainly have multiple leaders).

*Trey Stewart had 7 points in 14 minutes in a game to go to the Sweet 16. From December 22nd 2023 to February 22nd 2025 Trey Stewart never played 14 minutes. A span of 14 months. He is an example for anyone looking to give up or transfer or take the easy way out or whatever. He just kept working. Stewart is an amazing defender that I wish played CB in football (I honestly think he has the body and athleticism to be a top level NFL CB-but not now with little time). But in basketball he is almost always quicker than the other team's quickest guy. He has really long arms and plays much longer than his height shows. I love that he has gained confidence in his shot and hit some big ones on Saturday. I also love that after the game was over he was so pumped he went and dunked it at the other end. Another great team player, this team is full of them.

*Boskovic-Mihailo saw time for the first time in the tournament and was +8 in 6 minutes. He plays with a ton of energy and my only ask of Mihailo is not to take a heat check 3 after you made one of your first two shots. Mihailo did have 2 rebounds as well in those minutes. I feel like he has a ton of skills and assuming he sticks around I expect a big improvement between this year and next.

*That leaves us with Dallin Hall to talk about. Hall played 21 minutes and had 6 assists and just 2 turnovers. His turnover with under 2 minutes left that resulted in a fast break at the end of the game was tough. That one really hurt and it was just a lazy pass where Hall assumed their guy wouldn't jump it. That is uncharacteristic for him. On the last offensive play of the game I did not like that we had the ball in Hall's hands. First he waited too long to go (if we score that possession at the very worst we would have to lose in a free throw game...to me the 2 points was more important than the extra 10 seconds) although I'm sure he was coached to do that. But more importantly is Wisconsin called his bluff. All day he had been faking like he was going to shoot only to pass it to Fouss. The problem is in this situation they just lagged off on Fouss and Hall didn't know what to do and finally shot it and barely drew iron. For a coach in Young that had drawn up brilliant plays all game (and all season) I was disappointed with that one. But overall Hall was solid and a floor leader. No points but just two shots. He had 4 fouls with the most critical one being the and 1 to pull within two (and he undercut Tonje, it was a legit foul and I don't know what Hall was doing). Overall it wasn't Hall's best game, but I bet he will take it! Expect him to be more dynamic next game!

*We heard often about how BYU hadn't been to the Sweet Sixteen since 2011 and Jimmer. And while that is a bit of a drought, to me the bigger stat is BYU had not won as a worse seed since 1991 when #10 seeded BYU beat #7 seeded Virginia. 34 years since we pulled a seed upset in the NCAA Tournament! I'm glad these guys broke through that barrier.

*BYU has a path to the Final Four. The 3 teams they are joined with in Newark are all good, starting with Alabama. But BYU is really good and stacks up with these teams pretty well if you look at our stats in the last 12 compared to them. Including Duke who has rolled in the tournament so far, but we will get into them a bit more.

*Alabama is an average 3 point shooting team that loves to push the pace (they average the most possessions per game in college basketball). They are led by a dynamic playmaker in Mark Sears who plays an awful lot like Tonje in that he love to get to the line (averaged 6.6 free throws per game). He is only a 32.9% 3 point shooter and takes some really tough ones on occasion. Those are the shots we want. Alabama is a great rebounding team. So is BYU. Whoever wins that game within the game may very well win on the scoreboard. Grant Nelson is their 2nd leading scorer and 2nd best player. He has struggled from 3 this year (and his entire career) at just 27.3% on 2.5 attempts per game (honestly other than Holloway they aren't a great outside shooting team). The key for BYU in this game is to force Alabama into tough shots (Sears honestly loves to take them) and then rebound the ball. Defensively Alabama is solid, but not great. We can certainly break this game down more when it gets closer.

*As for Duke, I am less worried about them than a lot of people. Yes they beat Mount St Marys and Baylor by a combined 67 points, but these were ideal matchups for Duke. First Mount St Marys is terrible. But against Baylor they struggled in the first half when Omier was in the game. They got him in foul trouble and the game went from 21-19 Baylor to 47-30 at halftime. The 19-2 edge in free throws for Duke in the first half was not warranted. As we know Baylor lacks depth up front and once Omier sat down the game was essentially over. But if you want further proof of aberrations Duke's Junior Guard Tyrese Proctor is a good three point shooter at 41.5%. He made 13-16 threes so far in the tournament. The chances of this happening are astronomical and not sustainable. Duke is a good team and the favorite to get out of this bracket, but don't let the last 2 games fool you. In the ACC tournament they struggled a bit as they won by 8, 3 and 11 and only one of those teams should have been a tournament team.

*Anyway, I am getting too caught up in our future and potential future opponents. I am enjoying the victory! How sweet indeed it is to get to the round of 16! What a great group of young men we have that have put the team above themselves (that is pretty rare these days). What a great coach we have that is putting them in positions to win. If you can get to Newark, go! This is definitely a team worth supporting!