Rose is the Winningest BYU coach ever. And anyone who says Stan Watts was not an extremely good coach is unaware of what a power BYU was in the 1950s. But, since Jimmer, Rose hasn't been able to kick it into high gear. And it is beginning to look like the good but not great aspect is becoming systemic. Two things happened since Jimmer. First, Dave Rice left to coach UNLV. Kudos to Coach Rice for landing with the University of Washington. All the best to Coach Rice. Second, I have wondered how much Coach Rose has been limited by his battle with pancreatic cancer. Can he put in all the time and strain he did before??? Just wondering. Do the assistants have to shoulder more???

Systemic weaknesses include a love for playing small ball. In a couple of games this season, for example, Davin Guinn was playing PF with Yoeli Childs as our big and with TJ, Nick and either LJ or Elijah rotating at the guard and SF positions. That is a JC sized line up. And it got JC sized results. BYU has the ability to consistently have a line up with tall, strong bigs. Remember the days when BYU's SF was 6'9" Brent Stephenson??? Remember the days when BYU had 9 players on the roster all 6'8" or taller??? I remember those days.

A second systemic weaknesses is sub par D. Someone can roll out all the stats they want, but our D leaves gaps and WCC teams are ready to take advantage. Every year BYU plays 2-4 games where a lesser WCC opponent torches BYU, and the trend has been getting worse, not better.

A third systemic weaknesses has been too much turnover the last few years. Today BYU should have guys like Neilson, Toolson and Chatman as seasoned upper classmen who really know how to run what Coach Rose wants, even if they are not necessarily the most talented guys on the team. The team was excessively green this last year, especially after Kyle Davis went down. And, although LJ Rose was a 5th year senior, it was his first year in the program. Not the same as someone who has spent years under Coach Rose.

Although I note these seemingly systemic weaknesses, I am still a huge Dave Rose supporter. Never under estimate the value of a winner. Dave Rice never had a losing season at UNLV but boosters thought they deserved more. They canned Rice and this last year the Rebels were 12-21, with about a 10 game losing streak in the middle of the Mighty Weak Conference schedule. OUCH. Its hard to win and Dave Rose continues to do a great job. But, it looks to me that he could change some things in his system that could help elevate BYU to the sweet 16 again and I certainly hope he does it.