*I've listened to the Alabama Coach who was all excited about his game plan and going under screens. I watched the game with my own two eyes. My conclusion? It is the best shooting night that Alabama will ever have and it is mostly due to random chance. Did BYU do a great job on shooters? No. We did not. But as my buddy Zach Lowe says (yes I met him once, so of course we are buddies 😉 ) the good 3 point defenses are the ones that don't allow the shots to go up. After that there is a lot of luck involved in 3 point defense. Well BYU got extremely unlucky in that regard. Kudos to Mark Sears and the rest of Alabama who shot so far above their weight last night.

*How bad was it? This year Sears shot 32.9%. Against us he shot 62.5%. Lebaron Philon shot 30.6% on the season, he shot 66.7% against us including a banked in 3 pointer. Aden Holloway, their best 3 point shooter at 42% on the season shot 46.2% and made 6 (he had made 2 in the first two tournament games). Chris Youngblood is a 39.4% 3 point shooter and made 45.5%. Even Aiden Sherrell who had made 12 three pointers on the year at 30.6% went 2-2 against us. Some of these shots were easier than others, but for the most part we made Sears and Holloway take more difficult shots. They simply made them time and time and time again.

*So who played well on BYU? We start with Richie who was 10-14 with 25 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists. He was dominant offensively and defensively had 4 steals. I know BYU fans will not want to hear this, but his stock will likely NEVER be higher than it is right now. Where that puts him I don't know. But I would love for my NBA team to draft him late in the 1st round. I think him coming back is much more tenuous than most on this board realize or realized before last night.

*Trevin Knell played a heck of a game. He did not shoot particularly well from 3 going just 2/9 (although I think he had our first two makes), but he seemingly was all over the court grabbing loose balls and finished with 10 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. I sure hope he gets a shot to play in Europe if he wants it as he is an exceptional shooter who has improved every other part of his game.

*Egor Demin finished with 15 points, 2 rebounds and 7 assists. He was just 1-8 from 3 but 6-14 from the field. You saw glimpses of his potential that he clearly has not reached. We also needed him to pull a few more boards, but he played with passion and was a positive force for this team.

*Keba Keita's stats look good. He was 6-8 with 13 points, 6 rebounds and a block and a steal in 29 minutes. But I felt like after the flagrant foul he became a more timid version of himself. He was no longer the absolute beast that he normally is. I mean at one point he got blocked on a shot from 2 feet out. He normally will gather and yam that one home. Still he played hard.

*Fouss I thought played excellent. In one of the rare times I will question Coach Young I found it odd he only played 7 minutes. He scored 9 points overall. But to break it down at half time he had played 4 minutes and scored 7 points and was a -3 despite playing with a bunch of guys who had off nights. That earned him 3 minutes in the 2nd half (most of which was in the last 2 minutes of the game). He had 3 rebounds to go with his 9 points in 7 minutes. I have no doubt the reason he didn't play his normal minutes was to have a guy better equipped to stop shooters, but quite frankly it didn't work and we missed Fouss' work ethic if nothing else.

*Mawot Mag played 25 minutes and hit a couple of 3's and worked his butt off on defense once again. He also had 4 rebounds and 3 assists. I thought Mag played an OK game, but obviously we didn't affect enough shots overall.

*I am going to lump most of all of the other bench players (other than Fouss) into this one post. Why? Because it was ugly. Stewart played the best out of this group and tallied 4 fouls in 12 minutes. He was competing. Dawson Baker finished with 4 points and 4 rebounds in 12 minutes on 1-5 shooting. Bosko played 10 minutes and did not register a point, rebound nor an assist. Catchings played 5 minutes and was 1-3 for 2 points and a rebound (I don't know how he still can't rotate over on a pick and roll).

*I am not sure if someone overtook Dallin Hall's body for a couple of hours last night, but that was not the Dallin Hall we have seen nor the one we wanted or needed. He scored 4 points as he was given 6 free throws late and made 4/6. He had 2 assists, 2 rebounds to go with 2 turnovers (one of completely unforced). He was 0-6 from the field with multiple airballs and a 5 footer that hit the bottom of the backboard. I will hide this down here, but I think the chances that Demin comes back are much higher than most people think. That doesn't mean he will or that am I predicting that, but I think if that happens the chances that Hall does not stay are high. He may not have anywhere to go to make more money (he had a really poor postseason) and he certainly did not act like he was thinking at all about leaving in his interview (although numerous mentions to controlling what he could control). But rumor was already he was going to test the NIL waters to see what he could make.

*Overall this is one of the best team's to come through the halls of BYU. What I enjoyed most was the comradery of the guys and coaches. They really liked being together. They played hard for each other and checked their egos at the door (for the most part). I will miss seeing Knell, Mag, Fouss and Stewart play at BYU. They all had great seasons and exceeded my expectations for them. I truly appreciate that each and every one of them chose BYU. Achieving a Sweet Sixteen with a first year head coach who had to remake most of his roster was fantastic.

*I will have plenty of time to speculate on what will or will not happen for next years team. The biggest deal will be the decision that Richie Saunders makes. If he comes back you have two All-American candidates in him and Dybantsa (and yes Dybantsa is that good). If Egor, Dybantsa and Saunders come back (with Keita) you have the core of a top 10 team and maybe better depending on how you add around. Decisions will hopefully be made quickly as guys are already getting gobbled up in the portal. Back to my original point though, if Saunders does not come back then you are basically rebuilding the team from scratch especially if Egor doesn't come back. That is not ideal.

*I hate to end on a downer, but I am really disappointed in Catchings. Disappointed he can't pick up simple concepts on defense. Disappointed he posted a distraction on social media. Disappointed that his family felt the need to criticize a coaching staff who put all of his seniors in one last time at the end of the game. Catchings has a bright future, but the way he handled it was not good. If I am the staff I would encourage him to start fresh somewhere else. I am sure he is gone anyway, but I certainly wouldn't try to lure him back. Those types of things can really hurt a locker room (it didn't think year because of the great group that we had).