players in the nation that were ranked on defense.  So he is actually in the 27th percentile for defense.  And that is comparing him equally with players in much, much better conferences that played much, much better schedules.  It could easily be argued that he is in less than the 20th percentile if we were comparing apples to apples.  That means he is the 5th worst defender of every 5 players on the court.  That's what the statistics say.  I'm not making anything up.  This isn't a "wrong-headed perspective".  You don't need to be defensive that someone is speaking ill of someone with the last name of Haws.  It's okay if we honestly evaluate our team.  My comments on why he is a bad defender are 100% the truth and are valid - poor stance, slow laterally, poor effort, weak physically, unwilling to wall-up, etc.  If you have other reasons as to why his defense is bad, please let me know, or if you think he has an awesome defensive stance, please tell me why you think that.  I've told you what I think.  But your argument continues to either be personal or that he is actually a good defender.  He isn't.  He is definitely a contributing, but not great, player on offense - I never said he didn't have any value there.  Some shots he shoots are questionable, but he does make some, so if you make it, it's tough to complain too much...except that it encourages you to keep shooting poor shots (ie. Nick Emery).

BYU and our fans need a mental shift.  We need to begin to appreciate what it takes to win - which is defense.  Winning players play defense.  TJ doesn't - at least not better than 73% of other college basketball players.  Most of the comments about Haws are about how great he is on offense.  Here's another stat for you.  In games that mattered (ranked teams, top 3 in the WCC, and playoff games), he scored only 15 points per game and had an assist to turnover ratio of 1.1.  His shooting percentage dropped to 38%, an 8% drop from normal.  For a PG on the court 32 minutes per game, that isn't good enough.  It's at best average to go with his porous defense.  We need players who are good enough and strong enough to compete against the best.  

Yoeli Childs led the WCC in scoring and rebounding.  He was clearly the MVP and best player we had - not TJ.  No one thinks TJ is going to play pro ball anywhere.  No one is worried TJ might leave early.  The only agenda I have is to help and cheer for BYU to get to the Final Four and to stop our embarrassing style of losing basketball.  Getting TJ and anyone else who is on the floor for 32 minutes per game to play defense is a big step in how to get there.  If he can't, I suggest we find someone who can.  I do want us to do well.  I hope Pope fixes things.  But we do have to be honest about where we are at or nothing will ever improve.