The discussion about the defense being hamstrung by the scheme and lack of adjustments brought back memories of my most embarrassing time in sports. I don't know if the BYU defense feels hamstrung or embarrassed, but it wouldn't surprise me if sometimes they feel the same frustration I felt during and after the following episode:

It was my junior year of high school basketball, and our coach was Ron K., who played for Adolph Rupp at Kentucky and was on a team with Pat Riley. You might think this gave him some coaching bona fides, but you would be wrong.

We somehow managed to knock off two teams and made it to the semifinals of the Fulton County Christmas tournament in Atlanta, and we would be facing Lakeshore - state ranked and a lot bigger and more athletic than our team, with a couple of bigtime D1 signees. Coach decided "If they don't have the ball, they won't be able to score" and told us we were going to pass the ball at least ten times around the perimeter before taking a shot, and then it better be a wide open layup (this was a couple years before the 3 point shot was introduced in high school). He warned that if anyone shot before ten passes, that guy would be taken out of the game and wouldn't be going back in.

Game day came and our coach assigned James C., our manager who was a special needs student, to count the passes. Our assistant coach wasn't there (I think he was out of town for the holidays).

It may not surprise the reader to find out that we rarely made it to ten passes in the face of their half court man pressure. The two kids who did shoot before ten passes were taken out. We were down 40 at the half. It was time for some adjustments after the first couple minutes, but surely Coach Ron K. would make them at halftime, right? Nope. By the end of the 3rd it was something like 74-12, and our coach left to make a phone call "to check on the weather" and put our manager in charge. Our coach disappeared and didn't come back until after the game was over. As soon as he left our team started playing more normally, and though James C. tried to take people out for shooting before ten passes, they ignored him and refused to come out. Right before the final buzzer, Lakeshore hit the century mark, and their crowd went wild. We lost 100-29.

I think there are people down by the airport who still remember that game and laugh about it. Our team wasn't that good, but we never should have been blown out in embarrassing fashion. We would have lost maybe 99/100 or 100/100 times, but it could have been a lot closer than that disgrace.

Maybe BYU's defensive backs are still developing and Coach Tuiaki doesn't have confidence in them, but you don't let Jacob Eason have all the time in the world, and you don't let USF run all over you because your linebackers are 7 yards off the line of scrimmage.