Once again, the delivery of this issue of Cougar Sportsline has been hit and miss. Those that missed are telling me they didn’t receive it. Here it is again with an attached PDF file of the letter. I am still trying to solve this issue. Thanks for your patience.
hb
HB Arnett’s
801 372 - 0819
1391 West 800 South –
Vol. 35, Issue 30 – February 16, 2015
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Fluff and Stuff
It was Harry Callahan, played by Clint Eastwood in the 1983 movie Sudden Impact who said, “Go ahead, make my day.”
Don’t know if Dave Rose said, “Go ahead, make my week,” but BYU certainly did when they announced early last week that they had signed Rose to a 5-year contract extension. Then a few days later, they announced that there would be a renovation and upgrade to the Marriott Center and capped off their Cougar Callahan moment by announcing a new basketball practice facility that will adjoin the current Marriott Center.
These announcements will have a “Sudden Impact” with the Marriott Center renovations set to be ready for the start of next basketball season. The long term impact of the new Marriott Center Annex facility is that it will influence recruiting in a major way. Rose has been promising future recruits that they would have their own practice facility and BYU has now made his word good. Both upgrades and additions are due for completion in the fall of next year, 2016.
It wasn’t all good news for BYU sports fans last week. It was announced that Charles West, one of BYU football’s top signees from a couple of weeks ago, was allegedly involved in an incident that took place before he signed with the Cougars that resulted in his being arrested by Coppell, Texas police. West has been accused of assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony, and possession of marijuana, a class B misdemeanor.
West has a story to tell and has retained an attorney to help him tell his side of the incident. Hopefully this will have a nice ending for West as this deal plays out in the Texas justice system. Depending on how that goes, will determine how or if West will have a go on the BYU roster anytime soon.
Meanwhile, on the public relations front for BYU this hasn’t been a good year for good press. Remember “Sock Gate” and alleged improper benefits. That faded away quickly. Then in December a UFC fight broke out between the Cougars and Memphis. Here’s hoping that this latest incident doesn’t end up being a made for television movie.
Spaghetti Strategy Working for Rose and BYU
Two weeks ago BYU was stuck in fourth place in the West Coast Conference basketball standings with their NCAA tournament hopes sinking fast.
Dave Rose had two proven players in Tyler Haws and Kyle Collinsworth, but this team was lacking a post presence, a defensive presence and rebounding from anyone not named Collinsworth.
Then Rose decided that something had to change. He knew those areas of concern existed for the entire season, but he couldn’t find a way to correct it. Then beginning against LMU, he went to his Spaghetti Strategy. That means he went down his bench and started throwing seldom used players against the wall to see what would stick.
What stuck to the wall of woes for BYU this season was Josh Sharp, Frank Bartley, Ryan Andrus…and finally Corbin Kaufusi.
Those four players have emerged and made BYU a better team. They haven’t made the Cougars a great team and BYU’s chances of making it as an at large selection to the NCAA tournament are still slim to none. But at least the free fall into irrelevance has been halted for the time being.
Rose going to Sharp as a starter the last three games is a genius coaching move. Of course leaving Sharp at the end of the bench for the first 27 games, indicates anything but coaching genius.
It was Rose who told us Kaufusi reminded him of Hakeem Olajuwon before the season began. The 6-10 freshman convert from football is a long way from Olajuwon, but he has at least progressed to the Greg Ostertag stage the last few games.
BYU’s 82-60 win over the Gaels of Saint Mary’s on Thursday was a pasting of a team that has always been pasta al dente to the Cougars. Saint Mary’s has always been a club that is hard for BYU to chew on since they joined the WCC.
That is what made BYU’s marinara mauling and pesto pummeling of the Gaels so fun to watch.
The key was defense, especially in the post on SMC’s outstanding center Brad Waldow. Rose used Kaufusi, Luke Worthington, Ryan Andrus and even Isaac Neilson to hold down the league’s best inside player. Throw in some torrid outside shooting from BYU guards and the shellacking was official.
On Saturday, Pacific was anything but a patsy for the first 30 minutes. It took a scoring surge late by BYU to pull away with a 84-69 victory. The Cougars are now 20-8 on the year and 10-5 in WCC play which puts them in sole possession of third place.
Here are the current Men’s Basketball Standings.
2014-15 Men's Basketball Standings | |||
Team | WCC | PCT | Overall |
14-0 | 1.000 | 26-1 | |
11-3 | .786 | 19-6 | |
10-5 | .667 | 20-8 | |
8-7 | .533 | 15-11 | |
7-7 | .500 | 16-10 | |
7-8 | .467 | 14-13 | |
5-9 | .357 | 11-15 | |
4-10 | .286 | 10-16 | |
4-11 | .267 | 8-19 | |
2-12 | .143 | 10-16 | |
BYU will face San Diego in the Cougars last regular season home game on Thursday. The game will be telecast live on ESPNU with tipoff at 8:00 pm MST.
Women in Fourth Place in WCC
After losing two on the road this past weekend Saint Mary’s and Pacific, the BYU women now find themselves in 4th place in the league standings. The Lady Cougars will stay on the road this week to face San Diego in Southern California and then finish their regular season with two games at home against Portland and Gonzaga. The Ladies lost in overtime to Saint Mary’s 76-71 and also fell to Pacific 86-82.
2014-15 Women's Basketball Standings | |||
Team | WCC | PCT | Overall |
14-0 | 1.000 | 21-4 | |
11-3 | .786 | 18-7 | |
11-4 | .733 | 20-5 | |
11-4 | .733 | 19-7 | |
10-4 | .714 | 18-7 | |
5-9 | .357 | 14-11 | |
4-10 | .286 | 9-14 | |
2-12 | .143 | 4-21 | |
2-13 | .133 | 7-19 | |
2-13 | .133 | 4-22 | |
Softball Better
BYU Baseball Off to Shaky Start
UC Santa Barbara scored 1 more run than their current national baseball ranking in sweeping BYU in the first three games of a four-game series on Friday and Saturday.
The No. 16th ranked Gauchos gouged Cougar pitching in the first two contests 8-1 and 6-0. BYU made it closer in the Saturday nitecap, but still lost their third straight 3-1. BYU will then head to Arizona to face No. 19th Nebraska in Peoria
Meanwhile the BYU softball team ran their record to 6-4 after taking 5-of-6 games this past week in a tournament in Las Vegas. The Lady Cougs beat Hawaii 5-4, Northwestern 5-1, UNLV 6-5, UTEP 9-0 and lost to Cal State Fullerton 11-0.
BYU Volleyball Splits with USC, Now in Three-Way Tie for First
BYU kept pace with USC and UC Irvine this last weekend by splitting a pair of matches with the Trojans in Los Angeles. The Cougars lost on Friday in five sets, 20-25, 21-25, 25-16, 25-23, 16-4 in a heartbreaker match. The followed that match with a 4 set win over the Trojans on Saturday, 25-20, 25-19, 23-25 and 25-19.
Here are the latest MPSF Standings:
M P S F | O V E R A L L | ||||||||||||
| TEAM | W | L | PCT | HOME | AWAY | W | L | PCT | HOME | AWAY | NEUT | STREAK |
USC | 8 | 2 | .800 | 5-1 | 3-1 | 9 | 2 | .818 | 5-1 | 4-1 | 0-0 | L1 | |
BYU | 8 | 2 | .800 | 6-0 | 2-2 | 9 | 3 | .750 | 6-0 | 2-2 | 1-1 | W1 | |
UC Irvine | 8 | 2 | .800 | 4-2 | 4-0 | 13 | 3 | .813 | 6-3 | 5-0 | 2-0 | W4 | |
Pepperdine | 7 | 2 | .778 | 3-0 | 4-2 | 11 | 2 | .846 | 5-0 | 6-2 | 0-0 | L1 | |
Hawaii | 6 | 2 | .750 | 3-1 | 3-1 | 9 | 3 | .750 | 6-2 | 3-1 | 0-0 | W2 | |
Long Beach State | 5 | 4 | .556 | 2-2 | 3-2 | 8 | 4 | .667 | 2-2 | 3-2 | 3-0 | W1 | |
UCSB | 4 | 5 | .444 | 2-2 | 2-3 | 8 | 5 | .615 | 6-2 | 2-3 | 0-0 | W2 | |
Stanford | 3 | 6 | .333 | 1-1 | 2-5 | 4 | 9 | .308 | 2-3 | 2-6 | 0-0 | W1 | |
CSUN | 3 | 6 | .333 | 2-3 | 1-3 | 5 | 8 | .385 | 3-3 | 1-3 | 1-2 | L3 | |
UCLA | 2 | 5 | .286 | 1-2 | 1-3 | 6 | 5 | .545 | 2-2 | 1-3 | 3-0 | L1 | |
Cal Baptist | 1 | 10 | .091 | 1-7 | 0-3 | 3 | 11 | .214 | 1-8 | 2-3 | 0-0 | L7 | |
UC San Diego | 0 | 9 | .000 | 0-4 | 0-5 | 1 | 12 | .077 | 0-6 | 1-6 | 0-0 | L12 | |
Standings through 2/14
TV Timetable
BYU vs. San Diego
Thursday, February 19 at Provo
Tipoff: 7:00 pm MST
TV: ESPNU
BYU vs. Long Beach State (Men’s VB)
Friday, February 19 at Provo
Start: 8:00 pm MST
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs. Long Beach State (Men’s VB)
Saturday, February 20 at Provo
Start: 7:00 pm MST
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs. Portland
Thursday, February 26 at Portland
Tipoff: 8:00 pm MST
TV: Root Sports
BYU vs. Portland (Women’s BB)
Thursday, February 26 at Provo
Tipoff: 7:00 pm MST
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs. Ball State (Men’s VB)
Friday, February 27 at Provo
Start: 7:00 pm MST
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs. Gonzaga
Saturday, February 28 at Spokane
Start: TBA
TV: ESPN or ESPN2
BYU vs. Gonzaga (Women’s BB)
Saturday, February 28 at Provo
Tipoff: 2:00 pm MST
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs. Ball State (Men’s VB)
Saturday, February 28 at Provo
Start: 7:00 pm MST
TV: BYUtv