Jeff Judkins has BYU women’s hoops team rocketing up

byDuc Manh •
0

BYU women’s basketball coach Jeff Judkins raises a fist during the Cougars’ win over Arizona State Nov. 17, 2021 in Provo.
BYU girls’s basketball coach Jeff Judkins raises a fist in the course of the Cougars’ victory over Arizona State Nov. 17, 2021, on the Marriott Middle in Provo, Utah.
Rebeca Fuentes, BYU Picture

This text was first printed within the Cougar Insiders e-newsletter. Signal as much as obtain the e-newsletter in your inbox every Monday night time.

Heading into one of the crucial vital street journeys of the season, Jeff Judkins and BYU’s No. 16 girls’s basketball staff stands at 18-1, 8-0 in league play, and is approaching legendary standing for this system. Senior Paisley Harding earned West Coast Convention Participant of the Week honors on Monday after she posted her second 30-point sport this season throughout BYU’s 99-58 victory over San Francisco on Saturday, tying her profession excessive with 5 3s towards the Dons. She averaged 19.0 ppg over three video games final week. The ladies play Portland and Gonzaga on the street this week. Harding is only one of many key instruments at Judkins’ disposal this season.

Cougar Insiders projection

Right here’s the query of the week: How far can the 18-1 staff Jeff Judkins has assembled go within the WCC and NCAA tournaments within the coming months?

Jay Drew: No query, the BYU girls’s basketball staff was handed a nasty deal when the NCAA’s early reveal present aired final week and the No. 16-ranked Cougars (18-1) had been omitted of the highest 16. A spot within the high 16 — a top-four seed — is required for ladies’s basketball groups wishing to host first-and second-round NCAA Match video games.

With a No. 10 spot within the NET rankings, BYU was seemingly closing in on the prospect to host. Now the Cougars in all probability should win out, and get a little bit little bit of assist, to get a type of coveted high 16 spots when the ultimate bids and seedings are introduced on Choice Sunday. How far can they go?

Earlier than final week, the reply was in all probability, “fairly far.” Jeff Judkins’ staff has all the weather to make a pleasant run: excellent guards and scorers in Paisley Harding and Shaylee Gonzales, top-notch rebounders and inside payers in Tegan Graham and Lauren Gustin, and a rim protector off the bench in Sara Hamson.

Now, who is aware of? Earlier than Thursday’s reveal, the Cougs had been a No. 3 seed in ESPN analyst Charlie Creme’s bracketology. After the reveal, they had been dropped to a No. 5 seed, and Creme had them taking part in at Oregon in a regional. There might be two extra reveals — Feb. 10 and Feb. 28 — earlier than Choice Sunday in March. Maintain your fingers crossed, Cougar followers. And hope that the NCAA choice committee involves its senses.

Dick Harmon: This girls’s staff has all the weather to make a deep run — a shot-blocking rim defender in Sara Hamson, an elite level guard in Shaylee Gonzales, an incredible athlete as a wing scorer in Harding and rugged, robust rebounders in Lauren Gustin and Tegan Graham.

Credit score goes to Jeff Judkins and the job he’s finished recruiting, growing and creating the chemistry of this staff. It's a squad that performs sensible, clever playmaking ball and in the event that they get on a late-season run, I’m assured they are going to be rewarded for the hassle by the point Choice Sunday comes round. That is trying like a girls’s staff for the ages for positive.

Cougar tales

BYU males’s basketball staff hit a wall final week throughout a street journey to Santa Clara and Pacific. For the primary time in head coach Mark Pope’s profession at BYU he skilled back-to-back losses in league play. The explanations had been related: turnovers, poor capturing and rebounding, and a scarcity of protection in key stretches. The rebounding and protection points had been troubling for Pope as a result of that’s what his squad has hung its hat on this season. Listed below are Jeff Name’s stories on the primary loss at Santa Clara within the last seconds, and the horrible loss to a really unhealthy Pacific staff — each street video games.

There isn't a time to mope round about these vital losses with San Francisco coming to city on Thursday and Gonzaga at residence on Saturday.

From the archives

From the Twitterverse

Further factors

Fanalyst

Feedback from Deseret Information readers

“Coach Pope was quoted as saying the 2 street losses this previous week had been “on him.” IMO, not likely. Positively he was defending his gamers from criticism and verbal abuse ... and it is sensible that among the drawback might have been in coach calling performs and in not motivating correctly as was acknowledged. Nevertheless, the coach didn't play a single second and far of the issue was with execution or lack thereof. The coach can’t miss photographs, trigger fouls, or create turnovers. Actually Coach Pope realizes this however isn’t going to make his gamers the topic of fanbase criticism.

— CougarSenior

“I feel this staff performs with a ton of coronary heart, particularly Barcello. I actually don’t assume “effort” is the issue. Trarore and George and Atiki have all stepped up and have loads of potential, however the expertise is simply not there proper now. Take a look at Gonzaga. There are at the very least 4 guys who might be taking part in within the NBA from their present staff. I truthfully don’t see anybody on the present BYU roster that matches that invoice (Barcello, who's their greatest participant, has one of the best likelihood on the NBA, however I feel his dimension might be his legal responsibility). I can see why Pope loves his gamers, as a result of they do play onerous and by no means surrender and can win most of their video games, however they simply don’t have the expertise but to take it to the subsequent stage. Possibly the fertile fields of the BIG12 will enhance their recruiting and the younger guys on the staff will proceed to get higher. I’m hopeful.”

— Idablu

Up subsequent

Feb. 3-4 | TBA | Swimming and diving | Air Power Invitational | @Colorado Springs, Colorado

Feb. 3 | 6 p.m. | Ladies’s basketball | vs. Portland | @Portland

Feb. 3 | 8 p.m. | Males’s basketball | vs. San Francisco | @Provo

Feb. 5 | 8 p.m. | Males’s basketball | vs. Gonzaga | @Provo

Feb. 5 | 2 p.m. | Ladies’s basketball | vs. Gonzaga | @Spokane

Post a Comment

Previous Post Next Post