This was the second practice I have seen this year. When you watch this team practice as compared to previous years you can't help but see that this is the deepest team in BYU in quite some time, most likely in Rose's tenure. Will the team be better than Jimmer's senior year, the odds say "no way" but if the fourth best player on the team is suspended this year it would not be as devastating of a blow to this years team. They are deep, both in numbers and talent. Rose will have a tough challenge on hand to figure out how to distribute minutes. He will be tested. We have the depth now that players very well could leave the program too if their number is not called enough to get minutes (I did not sense that attitude from anyone in practice, I am just stating that guys are going to have to sit who are talented enough to play some place else).

To start, Austin was not suited up. CK, Aytes, and Halford were suited up and working out on the side but were not practicing.

-Haws: is still the same Haws. He seemed to find the cutter a lot more this practice than in games. Who knows if that will translate to games. He did not miss inside 15 feet.
-KC: the vocal leader on the team. Players look to him. He demands perfection of himself. Shot looks better. Looked like he was going about 90%.
-Fischer: when you watch them practice it is easy to see why he was selected by Rose to be a team captain. He is a 100% guy. The focus of the practice was defense (with main focus on man to man) and Chase was much quicker than his WF days. He took great pride in disrupting. His name was the name you kept hearing coaches and players vocally praising. I was impressed with his defense.
-Winder: Looks way more confident, like he knows what his role and minutes will be this year.
-Worthington: I really don't ever see him being more than an 8-12 minute guy but this is not a knock on Luke. I think his minutes will be that low because the other bigs on the team will be pretty good. The difference you will see is that when he plays this year, he will be playing basketball and not just be a guy who takes up space and fouls. I thought Luke's strength last year was his body and his ability to hedge and disrupt on screens in the key. He will continue to do that and add some offensive skills to his game.
-Bartley: kind of lost in the crowd. Most of what I saw was half court sets and Bartley works better in space and transition. I hope he can find minutes at PG because I just can't see him playing over Chase.
- Davis: He will take over Austin's role nicely next year. With an experienced CK, Nielsen, and Aytes he will not get as many minutes as Austin but he will be a great 12-15 minute guy.
- Nielsen: He has impressed me both times I have seen him. He is long on defense. Noah was long too but he would usually block shots on weak side help. Isaac just plays long and never leaves his feet and seems to be in good position most of the time. It will be interesting to see him play against athletic guys with hops (sorry Luke). Like I said, the focus was not really on offense so I did not get to see him used as a stretch four but he looked good on defense. He is sneaky strong too. He doesn't have a lot of weight but he knows how to use all the weight he has.
- Sharp is Sharp
- Ellis: seems like a great backup player to have. Good depth.

Of the freshman: Toolson, Nixon, Andrus and Chatman need to catch onto schemes. There was not a lot of shooting but Andrus seemed to knock down some nice 10 foot baseline fade aways against the defense. I really do not know how much we will see of any of those guys though.

I think the big thing this team lacks is speed on the edges (is that really anything new for BYU?). The one positive about this year is that I think Rose and company has the shooting to space the floor much better which should help that. Roseyscenario has reported that Winder has been penetrating more this year......I hope that translates to the games.

It was great to see defense be the focal point of the entire practice and that the main emphasis was on man to man. When they did practice zone, the focus was on the getting to the corner three. They will have the depth to play man this year which they really haven't had in quite some time.

There wasn't really a number one team but KC, Haws, and Winder were always paired together. When those three were paired together Nielsen and Andrus filled out the four and five (remember that Austin, Aytes, and CK were not playing). This team should be really fun to watch come together. I will try to make it out Thursday and check in for those that just can't seem to wait 7 more days.