Posts Tagged ‘ BYU ’

Bracket News: Gonzaga – BYU

March 19, 2011
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After a great two days of non-stop hoops, you can’t ask for much more than two more days of games. Vegas is expecting more biting of nails today, as the largest line as of noon  was Pitt -7.5 over  Butler. Not a lot of previewing to do today, as you’re probably pretty familiar with the winners from Thursday, but I’d like to dive into the only double-digit seed favored today and talk about Gonzaga vs BYU. It’s scheduled for a 7:45 tip-off and the 11-seeded Bulldogs are one point favorites over Jimmer and the Cougars.

When Gonzaga handled St. Johns in the first round and I saw this match-up would go down, I planned on writing a post telling you to take whatever points BYU was giving and bet heavy on the Zags. Well, obviously it’s Gonzaga giving some points, but I’d still lean that way.

First things first, let’s talk about Jimmer. BYU can only go as far as he can carry them and Gonzaga will have their hands full. The Zags are no strangers to great scorers though. This season they have played four of the nation’s most prolific scorers: Kansas State’s Jacob Pullen, Baylor’s LaceDarius Dunn, Xavier’s Tu Holloway, and St. Johns guard Dwight Hardy. Those four stars shot 26-64 (41%) and the stars scored an average of 21 points against the Zags. Now Jimmer is the best scorer in the country so the task stands taller, but the key is to make him take a ton of shots to get his 30 and Gonzaga has enough experience to get it done. In all three BYU losses this year, Jimmer scored 30, but needed 26, 26, and 25 shots to get there. So they don’t to stop Jimmer, just frustrate him and make him earn his 30 points to the detriment of the team.

Of course, the other big story surrounding BYU will play into this one as well. The absence of Brandon Davies does not bode well for the Cougars in stopping the Gonzaga bigs. The Zags dominated St. Johns on the boards and will look for a similar recipe tonight. Bulldog center Robert Sacre had a bad shooting night against the Red Storm, but gathered 4 of the Zags’ 12 offensive boards. BYU gave up 14 offensive boards in their conference tourney loss to SDSU.

BYU impressed me against Wofford and when they are hitting threes, they can beat anybody. Gonzaga was even more impressive however. The Zags made 28 field goals in round one and 20 of those were assisted. They didn’t get a great game from Sacre, but Steven Gray had 16 points, 6 boards, and 5 assists, while guard Marquis Carter had his best scoring game of the season with 24.

Gonzaga has shown it can slow down prolific scorers enough to allow their multiple offensive weapons to win them games. I do expect BYU to keep it close, but I think Gonzaga ices it from the line down the stretch and moves on to the second weekend. Read more »

Bowl Chronicles: New Mexico Bowl

December 17, 2010
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It’s back. Bowl Chronicles. Renewed for a third season. The series turned a profit in each of the last two years, hopefully we can keep that trend alive over the next four weeks or so. It’s going to get crazy around here. The point of the BC series is to actually try and make a pick on nearly every postseason game played. At the very least, every bowl game will get some level of feature treatment, but dont be surprised if you follow along that you find yourself on  one side somehow in all 35 bowl games. The blog made a bit more during the Chronicle series last season, but thats because in the 2008-09 run we got killed on totals. We held firm on the pledge of no total plays a year ago and saw the fortunes boom. We’ll try to abide by that same rule this season. But, since we’ve fallen in love with Props thanks to our Pick-4 contest this year, we cant make the same guarantee there.  The point is to have fun and celebrate football. Last night’s Thursday Night contest in the NFL began a stretch of 29 consecutive days with at least one televised football game that continues tonight with a FCS semifinal game out west between defending champ Villanova and Eastern Washington on the Red Turf of EWU. You’ll want to check that out. That run will take us all the way through bowl season, the end of the NFL regular season, Wild Card playoff weekend and culminating with the BCS National Title Game.  We’re going to try to cover as much of it as possible through the Bowl Chronicle series and and assortment of other posts. Buckle in, folks.

For now, let’s go Bowling. It’s the real meaning of the season, after all. The bowl games begin tomorrow. And, we kickoff the Bowl Chronicle series with the very first game on tap for tomorrow afternoon, the New Mexico Bowl between UTEP and BYU. We’ve been waiting weeks to settle the argument over who is better, the fifth place club in the Mountain West or the sixth best team from Conference USA. We’ll finally get some answers. I know you’re on the edge of your seat.

New Mexico Bowl: UTEP, 6-6, vs BYU, 6-6, 2:00, ESPN. Lines: BYU -12, O/U 50

In its short history, the New Mexico Bowl has developed a few reputations. It’s only four years old, but its become the de facto start of the bowl season as this year marks the third in a row it’s either the the very first bowl game to kick off or part of the first day of postseason bonanza. The bowl has carved out a tradition of being home to Cinderella. Three years in a row, the game has featured a team thats gone from a losing season to the postseason. San Jose State, Colorado State and Wyoming pulled the trick in the past, each snapping a multi-year bowl draught in the process with a New Mexico Bowl bid. It’s also become an upset special with the underdog pulling three outright upsets, including a year ago when Wyoming beat Fresno in OT as a 10.5-point puppy, en route to a 3-1 ATS record.

The UTEP Miners arrive in Albuquerque having already added to the New Mexico Bowl’s Cinderella bid. The Miners are bowling on the heels of 5-7 record a year ago, their fourth losing season in a row and have not played in a bowl game since 2005.  The question remains whether or not the Miners can add the bowl’s legacy of underdog upsets. They enter catching 11 points from fellow 6-6 mate BYU.  UTEP didnt close the season strong, losing four of five after a 5-1 start. Their quarterback has been banged up. They cant keep a tailback healthy. They appear as bad as they always are on defense, giving up 400 yards a game with the 89th ranked rushing defense and the Fremeau Efficiency Index putting their stop troops into the triple digits with a 111th ranking. With the brand name BYU Cougars on the opposite side of the field, there probably isnt a lot of public support for another underdog cover in this bowl, let alone a straight-up upset win. Here’s a few reasons why it might happen: Read more »

Three More to Watch This Weekend

September 8, 2010
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College Football is back (FOOTBAW!) and Week Two promises to be one of the most enjoyable weekends of the season with huge games on the docket. You’ve got Miami (yes, that Miami) vs. Ohio State, Florida State and Oklahoma, Penn State and Alabama, and Michigan-Notre Dame for appointment viewing. There is nothing like a good weekend spent doing nothing but watching college football so here are three more games to get you to up that 12-pack to a case and not leave the house Friday to Sunday.

UTEP at Houston, 10:15 PM ET Friday, ESPN- If you like watching offense, you should not miss this game. Case Keenum had an impressive first week going 17-22 for 274 yards and 5 scores. UTEP’s defense is not equipped to stop Hosuton, but their offense is good enough to keep it interesting. Houston’s defense shouldn’t put up much of a struggle either, so this should be a shootout. Last year, UTEP upset Houston 58-41 so the Cougars will be looking for revenge at home and start their bid for a Conference USA title. QB Trevor Vittatoe leads the Miners, coming off of a 3,000+ yard season but a lackluster performance with no TD passes in Week One. It’s useless to analyze the defenses in this one, as the offenses should dominate. 100 total points is not out of the question, but the over/under is set at 73.5 currently. Amateur betting aside: take the over! It will be well worth tuning in whether you have money riding or not, especially with the late Friday start time making it perfect to pair up with a few brewdoggers.

South Florida at Florida, 12:21 ET Saturday, ESPN3- Might be tough to catch this one, but ESPN3 is highly recommended. Great picture quality, easy to use, and you can watch other games at the same time on your TV! So while you’re watching Georgia and South Carolina on ESPN2, fire up the computer and see if Florida’s offense can turn it around after a scary-bad performance last week against Miami OH. Florida is certainly teasing us by playing the wrong Miami, then the wrong school from southern Florida in back-to-back weeks (just play the Hurricanes!), but the Bulls should provide a good test. Under Skip Holtz, QB BJ Daniels and the offense provide much more of a scare than the Redhawks did last week. If Florida struggles offensively again, we could be in for a big upset. Daniels was able to knock off Florida State last year in his first start, so at least he has some relevant experience. No matter the result, it will be interesting to see how Florida responds after a rough first week.

BYU at Air Force, 4:00 PM ET Saturday, Versus- Wow, Versus is having a good start to the year. First they get Pitt at Utah, now a big Mountain West match-up in Week Two. Both of these teams travel to play bigger opponents next week (BYU @ Florida State, AF @ Oklahoma), but neither will look past this game that will have huge implications for the MWC top four. BYU won 38-21 last year and started the season off with a big win over Washington. Highly touted freshman Jake Heaps shared QB duties with junior Riley Nelson and each threw for 131 yards, with Nelson notching the only two TD passes. Whether or not BYU continues to use two QBs, the Cougars should have problems passing. Air Force has one of the better secondaries in the country led by Anthony Wright and Reggie Rembert at the corners who picked off a combined 10 passes last year.  BYU is a one point dog on the road here, but with the spread going back and forth it’s basically pick ‘em, and the oddsmakers are right about how close this one should be.  No doubt TCU and Utah will be watching to see who emerges as their main contender at the top of the MWC, and you should be too.

Happy viewing!