BYU Men's Basketball: Cougars Spread Ball Around, Beat Up on Longwood

The mantra going around BYU Basketball this year is all about "identity."  Last year, if you blinked you were likely to miss something awesome that Jimmer was about to do. 

BYU slung the ball from all over the court as they climbed all over slower teams and Dave Rose would sit on the side with his hand on his chin like he saw this kind of stuff every day.

Gosh we miss Jimmer.

This team has no identity and Friday night against Longwood that was not necessarily a bad thing.

Everybody who touched the court scored and players that were expected to be decoys became key players as BYU beat up on the Lancers 92-60.

I know it was just Longwood, but there were times when Dave Rose stuck four freshmen out on the court and let them see what they could do.

They tore it up.

Brandon Davies spent most of the game on the bench.  He is BYU's flashiest player and Longwood keyed in on that early.  They shut Davies down and forced Dave Rose to bring in freshman Josh Sharp.  Sharp made his case for more playing time as his aggressive play was key on several defensive possessions.

Noah Hartsock did not disappoint in his appointed role of cohesion and Charles Abouo was omnipresent as he racked up 19 points and 16 rebounds to lead the Cougars.

We could have predicted all that up to this point.

What we couldn't have predicted was how the freshmen were going to do.

Anson Winder had five assists as he played more minutes that he had in the rest of his career combined; player of the game in my opinion.  He hustled, rebounded, scored and spread the ball around.  If he can prove in future games that this wasn't just an anomaly then Dave Rose might be on to something.

Demarcus Harrison looks good no matter what he does.  He has a smooth stroke from outside and can get to the basket and even if he never can finish at the rim, he still looks good doing it.  If he can figure out how to make some of those easy lay-ups go in, watch out.

Nate Austin runs like a man of 6'6" instead of a gargantuan 6'11".  His defense is phenomenal and once he realizes that all he has to do to score is reach up a bit, he's going to be incredible.

Dave Rose is one of the best coaches in the country.  He knows which guys are hot and he keeps them on the floor.  Once he found a combination that kept scoring, that was what he stayed with.  Moving Brock Zysltra to shooting guard was inspired.  Craig Cusick is a much better ball-handler and showed that he can score sometimes too. 

With a coach like Dave Rose, BYU won't be under the radar long.  Once they figure out their identity they'll be tough to stop.