Handling delecate confidence of shooters
No question, Dave Rose has to some how get Jonathan Tavernari and Trent Plaisted some confidence in their shots. They are in the tank.
Tavernari went 2 for 11 at Wake Forest, followed that up with a decent 9/17 against CSU, but then went 1/9 and 0/6. Plaisted was 3/10 at Wake Forest, followed that with 11/15 against CSU, but then dropped to 2/3 and 2/11.
The two big cogs in Rose’s offense are 5 of 29 from the floor in the last two games. The common factor in both of those outings were that they came on the road at UNLV and Utah.
But without those two scoring more productively, Utah game aside, it would be tough for the Cougars to muster a championship run in the league.
Rose said some of it is confidence and shooters need to work through their issues. Another part is mechanics and this is where he starts in trying to fix things. Rose has his assistant coaches work exclusively with mechanics as the staff identifies things that might be off. Second, they work on repetition, getting shooters to consistently repeat good mechanics and make as many shots as possible. This is the case with Plaisted’s poor free throw shooting. On Tuesday, in the Smith Fieldhouse, apart and away from BYU’s formal practice, one of our reporters said he saw Plaisted using some of his own personal time to practice free throw shooting.
The third thing, according to Rose, “is players get confidence from their teammates.” He believes it is possible for those around Tavernari and Plaisted to elevate their mood, their belief and they confidence in them and that chemistry has a real physical effect on the “confidence” level of the struggling shooter.
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Will the Cougar ever be ranked again this season?
It’ll be a long, long road. If they won all their remaining home games, a possibility, and find a way to win four MWC road games against TCU, CSU, Wyoming and AFA, they would finish 24-7. That might get them ranked again. They’ll likely lose on the road at SDSU and New Mexico. Penciling in road wins at AFA and TCU might be expecting too many road victories from a team that has only got one respectable one all season (at Utah).
We did notice one change in BYU’s road strategy this past week at Utah. Rose limited the 3-point offense and attacked the basket more with the post and Cummard. He also really bridled Tavernari. While the Brazilian shot six times at Utah (missing all six), it wasn’t like he lost control of him and allowed him to take 14 or 17 shot attempts.
That seemed to work, as the team put more effort into running some set plays. That led to more consistent work on the defensive end of things.
Rose said his team may not have handled being ranked earlier this year for about a month. They didn’t expect it. When it came, they didn’t make an issue of it and right now it is so far from their minds.
“We probably could have handled it better at the time,” said Rose.
What did he mean by that?
Well, Rose could have probably pulled the “Reality Card” on his team during that span that led to the loss at Boise State, a game in which they led by 12 on the road.
Reality at the time was this:
–The Cougars had lost Austin Ainge, Jimmy Balderson, Keena Young, Michael Rose, Fernando Malaman and Rashaun Broadus from that team and half of those players had made major contributions.
–The Cougars did not have some roles defined on the team and were still developing chemistry.
–The Cougars simply were not ready to hold on to a Top 25 ranking. They wanted to, expected to, but were not capable.
That was the reality.
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A year ago the Cougars ran SDSU out of the Marriott Center 80-59 but lost to the Aztecs on the road in San Diego. A year ago in Provo, the Cougars got 49 points from the folks now missing on the BYU roster.
What does that mean? Trent Plaisted and Jonathan Tavernari have got to shake of their slumps and do what they do best when in the friendly confines of the Marriott Center tonight if BYU is to make it win No. 41 in a row.