2023 WCC Tournament

why does this always happen to us

30-11 so far in the 2nd half. Live by the three, die by the three.

Traore killing us down the stretch.

The Bobby Sharp vuju could only work for one half, huh.

Outrebounded 46-24. BYU had 20 offensive rebounds. Only 7 UP turnovers, but those ones to start the second half really helped BYU ignite their run.

Hopefully we will get a big next season that gets minutes. Until then.

In the nightcap, USF had little trouble defeating UOP, using a big second half to knock out the Tigers.

Hmmm. Bad second halves for the teams playing a second game. Tired legs? Whatever, form holds, the favorites win, and the bracket now consists of the top six seeds. Hey, when GU goes to their new conference, will it restructure the tournament to give GU the best chance to win?

up7587 wrote: Bad second halves for the teams playing a second game.  Tired legs?  

Oh, absolutely.  UP's players were gassed in the second half.  

The tight and tough defense the team played in the first half went away in the second, and although the Pilots were still getting their shots in the second half, they didn't not have the spring in their legs to make them accurate.

Tough calls on Moses...and tough to blame him for only slightly losing his cool and picking up the technical which resulted in his fourth personal foul.  Each of coaches talked to him when he went to the end of the bench to get away, and finally Legs pulled him up and brought him back to his teammates and later spent a long time just discussing the situation.  Eventually, Moses returned and did not pick up his 5th.

I have spoken with quite a few LMU fans who are looking forward to kicking BYU out of the conference tonight, however, the last time the two teams met, the Cougars blew out the Lions by 28 points in Provo.

BYU is favored by 3.

DoubleDipper wrote:I have spoken with quite a few LMU fans who are looking forward to kicking BYU out of the conference tonight, however, the last time the two teams met, the Cougars blew out the Lions by 28 points in Provo.

BYU is favored by 3.

ESPN analytics says BYU 60%. KenPom has BYU as the #3 WCC team at 76. LMU is 101. NET has BYU at 86, LMU at 102.

Analytics were right. BYU beat LMU 73-63, the third game today with a lower seed winner. The Cougars get SMC on Monday.

It took two overtimes, but my future least favorite team, SCU, lost to USF 93-87. The first half was a slugfest. The stats don't show it, but it seemed there were lots of turnovers. The shooters could not get any good looks. SCU took a lead as large as 11 points in the second half, but KHalil Shabazz scored 11 points in the last 2:11 to force OT.

A good parlay bet would have been all the lower seeded teams on Saturday. They all won. USF faces GU Monday.

up7587 wrote:It took two overtimes, but my future least favorite team, SCU, lost to USF 93-87.  

Quite a few of us stuck around to the end of that game, and the performance by Shabazz certainly made it worthwhile.

I mean, that game was over with SCU winning with 5 minutes left, but Shabazz lifted the entire team to victory.  His banked-in three-pointer at the beginning of the first OT had to have been an omen.

SMC opened a big lead, but a late rush allowed BYU to beat the spread (7.5). A final missed SMC free throw with 0.9 seconds left secured the win for the gamblers picking BYU.

USF's 3P game is not spectacular tonight.

USF gave the gamblers concern that they'd allow enough GU to cover the 14.5 spread, but did just enough to lose by 11, 84-73. They needed to hit 45% or better on 3Ps, but only hit 38%.

SMC with 29 points in 30 minutes.

Interesting. Before today's game GU was ranked #16 in the AP poll. It was assumed they were already a lock for a tourney bid. However, they were #41 in the NET ranking. That's a lot closer to the cut line, depending on how many bids are taken by automatic qualifiers like UP that wouldn't be in otherwise. Something to watch.

GU wraps up the tournament with a not-as-close-as-it-looks 77-51 beatdown of SMC.