The USU game and what I think of the Jazz post trade so far, bonus mwc talk

I haven't been able to watch the Jazz but one quarter this weekend.  So I can't apply the eye test to them after the trade.  I was at the Utah State game tonight and I have continued to notice a trend that we only play one good half.  Maybe I could say we only play one dominate half.  Since I went to the USU game I'll start with that first.

We shot very well tonight and hence we won.  I was actually a lot more impressed at times with Idaho's defense but after we made a few shots it just crumbled.  You can look to that middle of the first half run to see when that really happened.  Tai has really shown the ability to make to finish around the hoop lately.  Hes finished with 20+ in the last 4 of 6 games.  We are a totally different beast when hes finishing around the hoop.  

About the half part, it seems like we lately have just dominated one half against a team and then we play them about even in the other half.  Take this game for example while you could tell we were the better team in the second half the first half was where we shined.  We really cracked down on defense and we made a adjustments on offense.  I especially liked Newbold in the post that was interesting.  I believe all 6 of his points were scored that way.  

It was fun to rush the court even if it was completely unnecessary.  As far as I know this senior class has never had the crowd rush the court.  I was only around for their freshmen year though.  I thought it was fitting to do it in revenge for how Idaho celebrated.  It doesn't show a lot of class but it was fun at least.  Cutting down the nets was nice since frankly you don't get to do it very often.  Stew cutting down part of the net was my favorite part.  

I find it interesting that the Jazz's system makes players look better at least on the state line.  We lost tonight, but Favors had 10 points, 2 rebounds, 1 block, and Harris had 17 points, 2 rebounds, and 12 assists.  Not bad for only practicing once with the team.  I would like to see more rebounds out of Favors, but I'll talk about that more when I actually get to see him play.  I see him right now as how Millsap was his rookie year.  He has 2 inches on Millsap though and is more athletic.  I would like to see a steal out of Harris too, when he was at his best he was averaging 1.7 steals a game and I would love to see him put up close to those numbers for the jazz.  Congratulations on the 12 assists, definitely what to see that consistently.

I still continue to think that we won't make the playoffs.  I know after last nights game it felt like we were going to go to the playoffs.  And then we lost to a 21 win Detroit team and its back to earth.  Jazz went from playing great defense to a high scoring affair and got lite up by Austin Daye.  We might still be bound for the lottery like I hoped.  We just aren't playing good basketball at the moment.  The problem is I just don't know whats really wrong.  Its not the slow starts anymore.  We'll show up eventually.  If only we had a healthy Okur, you have to really wonder what that would do.

Also I know BYU and SDSU are both rated in the top 10 and looking great.  Except I think they are both overrated.  Besides BYU beating Arizona, it think between them they both have no great wins.  Even that BYU win doesn't look so good tonight as Arizona got stomped by UCLA.  Interestingly enough thats the first team to beat BYU.  Now I will say that none of them have bad losses.  SDSU did show that it was willing to show a good resume by playing on the road a lot in non conference.  I present though the problem if you put them in the big east how do you think they would do.  Would they look like top 10 teams in that conference.  I think thats a flat out no.  Honestly if I was to put them against the top 10 teams in the big east I would bet on the big east teams.  Do I think either of those teams could be any of those teams yes, but I they would look more like a fringe top 25 teams and not top 10 teams.  Oh and those St. Mary's and Gonzaga wins don't look so great at the moment either.

Also it kinda reminds me that when Ohio State and Michigan were ranked 1 and 2 in the nation.  Everybody thought they were the two best teams.  Then the heisman trophy winner Troy Smith and Ohio State got killed by LSU.  Michigan also went to on to lose badly to USC in its bowl game.  While good teams they weren't what they thought they were and so is BYU and SDSU.