On Tuesday Dave Rose answered a question in a weekly Q&A at Malawi's Pizza w/ Greg Wrubell.

The Question was something to the effect of "what is the opponent points per possesion/field goal percentage when you run a 1-3-1 zone?"

Rose looked a bit uncomfortable and admitted he had no clue what it was. He then went on to address analytics and said something to the effect of how he doesn't get involved in analytics much and prefers to rely upon his "feel" for the game. He reiterated that he has been doing it that way his whole coaching career and doesn't intend to do it any other way. He then said he leaves that analytics stuff to his assistants.

Houston, we have a problem.

Dave Rose is essentially the GM and Head Coach of BYU basketball. It is his responsibility to build teams that gel, recruit players, and then coach them to their and the teams potential. Analytics is an important part of basketball. IMO Dave is showing a major weakness that separates good coaches and great coaches. Great coaches are constantly learning and adapting to new rules, information, technology, and what other teams are having success with. They thirst for new information even if it challenges their own way of thinking.

Every good NBA organization has made substantial financial investments to analytics. Over the last few years teams like Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State, Gonzaga, Louisville, Arizona, etc have started decent investments into technology and data that can give them more of an edge. It can be expensive---I don't expect us to have the same budget as Duke to use on analytics---but we should be able to afford to buy some camera tracking technology or grad assistants to put more time into analytics to find out what lineups are effective, schemes, opponents, etc.

Embracing analytics isn't more important than a great coaches' feel for the game or acquiring big time players. It's just a tool to help identify areas of improvement to maximize the talent that we do have. BYU is never going to be able to recruit like Kentucky---but it would serve us well to be on the forefront of technology and data that can help us reach our potential---especially since BYU has all sorts of connections to great analytics minds (Danny Ainge, Ken Pomeroy, etc)

Having said that---investing in analytics doesn't do us any good if the head coach isn't interested in using them. That is a problem. Some old birds see analytics as a threat to their knowledge of the game and dig in on their old ideas. Great coaches like Popovich, Coach K, Brad Stevens, Quin Snyder, etc---all see it as a compliment or a tool to reinforce their ultimate goals and adapt to it.

I'd like to see Dave Rose expand his horizons a bit and take a look at what schemes/decisions he routinely makes that are not maximizing his talent on the court.

I'm not saying I want Rose fired----I'd just like to see him have the desire to improve as a coach in a way that might not be all that comfortable for him. Our team needs an analytics overhaul because there are a # of his philosophies that are not very efficient.