“Lite”

When Life Gives You Lemons…
It’s Lemonade Time for BYU Basketball

A few decades ago, I had season basketball tickets next to a very nice couple. They were refined, genteel, and well spoken. The were the epitome of a Provo patron at BYU basketball games. The husband never said anything. His wife was also quite docile and demure in her comments.

At the time, BYU actually had a very, very good basketball team. It included the likes of Danny Ainge, Fred Roberts and Greg Kite.

In the wife’s mind she always thought Kite, despite having a nice BYU and NBA career, just wasn’t active enough or involved enough in the games. However, her harshest criticism of Kite was, and I quote: “Ooh! I’d like to give him a couple of  before he plays.”

In the spirit of post-Christmas giving, I don’t have any , to pep up BYU’s current basketball status, but I do offer some of the greatest “Keep your Chin Up” quotes that might work for the team and fan base.

There is still a chance BYU can win the WCC and make the NCAA Dance?
                                                                                                         Jim Carrey – Dumb and Dumber

I’d like to focus on two of the optimistic quotes from above as they pertain to BYU Basketball. John Wooden is a name we should probably listen to. “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do”, is what he said. 

That seems especially appropriate with pre-conference scheduling. Keep the fan base optimistic by continuing past patterns of scheduling patsies like Northwestern State and Alabama A&M at home and not Nevada and Mississippi State on the road. It prolongs the illusion that BYU is a good basketball team early in the year, until league play starts in January.

Roseanne Barr saying, “You can always get better. Nobody can stop you from getting better, and nobody can stop you from trying to make something right.” Those are encouraging words for the BYU basketball program.

Here’s another Barr quote that is more applicable to Tom Holmoe and the current BYU basketball situation. Barr said, “As a housewife, I feel if the kids are still alive when my husband gets home from work, then hey, I’ve done my job.”

Will the program still be alive in 2021 when the newly renewed Dave Rose contract is now set to expire?

Normally a nondescript WCC schedule is the perfect answer to any preseason ailments BYU basketball has. Not this year. The league is loaded with improved teams. I don’t include the Cougars in that assessment.

Just a thought. I don’t know if Holmoe can keep the program alive until 2021, but he could at least load up on  and start passing it out to pep up the patrons that will still be attending and watching games. Three 12-packs should be all he needs.

It’s either that or bring Greg Kite back to rebound and block out. Now 57 years old, I’m of the opinion that he would have been a much better rebounder of the ball than was shown by the current front court of BYU against Mississippi State.

This week’s BYU Basketball Television Timetable is sponsored by Alexander Pope. You might remember his famous quote. “Hope springs eternal.”

Television Timetable

BYU vs. Pacific (M Basketball)
Thursday, January 3 at Stockton
Tipoff: 9:00 pm MST
TV: ESPNU
BYU vs. Saint Mary’s (M Basketball)
Saturday, January 5 at Moraga
Tipoff: 9:00 pm MST
TV: ESPN2

Hopefully Good Story Will Equal Good Player

We won’t really know who the best players will be from BYU’s recent recruiting class they signed this month.

I think we might know who has one of the best, if not best recruiting stories, however.

That would be Eric Ellison. Click here to read his story. Just a hint. It runs through the University of Utah.

It Was a Cougar Triple Combination Touchdown Sunday for Former BYU Players in the NFL

Click here to watch.

The Deseret News made a nice compilation of NFL Playoff teams with players with the state of Utah ties. BYU let the list with 8. Click here to read the entire article.