Just remember Virginia, on its championship run lost a game to Chaminade.
Not saying TDS is Virginia with Ralph Sampson, but they donât suck, either.
I have to say that comment by Emery seems to be the epitome of a lack of self-awareness. If he thinks he was mistreated by BYU, heâs delusional.
BYU was facing injury trouble that they didnt have against us. Their ceiling is lower without Gavin Baxter (who hasnât ever been able to stay on the floor).
As for Emery, I know heâs right in the sense that Pope is a slime ball. Hes a time bomb. If BYU is lucky, he will do well enough to get the attention of a better program and be on his way soon. If not, itâs a matter of time before his antics catch up to him.
Both BYU and Utah facing tough injury problems. (Cougars out 2 bigs, Utes out FIVE players now).
I try to avoid excuses and be of the attitude itâs up to the remaining players to step it up (next in line) when starters are out, but when losing so many itâs hard not to feel somewhat unlucky.
But then you have no bench.
Yeah, the ânext man upâ mantra has a limit. What utah is facing right now in hoops is the proportional equivalent of losing 35 players to injury in football. ânext man upâ is long gone.
Hoops can be as challenging as any sport to handle injuries to starting athletes. With Football for example you have 22 starters on offense and defense (and number of regular players is usually higher than that since teams typically have different packages depending on down/yardage situation) plus special teams. Unless itâs your QB or star running back, a few lost players doesnât rip the team apart.
With hoops, there are 5 players that play offense and defense and losing a few starters is a huge loss.
And as implied above, when youâre starting the second string, you end up putting out third string players when starters need a few minutes of rest.
[Snickering.]