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Provo • Senior point guard L.J. Rose, a former prep All-American and Under-16 U.S. National Team member who played for Baylor and Houston before transferring to BYU, says this Cougar team with six players who were once ESPN Top 100 recruits is the most talented one he has ever been on. Freshman guard TJ Haws says BYU "is getting better every single game" and coach Dave Rose noted in October before a damaging, but not devastating, season-ending injury to senior Kyle Davis that this was the best group of inside players ever assembled in his 12 seasons as the Cougars' head coach.
And, of course, the "Lone Peak Three" of Haws and sophomores Nick Emery and Eric Mika were finally going to be reunited, after leading their high school to a mythical national championship in 2013.
It hasn't played out that way. The Cougars (16-8, 7-4) were tied for third in the WCC going into Saturday's home game against Portland, and have shown little sign of threatening the league's top two teams — No. 1 Gonzaga and No. 18 Saint Mary's.
Why hasn't this team found that extra gear to put it on the level of the 'Zags, or at least the ultra-efficient Gaels, who hail from a from a school with an enrollment of 4,257?
This was supposed to be the season that got the Cougars out of the good-but-not-great rut that has defined the program since Jimmer Fredette left and BYU joined the West Coast Conference thinking it could occasionally challenge the Zags for league supremacy and rule over all the rest of the schools whose entire student populations would almost fit inside the 19,000-seat Marriott Center.
Instead, it is the same old same old. The Cougars seem destined for their third NIT appearance in five years.
Were expectations too high? Clearly, they were too high for this group, and not dampened much by Dave Rose, who fueled the fire, at least publicly.
"The way that I evaluate it is [based on] the expectations I have for the team," Rose said. "What everybody else feels like when I go out and speak to groups [may be different], but you just kinda agree with them and be happy."
The way this team has fallen short, however, has got many fans, some former players, and even those in the media grumbling that the program has grown stagnant and won't get over the hump until a change is made at the top.
Rose has the best winning percentage (73.7 percent) of any basketball coach in BYU history, is eighth among active NCAA coaches in winning percentage, turned down several Power 5 conference jobs five or so years ago and recently completed a decade-long quest to open a basketball practice facility, the Marriott Center Annex. He's not going anywhere.
This season, he has found himself preaching patience as injuries and illnesses have mounted that sidelined Davis and slowed transfers Elijah Bryant and L.J. Rose and Emery. Rose continually mentions the Cougars' lack of experience playing together, a valid argument although, ironically, a big reason for the preseason optimism was that Mika, Emery and Haws were highly successful prep teammates.
"That the expectations for this group has never been able to be evaluated fairly simply because of it is not the same team that everyone expected, with Kyle Davis gone, and with Elijah missing 10 or 12 games," Rose said. "That doesn't change the end result for what we want to have happen, but that's been a real issue we have had to deal with."
Living up to the hype, or not
Personnel-wise, Mika has played better than expected and almost certainly has pro potential. Haws has hit his stride after a rocky start and could be a blossoming star. Emery has seemingly regressed offensively from an exceptional freshman season, even before suffering that painful knee contusion against Pacific. His defense has improved, but his foul count has also risen.
Pushed into a starting role, freshman Yoeli Childs has been a nice find and a ferocious rebounder. Bryant is improving, while fellow transfer L.J. Rose hasn't been able to add much and might not be able to hold onto his starting job much longer. Freshman Payton Dastrup was a top-100 recruit but hasn't been able to get off the bench, partly because he returned from his mission out of shape and partly because Rose seems to favor sophomore Braiden Shaw, despite a much lower ceiling, seemingly.
What's missing is an outside shooter like Zac Seljaas, who surprised some in the program with the decision to go on a church mission after making 68 3-pointers last season.
Also missing is another defensive stopper and shooter — like Jordan Chatman, who hit nine straight 3-pointers last week and scored a career-high 30 points in Boston College's 85-79 loss to Virginia Tech. A graduate transfer, Chatman left BYU saying he couldn't go to BYU's law school and play basketball at the same time, but is working on an MBA at also-rigorous B.C. Figure that one out.
And don't remind Cougar fans that BYU-departees Isaac Neilson and Frank Bartley are flourishing at Utah Valley and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, respectively.
Defense getting better
Believe it or not, the Cougars are playing better defense this year, despite the losses to Utah Valley, San Diego and Santa Clara in which the long ball doomed them to upset defeats. They are actually 30th in the country in 3-point percentage defense, allowing teams to shoot just 31.1 percent beyond the arc. Opponents shoot 40.3 percent from the field, ranking BYU 37th in the country in field goal percentage defense.
BYU ranks 205th in points allowed (73.1), but that is terribly misleading because of the tempo at which BYU likes to play.
The Cougars' biggest weakness defensively is that they don't force a lot of turnovers. They force 12.21 turnovers per game, ranking them 272nd in that category. Steals is one of the most important, yet underrated, stats in college basketball, because not only do they stop an opponent from scoring, they often lead to easy points on the other end.
"We are understanding each other better every game," Rose said. "I think that trying to get better every game will be the challenge of this group. I am still waiting for everything, personnel-wise, to go right, where we've got the injured guys back, we've got the sick guys healthy and we've got a full roster to compete with. Hopefully that happens pretty soon."
Because the natives are growing restless.
Twitter: @drewjay —
BYU in the WCC
Season Overall Conf.
2015-16 26-11 13-5, 3rd
2014-15 25-10 13-5, 2nd
2013-14 23-12 13-5, 2nd
2012-13 24-12 10-6, 2nd
2011-12 26-9 12-4, 3rd