Last night proved the old basketball axiom. You live and die by the jump shot. BYU and Nick Emery were hitting everything they threw up from outside last night and that has been the problem with this team all season. When they are dropping they win and when they don’t drop they lose. On the broadcast last night they quoted Rex Walters as saying another basketball truth. Defense travels but offense might not. BYU played adequate (barely) defense last night but even with a 20 point lead you never felt they had put San Francisco away. Even Dave Rose waited until the end to pull all of his starters. Watson showed how vulnerable BYU is to a PG that can penetrate off the dribble. He broke down our defense repeatedly with his quickness. Derksen, as was mentioned on the broadcast, really reminds me of Chris Mullins, former St. John’s and NBA star. He does not look imposing physically but he can knock down the outside shot and kill you with soft hooks in the paint. BYU did not seem to have an answer for those two opponents and if we had not been shooting lights out from the arc we may have been in trouble.

San Francisco actually had a good defensive game plan last night. If you watched they were pressing BYU on the outside daring them to try and beat them inside. Where they made their mistake, in my opinion, is they were quick to take shots on their own. If I were the opposing coach I would be slowing down the game and trying to keep the score near 70. BYU likes to play fast and they get a little frustrated when they have to play defense for 30 seconds. With their shooters you would want to limit how many shots they get to take.

We gave up 16 offensive rebounds to an undersized team and only out rebounded them by one. They had 9 steals and some of them seemed to come so easy that you wondered if BYU guards were even considering ball security. I know that Rex Walters does not take losing well but when you look at his team’s performance last night he had to be happy. If he had not run into and offensive buzzsaw he probably would be savoring a victory this morning.

There is not doubt that this BYU team is loaded with shooters. Chatman even got in the act last night and shot the ball with confidence. Seljaas seems to have lost some of his early confidence and did not force shots. He also did not look for them as quick. But I like that he is willing to put the ball on the floor and penetrate. He had 4 assists last night. Taking the ball inside will only make him more dangerous from the outside. I have been saying all year that this has really helped Fischer. Last year he never tried to penetrate but this year he is much quicker to drive to the basket.

It is now on to Santa Clara and then to San Diego on the road. BYU has to have both wins to have any chance of catching Gonzaga. The loss by St. Marys last night to Pepperdine only makes the Pacific melt down more distasteful. BYU would have had their own fate in their hands completely. If we don’t overtake Gonzaga it looks like we would have to beat both St. Mays and Gonzaga in the tournament to get an invite to the Dance.