Gunk wrote:

I've never seen Morgan play. If he's better than Loyd, great.

I don't like Jimmer at the point, though. The way Rose has the offense set up, the PG is used as more of a passer and facilitator. Jimmer has too much scoring ability for such a role. If Rose switches the offense so the PG becomes a scoring threat, then I am all for Jimmer as PG. Otherwise, keep Jimmer as SG.

In an interview during the season (but before Ben's injury, when Jimmer broke out at the point) Coach Rose said that the starting point guard job next year is Lamont's to lose.

gmoney wrote:

gunk you might be forgetting about LAMONT MORGAN,JACKSON EMERY, CHARLES ABOUO AND NOAH HARSTOCK.

my list would go as follows:

Center - Miles/McGregor
Power Forward - Cummard/Anderson/Harstock
Small Forward - JT/Abouo/Harstock
Shooting Guard -Jimmer/Loyd
Point Guard - Lamont/Emery

I don't like your list at all. First off, lets get a few positions straight...

-Lee Cummard has never played and will never play power forward.
-Noah Hartsock has never played and will never play small forward.
-Jackson Emery is not a point guard.
-James Anderson is a 7'0" string bean. He is not a power forward, he is a center with a decent outside shot.

Here is what will happen this year...

These arguments are contigent upon redshirt decisions but for the sake of conversation will assume that everyone on the roster will play.

Point guard - Lamont Morgan, Jimmer Fredette, Mike Loyd, and Matt Pinegar will share minutes at point. Lamont is a solid player. He has a decent jump shot, and can get into the paint with ease. His biggest weakness is his size which is a liability on defense. He also struggles to finish offensively in the paint. Pinegar is a good hustle player and has more skill than most people give him credit for. I still don't see him getting much time this year. You've already seen Loyd and Jimmer.

Shooting guard - Jimmer Fredette, Jackson Emery, Charles Abouo, and Taylor Jackson will all be competing for minutes at the 2 guard. Fredette is someone Rose will want to keep on the court. I expect most his minutes he'll be playing point, but in other situations he could be on the floor with Lamont at the same time. Jackson Emery is an all-conference caliber defender. He is athletic and gives 100% effort every night. As a freshman he successfully guarded the players like Brandon Ewing and Brandon Heath. He'll get better and better throughout the year as he gets his legs back. Abouo is another player who is expected to be a defensive stopper. Last year he played for Brewster Academy - a prep school that helps gifted atheletes prepare for D1 play - In one matchup he held NBA bound Tyreke Evans to 12 points. His defense was stellar all year long and he, like Jackson, also has a great offensive game. Jackson is a walk-on from Timpview High School and will probably only see minutes in game-over type situations.

Small Forward - Lee Cummard, Archie Rose, Charles Abouo, and possibly some Emery/Tavernari. Lee will once again play most of the minutes at SF. Archie needs to play with a lot more intensity to see the court under Dave Rose. Abouo is 6'5" and because of his length and athleticism, he'll probably be the primary backup at small forward. Emery and Tavernari are both options as well. Look for them to see time in specialty situations where we are responding to matchup problems or trying to create a few.

Power Forward - Jonathan Tavernari, Noah Hartsock, Gavin Macgregor. JT will play the 4 spot just like he did last year. While some may say that JT is a liability on defense because he can't guard other 4s, the truth is that JT causes more matchup problems than any player in the conference. No other 4s can guard JT. He brings them out away from the basket and more commonly forces the defense to switch in and out of zone packages. With Fredette being a main component to this year's offensive attack, JT is going to give Fredette more room to get to the basket. Hartsock is very similar to Trent Plaisted. He is 6' 10" and although he doesn't have the athletic ability of Trent, he plays hard, and has the best jump shot on the team from 15-20 feet. He is a combination of Plaisted and Malaman, and should help us offensively this year. Macgregor provides great toughness and is going to get minutes.

Center - Chris Miles, Gavin Macgregor, James Anderson. Miles will get most of the minutes at 5. Most of the relief will come from Macgregor. Anderson needs to put on some weight before he is able to really contribute. Having said that, he does have some decent offensive skills and might be able to contribute in certain situations.
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***OF COURSE A LOT OF THIS COULD CHANGE IF A MYSTERY PLAYER IS ADDED***

With Plaisted's departure, a scholarship has opened up. Coaches can use that scholarship immediately and if there is any good talent floating around, look for the coaches to go after it. Chances are good they'll go after an offensive minded big man.

Yndian wrote:

Gunk wrote:

Jimmer is good on defense. He gets trapped a bit every now and then and falls for jukes, but he's definitely an improvement over Burgess on defense (don't ask me why they nominated Burgess for DPY). Jimmer moves his feet very well.

Let me mention something about Sam Burgess. There's an extremely common misconception that Lee Cummard usually guarded the other team's best player, but that wasn't usually true.

In the last month or so, I've re-watched almost every televised game from this past season. Here's a list of some of the best players from each team with their average points versus BYU, then their season averages. When they were both on the floor at the same time, they were almost always guarded by Sam Burgess.

AFA: Tim Miles 15.5 ppg, season: 14 ppg
CSU: Marcus Walker 13.3 ppg (and most of those were in garbage time at the Marriott Center), season: 17.1 ppg
SDSU: They were the exception, since Lorrenzo Wade is a forward, but Burgess spent plenty of time guarding him anyway. 19.7 ppg, season: 14.8 ppg
TCU: (Kevin Langford was actually their high scorer) Brent Hackett: 9 ppg, season: 11.6 ppg
UNLV: Wink Adams 12.3 ppg (most of which came in the MWC Tournament; he averaged 7 ppg against BYU in the regular season), season: 16.9 ppg
UNM: J.R. Giddens 11.3 ppg, season: 16.3 ppg
Utah: (Luke Nevill was their high scorer) Johnnie Bryant 11.5 ppg, season: 14.2 ppg
WYO: (Brandon Ewing was their high scorer) Brad Jones 9.5 ppg, season: 12.1 ppg

So except for Tim Miles and Lorrenzo Wade (who nobody on our team could stop in San Diego), Burgess (and the other people to guard them) held some of the best players in the conference below their averages.

A lot of the credit Lee Cummard got for guarding the best players last year actually should go to Sam Burgess.

Tim Miles???? Do you mean Tim Anderson?

I agree Burgess wasn't as bad a defender as people think. In fact he was pretty decent. But...

The only reason Burgess was given those assignments was to keep Cummard out of foul trouble and keep him on the court. After Cummard the bench was pretty thin at SF.

Lee Cummard was the best defensive player on the team last year. If you ask Wink, Anderson, Wade, Giddens, etc. who they would rather have guard them, everyone of them would rather face Burgess than Cummard.

I agree with everything you mentioned detmer with one exception. Hartsock played and can play the small forward (in high school and in AAU). He's got a real chance to be a special player at BYU, it will depend almost completely on how hard he works though, he's got the tools and hoops IQ.

His older brother, Jeremiah, is a friend of mine here in Kansas City and played at UMKC (in fact he might have already moved out to Provo to live with his baby bro)

If you ever see either of them on campus, remind them that they're on our turf now. Their whole family rooted for Tulsa vs BYU last year in football.
http://byu.scout.com/2/503441.html

Noah Hartsock, the Oklahoma 6A Player of the Year averaged 27.6 points per game in 2005-06, also joins the Cougars following his two-year mission.

I wan to address the point gaurd debate that is going on. I went to or watched every game last year including all of the preseason games of which I watched Lamont play and was very very umimpressed for a guy who had spent time at a JC. Now I know he redshirted but Loyd who came straight from H.S. along with Jimmer both looked better then Lamont did. The other thing from watching him and looking at his JC and HS stats Lamont is not a scorer or a finisher. Loyd on the other hand showed a lot of upside by the end of the year hitting 3s and taking the ball coast to coast with extreme speed very impressive. So here is my assesment I watch a guy like Deron Williams and Chris Paul and say to myself yes I want a point gaurd that distiputes but also a guy who can take it to the rack with time running down and also shoot an open 3 with confidence. Don't be surpised if by the end of next year Loyd who we will have for 3 more years becomes our starting point gaurd. Just my opinion.


LND

LegendsNeverDie wrote:

I wan to address the point gaurd debate that is going on. I went to or watched every game last year including all of the preseason games of which I watched Lamont play and was very very umimpressed for a guy who had spent time at a JC. Now I know he redshirted but Loyd who came straight from H.S. along with Jimmer both looked better then Lamont did. The other thing from watching him and looking at his JC and HS stats Lamont is not a scorer or a finisher. Loyd on the other hand showed a lot of upside by the end of the year hitting 3s and taking the ball coast to coast with extreme speed very impressive. So here is my assesment I watch a guy like Deron Williams and Chris Paul and say to myself yes I want a point gaurd that distiputes but also a guy who can take it to the rack with time running down and also shoot an open 3 with confidence. Don't be surpised if by the end of next year Loyd who we will have for 3 more years becomes our starting point gaurd. Just my opinion.


LND

Lloyd is very raw and currently a turnover machine. There's no doubt that he brings energy with him, but he needs to learn to play mistake free hoops to ever be considered a starter.

I can think of no other one weakness that a player could have on a Dave Rose team that will keep you on the pine than being turnover prone; especially at the point.

My guess is that he's one of the better players on the team in pickup games, but that doesn't neccessarily translate to D1 success if you don't ensure good possessions.