OLB always has a way of laying a big fat turdburger.

OLB wrote:

When BYU gets bounced by A&M on Thursday, I expect to hear the following excuses/complaints coming from Cougar faithful:

1. The refs screwed us. This excuse in not untypical of fans from the losing side. But it has been an especially prevelant comment since the SDSU loss. Everytime BYU loses, its been the refs fault. Never mind that SDSU outplayed BYU or that the Cougs lost their composure against the Running Rebels. I expect to see this on Thursday night when I log onto Cougarblue.

2. The committee screwed us with a bad seed. This has been another excuse thrown out by folks in the past. And while I think there is some merit to it, I'd like to point out two facts that should be considered before making this claim -- (1) BYU had three straight #12 seeds (2001, 2002, 2004). This is the second #8 seed BYU has had (2007 & 2008). (2) BYU hasn't won a tournment game since 1993.

So BYU is actually improving with its seeding, even though BYU has been 0-4 (since 2001) and hasn't won a tournament game in 15 years.

3. The committee is out to screw non-BCS conferences. Granted, the number of at-large bids to non-BCS conferences was half of what it was 5 or 6 years ago. But the fact is that 6 of the 10 selectors were either from schools in small conferences or were presidents of small conferences. That means any "extra" big school team that slide into a spot (a la Baylor or Kentucky) did so with the consent of small school reps.

4. CBS owns the mtn., CBS telecasts the tournament, and CBS conspired to get all MWC teams out of the tourament as retribution for fans complaining about the mtn. Okay, this one actually has merit. So I guess I'm a tin-hat wearing conspiracy theorist.

It appears you might be the one making the excuses on Sunday night since you seem to believe them all.

Bottom line is it comes down to coaching and playing now, it's the only thing we can control. We'll leave the excuses to KWhitt and Boylen.

OLB wrote:

I don't think I'm negative

Let me guess.....URA Realist

Refs? Who cares.

The UNLV was one of the few BYU games I actually got to see (MSU, NC, Louisville, and Utah at the MC) were the others. The consistent theme is their terrible ball handling. It looks like BYU practices dribbling the ball of their foot. This is remarkable to me because at times BYU has been a sensational passing team. Usually good passing teams can also dribble on occasion.

So whenever I see one of my beloved Cougars put the ball on the floor, there is no way I can give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to fouls. Is the stumbling and bumbling caused by contact by the opponent? Or is it just another (Murdock, Fredette, Burgess, Cummard) uncoordinated drive to the basket?

OLB wrote:

BYUtx wrote:

BTW, our excuses started today, not Thursday. Just like they started Thursday night when UNLV was handed a win by the MWC refs-they just came to a head last night. I'm sure that's what will happen this week, unless we win, of course. OLB, you used to be somewhat nice, what happened?

I saw the game. I thought the game was called rather fairly. Outside of this board, I haven't encountered any BYU fans (who actually watched the game) that felt like the refs were unfair. Granted, I live in Colorado so I've only been able to talk to about a dozen people, but it leads me to think that folks on this board are hyper sensitive about refs' calls.

It leads me to think that BYU doesn't know how to play a physical game. This will be a serious problem for them in this tournament, as the refs are more likely to let the players "play", meaning a timid Cougar team will just get run over -- and it will leave people like you screaming at the TV about fouls that aren't called.

I don't agree with this statement. I have been to several games this year and I thought BYU played a very physical game, especially on defense. My thoughts were exactly opposite then yours in where I said if the refs call a ticky tac game and get BYU in foul trouble, that would be one of the biggest reasons for a loss in the tourney.

mormonrasta wrote:

Refs? Who cares.

The UNLV was one of the few BYU games I actually got to see (MSU, NC, Louisville, and Utah at the MC) were the others. The consistent theme is their terrible ball handling. It looks like BYU practices dribbling the ball of their foot. This is remarkable to me because at times BYU has been a sensational passing team. Usually good passing teams can also dribble on occasion.

So whenever I see one of my beloved Cougars put the ball on the floor, there is no way I can give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to fouls. Is the stumbling and bumbling caused by contact by the opponent? Or is it just another (Murdock, Fredette, Burgess, Cummard) uncoordinated drive to the basket?

Have to agree with this. Our ball handling is horrible. Jimmer got a couple of drives to the lane because he bumbled it and the UNLV player moved in to try and get a potentially loose ball. Jimmer would somehow play it off his foot or something and low and behold there would be an open lane. Wisely he took it, unlike Murdock who would have stared at the open lane like a dear in the headlights not knowing what to do.

In the beginning of the season I thought Murdock did a decent enough job of handling the ball, he made smart passes, got the ball down the court and pushed it well. He's gone down hill the last few games, struggling to get the ball into Trent (Lee is usually the one that gets it into Trent), making bad cross court passes through traffic that get picked off and turning the ball over pushing it up the court.