Does this BYU squad have what it takes to beat Florida?

OKLAHOMA CITY — BYU looked as loose and casual as I’ve ever seen them in a shoot-a-round at an NCAA tournament on Wednesday.

They were joking around, laughing, having fun with a bunch of BYU fans, mostly children, who were screaming, clapping and calling them out by name even in the stretching segment before the NCAA allowed them to have basketballs.

I have no idea if this will help BYU avoid another loss in this event. I was present at the last BYU win in Chicago where the Cougars beat SMU in the first round. Back then, the Cougars were a No. 7 seed, something they have not been since. That team had a ton of confidence they could play with anyone. It was the same group that beat UTEP in the WAC tourney on a three-quarter court shot by Kevin Nixon.

I’ve seen plenty of BYU players in shoot-arounds the past dozen years at this NCAA day-before formality. They looked scared. They pressed, their legs appeared stiff and wobbly and they tried very hard to look like they were athletic, tough. On Wednesday it was just the opposite. Player were smiling and they didn’t care if they made a shot. They’d already finished a hard, tough practice session away from the Ford Center.

How informal was it? I got a call from the editor of our Mormon Times. He wanted to know where Chris Miles went on his mission. I asked assistant athletic director Brian Santiago and he replied, “Portland.” Just to make sure, I waited for Miles to get close to my courtside seat and I asked him. He confirmed it. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have spoken to a player warming up, but this shoot around was so informal, they didn’t even take out all the basketballs in the bin for the players. It was like a reunion before going out to eat.

Perhaps this approach was something to take pressure off the players. Dave Rose is hungry for a win here. I think he’s getting tired of questions about beating UNLV in Las Vegas and not winning an NCAA Tournament game. It bugs him. But he’s smart enough to know he’s got to instill the tacit knowledge necessary in his team to play how they are capable to playing — not create a new and different standard for play in the NCAAs.

There are two kinds of knowledge you need to gain a competitive advantage. The first is basic knowledge like how to make shots, run plays, make putts in golf, hit the fairways, etc. Then there’s another kind of knowledge that experienced athletes and teams have when they’ve been there and done that. It is a power that is gained, an advantage given, what needs to be done at the right time and the right stage and how to apply all their experience to create a victory.

I think BYU has lacked in this second kind of knowledge since Roger Reid’s team beat SMU before losing to eventual Final Four Kansas in the second round. BYU has pressed, they’ve been ticked about seedings. They’ve flinched over winning conference titles and exiting the league tourney early with losses, usually to the Rebels. Their footing hasn’t been firm in first round games, where they’ve played very good teams. They’ve simply wilted.

I don’t want to get to brainy at this issue, but Bronco Mendenhall has done a remarkable job of getting his program from the first kind of knowledge to the second. His success in the second has brought him the most wins of any BYU teams at any four-year period in history. With it, home wins, league titles, rankings. His next step is BCS stuff.

A guy named Paul Gustavson, an organizational behavior scientist helped Mendenhall tackle this issue of engaging both kinds of knowledge, knowing that every team, every organization is perfectly designed to get the results they do.

Gustavson said you can take categorize these two type of knowledges into Codifiable Knowledge (stuff that can be written down and learned through reading) and Tacit Knowledge (stuff you can only learn through experience).

In golf it is about “know that – Codifiable” knowledge as rules of the game, how to keep score, etc); “know how – codifiable” knowledge as how to swing a
club (there are magazine racks full of How To Do); “Know That – Tacit”
knowledge is stuff like confidence (when you step up to a four foot
put is your mind saying “I’ve got this nailed” or “I hope that I don’t
miss”.

These are Gustavson’s words, not mine:

“Before Tigers pre marital problem days he won every Major that
he lead by 1 stoke after the third round until last year when a Korean
beat him. He had won something like 40 out or 43 tournaments where he
had lead by 1 stoke after the third round. When he led after the
third round in his mind he said “I’m going to win” (confidence). In
his competitors mind knowing Tigers record they said “Tiger is going
to win” and both went out the fourth round and played as they mentally
thought. This is the “know how – tacit.”

Keeping the golf analogy going, if we were trying to putt on a green early in the morning and there was a blanket of dew on the course, how would you adjust the stroke? You can’t read a book about this. It only comes from experience. This is tacit knowledge.

Mendenhall and Brandon Doman got John Beck this kind of knowledge after he failed to complete that TD pass in the closing seconds of the game at Utah in 2005 in Provo. It was the year BYU lost close games to TCU (51-50), Utah 41-34, and Cal (35-28). It wasn’t all Beck’s fault in each case, like at Boise State the year before when a kicker missed a chip field goal. BYU simply didn’t know how to finish and win.

Mendenhall worked extensively on blue zone situations in practices. He’d end practices with game-winning situations and pounded it into his team that at that time, that place, that situation, that score, they had to know how to win. It worked. It brought BYU fans “Harline is Still Open.” That begat “Magic Happens” and “George is Still Running,” which are monuments to QB confidence, thus team confidence. But it was created by hard work on Mendenhall’s part to get first-hand knowledge in the hands of players.

Mendenhall did this same thing with road games and his program has won more MWC road games than anyone the past four years. There’s a list of these kinds of housekeeping things Mendenhall has done to increase efficiency when it counts.

I’m not saying Rose isn’t doing this. I’ve watched his practices where he re-creates the end of games with few seconds on the clock to get the same kind of tactic knowledge in his players — most all coaches do that. The problem BYU has had, in addition to facing some tough draws, is mental. Usually in NCAA games, I think it has got to the heads of BYU players.

This NCAA monster is sitting on the backs and inside the heads of all BYU coaches and players. They simply do not — in the past — play like they are capable of doing in this tournament. Until they do, they’ll fail.

I think Rose has tried hard to rewind this team the past four days and get them on a threshold where the knowledge and confidence they need to deliver the plays needed on this stage will be there. This is a better team than a year ago. The players are more confident. There is better chemistry, depth and flexibility. They shoot better and are more capable of defending man or zone.

It will be interesting to see what Rose has designed for Thursday — most of it mental.

Perhaps the smiles and joking I saw at the shoot-around are part of this.

We shall see.