HB Arnett’s
COUGAR SPORTSLINE
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hbarnett@fiber.net and hbarnett@xmission.com
Vol. 29,
Issue 33 – March 16, 2009
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COUGARS
SET TO DANCE THE
BYU is going
dancing and they will be doing the Texas Two Step.
Step one was last
year in the NCAA basketball tournament when the Cougars were paired with the
Aggies of Texas A&M in
Step two also
involves the Aggies.
The Aggies and
Cougars will be facing each other again this year.
Both drew the same
seeds as last season. BYU is an eighth seed and the Aggies are rated as a ninth
seed.
The teams are
pretty much the same. The big difference is the venue of the game.
It will be in
Here is how the
matchup played out last year.
Texas A&M beat
BYU 67-62. They did it with Josh Carter, a 6-7 Aggie wing, torching the Cougars
with 26 points. He did it on 6-of-7 three-point shooting in the first half of
the game.
In case you forgot
about Carter, here is a scary reminder from last week in the Mountain West
Conference tournament in
That was where
Bigger
Think Lorenzo
Wade, only bigger.
Just like Carter,
Wade lit up BYU with 24 points and BYU never recovered.
We look for BYU to
defend the talented Carter better this time around, but make no mistake; he is
a major mismatch for BYU and Dave Rose and his staff.
The other area
where the Cougars will have to improve dramatically in this rematch is in
rebounding.
Texas A&M
dominated the boards last year by a 37-25 margin.
For BYU to improve
in this department, it will mean that Chris Miles will have to improve.
Last year, Miles
played just 11 minutes against the Aggies. He had zero rebounds.
Here is how bad
the rebounding was. Jimmer Fredette, along with Trent Plaisted, led the Cougars
in rebounds with 5 apiece.
Here is another
area in need of improvement the second time around.
BYU needs to find
a way to get to the free throw line.
Last year BYU only
shot 14 free throws against Texas A&M. To exacerbate those dismal numbers,
they made just 50 percent of those attempts.
Line and
Ledger
On the other side
of the ledger and line, A&M shot just 17 free throws. That means it was a
jump shooting game with the Aggies in general, and Josh Carter in particular,
hitting a higher percentage of shots than the Cougars.
A&M shot 50
percent from the field and the Cougars could only manage 31.8 percent from the
floor.
That can't happen
again. If it does, BYU will lose again.
Chris Miles and
Noah Hartsock have both made some significant improvement in the late stages of
the season, but BYU is still not strong enough in the post to pose any serious
danger to opponents in the NCAA tourney.
That means for BYU
to win, they will have to do so with their outside shooting.
While we still
consider Lee Cummard as BYU's best player, we don't expect him to be a big
scorer in this game.
His history in big
games is one of hiding in the scorebook.
The scoring load
will have to come from Jimmer Fredette and Jonathan Tavernari.
Both guys will
have to have good shooting and scoring nights. If they don't, BYU will again go
down in defeat.
As the jump shots
go, so go the Cougars.
Shooting
Clip
BYU currently
sports a 25-7 record. For the season, BYU is shooting at a .487 clip from the
floor and .380 from beyond the arc.
In the seven
losses, BYU has shot just .437 from the floor and only .339 from the three
point line.
To win, BYU will
need to have one of its better shooting games against Texas A&M.
They need to knock
down outside shots to keep from getting knocked out of the tournament early.
BYU is an outside
shooting team. If they can't do that, they can't win.
BYU's tournament history
is not awe inspiring. The last time BYU won an NCAA game was in 1993 when they
defeated SMU.
BYU's overall NCAA
tournament play record is 11-26. They have lost their last 6 NCAA first round
games, losing to Tulane,
The Aggies
finished with a 23-9 record and tied for fourth place in the Big XII conference
race.
Common
Opponents
BYU and Texas
A&M have played two common opponents in Rice and
BYU beat Rice
83-52 in
Here are what the
opposing coaches, Dave Rose and Mark Turgeon of Texas A&M had to say about
the matchup.
"My initial
reaction is I am a little disappointed...for our league. This was a terrific
league and it was as good as it has been. To have one at large berth is a
little disappointing", said Rose.
Commenting on the
No. 8 seed, Rose said, "I think we were really fortunate. We are real
fortunate to get ourselves a good spot. We are playing a familiar team. They
lost a few players from last year and so have we. But I think that some times
when you get in a tournament situation that familiarity helps your confidence.
So we will see what happens."
Turgeon of A&M
had this to say about playing BYU in the first round for the second year in a
row, "That's really surprising. One, we're just really glad we're in, but
to play the same team with the exact same seeds...the NCAA usually doesn't do
that so when I saw their name come up I thought that it wasn't us because I
thought we were right around the 8-9-10 line. It takes a little bit away from
it, I'm sure they felt the same way," said Turgeon.
"We're a
different team, we lost 4 of our top 8 players from that team. I know they lost
their big kid in the middle. We know who they got. Cummard was a tough guard
for us last year. Fredette had a good game against us and Tavernari will be a
tough match up for us. He's a Singletary type (Mike Singletary scored 43 points
in leading Texas Tech to a 88-83 win over A&M in the first round of the Big
XII tourney last week), not to bring up any bad memories, but he can really
shoot it."
"I didn't
think the NCAA would have the same first round matchup as last year. They just
don't do that. But, that's what it is. It's in a different location, a little
further from their home.
COUGARS
MAKE FINAL FOUR
You don't often
hear BYU and the words "Final Four" in the same sentence, but this
year appears to be special for the Cougars.
BYU is only one of
four non-BCS conference basketball teams to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA
basketball tournament.
BYU joins Xavier,
The Cougars will
get a perfunctory dance with Texas A&M in
They will also get
a nice parting-gift check for their appearance at this country club social function,
but by no means will they get an invitation of membership to join the club.
BYU being invited
is a nice token, and takes a little public relations heat off the BCS boys when
they compile the guest list, but you know you are still an outsider.
We don't claim to
be a geneticist, but we know how it works.
Those with similar
DNA and dollars take care of their own to make sure those dollars stay in the
same gene pool and bottom lines of the BCS country club membership.
Mutant
On a rare occasion
a mutant will crop up and spoil the party like George Mason did a few years
ago, but it is considered a freakish occurrence and not what the BCS family
patriarchs had planned.
Family comes
first. They take care of their own.
In football, it is
all about the BCS family. In basketball, the nomenclature is nicer, but the
same principles apply. Families take care of their own and make sure the money
monopoly stays in the BCS bloodlines.
You may think it
is totally unfair, but it is factual. If you don't believe it, check out your
will and see if my name appears anywhere in it.
I didn't think so.
Despite the fact that I am a decent dancer and conversationalist, I don't have
the right DNA to deserve any of your family dollars.
That is how it
works in life and NCAA football and basketball.
BYU usually has no
problem being considered as an invited outsider to the BCS balls, but until
they alter their genetic make up and conference alignment, they are never
seriously considered to go very deep on the dance card because of their DNA
deficiencies.
Partner
Texas A&M is
the designated dancing partner for the Cougars from the BCS invitation
committee again this year. They will be charged with making the Cougars feel
welcome and as if they belong. They will be hospitable and keep BYU faithful
hopeful that things have changed, but in the end, it is the Aggies' job to make
sure BYU gets its one and done dance and doesn't become another George Mason
mutant and stay around long enough to dilute the DNA and dollar pool.
Those are the
facts as we see them athletically, genetically and financially. If you
disagree, that will make me extremely happy. It means there might be a chance
that I could be considered as a beneficiary of your will and family fortune.
I will wait for
the call from your attorney to let me know when the reading of that will takes
place. Meanwhile, I can't deny my own die-hard DNA as a Cougar fan.
That is why I have
waited patiently for the Cougars to dance deep in the tournament and hope this
is the year that BYU becomes a money-making mutant in the NCAA tournament.
This is the year.
I can feel it in my die-hard Cougar DNA, but not my dollars.
My DNA tells me
the Cougars are a lock for at least a sweet sixteen performance. My dollars and
the fact that I have not wagered any of the same, tell me the opposite.
I may be a
die-hard, but I am not dumb. I need to save those dollars for my family, just
like the BCS boys do.
WOULD
YOU TAKE GUARD PLAY OR POST PLAY?
The NCAA
tournament axiom says that good guard play is what it takes to win games in the
prestigious tourney.
That should bode
well for BYU this time around because, in our opinion, BYU has its best guards
in years.
Jimmer Fredette
has proven that he can create his own shot and is the first Cougar guard in
what seems like forever that can penetrate and get to the front of the rim.
He gives Dave Rose
and the Cougars a legitimate chance to score when all other sets and options
have broken down.
While BYU has made
a case for itself that it can win a piece of the conference with good guard
play,
Luke Nevill was
recently named the MWC offensive and defensive player of the year.
In case you missed
it, Lee Cummard and Jimmer Fredette were also selected to the MWC all
conference first team.
Nevill simply
carried a roster of role players to a piece of the conference regular season
crown and MWC post season tourney.
It is a familiar
Coaching seems to
not be relevant. With Andrew Bogut was playing, Ray Giacolletti took the Utes
to the sweet sixteen.
After Bogut left
for the NBA, Giacolletti was subsequently let go.
While guard play is
needed, we still think the game is won inside in the post.
It isn't a
coincidence that when
We think they will
have another fling with good fortune this year with Nevill, another first round
NBA center.
The bottom line?
We think that if coaches had to choose between a good post or a good guard,
they would take the post a vast majority of the time.
Good guards are
plentiful. A good-to-great center and low post scorer and defender are very
hard to find.
SPRING
FOOTBALL BEGINS THIS WEEK
Football is still
the cash cow in BYU's athletic department. Despite the current excitement for
Cougar basketball and its NCAA invite, it is football that butters the BYU
bread.
Because of BYU
basketball, the butter will have to wait a week before we churn it out for
spring football drills which begin this week in
Bronco Mendenhall
and his staff will spend the next few weeks looking to re-tool the offensive
line and finding some safties and linebackers that can play and contribute.
We will have
details and designs on how the Cougars expect to do that this spring beginning
with our issue for next week.
SPRING
SPORTS
It is still cold
in
The Cougars have
gone 8-2 in their recent home stand. That puts BYU at 10-7 overall on the year
and at 2-1 in conference play.
The two league
wins came over
In softball, BYU
is still having some early-season inconsistencies as evidenced by their current
16-13 record.
In track, the
story is much more upbeat. On the women's side of the oval, the Lady Cougars
produced two national champions in the recently completed NCAA Indoor
Championship in
Freshman Lacey
Cramer won the 800-meter race and joined fellow teammate Amy Menlove, who won
the pentathlon national championship the day before.
It marked the
first time that the BYU women were able to capture two national titles in the
same meet.
BYU finished third
in the overall championship meet. The Cougars racked up 33 points to trail only
On the men's side,
things weren't so rosy. BYU finished No. 41 in the team standings.
TELEVISION
TIMETABLE
BYU vs.
Thursday, March 19 at
Tipoff: 10:30 Mountain
Time
TV: CBS