HB Arnett’s
COUGAR SPORTSLINE
801
372 0819
hbarnett@fiber.net and hbarnett@xmission
Vol. 28,
Issue 1, August 6, 2007
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extra.
IT'S
REALLY JUST A THREE-GAME SEASON
The problem with
Bronco raising the bar for BYU football is that he has also raised the
expectations of Cougar fans.
The 2007 season
shows 12 games to be played by BYU. But with the bar raised, it is really just
a 3 game season within a season that will make or break BYU football this year.
How Bronco and his
boys do in these three games will determine if BYU fans remain invested,
invigorated and interested.
Let's break down
the schedule and see if you don't agree.
The three games
that really matter include one at the start of the season and two at the end of
the season.
In between is just
busy work.
Let's start with
the busy work which totals eight games. They include five games on the road
against
We can count at
least 5 absolute gimme games against this group. Quite frankly, anything less
than a 7-1 mark against these opponents would be extremely disappointing. If we
had to pick a loss here, we would most likely check the weather forecast for a
possible blizzard in
Loss in
We have already
penciled in a loss to UCLA. The Cougars and Bruins will face off in the Rose
Bowl on Sept. 8. With a loss to the Bruins and a law of averages loss to some
team in the busy work section of the schedule, that puts the Cougars on track
to a repeat record of 11-2.
That means the
meat and potatoes of the season and the measuring stick of the program in 2007
will be determined against the three remaining teams on the schedule.
That would be
All three games
are in
Nobody really
knows how good BYU will be this year. On paper, it looks promising, but in the
history books, it looks suspect. When BYU rolls out a new quarterback, it has
not been a banner year. The lone exception to that rule is 1984 when Robbie
Bosco, in his first year as a starter, led BYU to a national championship.
We like Max Hall,
but we would like him better if he had actually taken a snap in a Division I
football game.
That is our early
assessment of the season, but we expect it to change as fall camp unfolds and
there is actually something to evaluate and report.
Those assessments
will start in next week's letter after BYU has a week of practice under its
belt.
FOOTBALL FLUFF AND STUFF
Since Bronco
Mendenhall has injected a little ecclesiastical element into the football
program, so will we. We have a subscriber from
Why he takes the
letter is still puzzling, but we have had many interesting and enjoyable
conversations during the years. The best came just last week when he confessed
that after watching the BYU-Utah game last year and repeatedly being subjected
to replays of the Beck-to-Harline finish, he finally can comprehend the LDS
doctrinal concept of "time and all eternity".
In case you missed
it, Bronco Mendenhall was given a contract extension and pay raise by BYU. We
thought BYU paying market value for a coach was a sure sign of the last days,
but then we remembered that BYU administrators were probably just complying
with the new minimum wage standards that went into effect last month.
Bronco did a very
nice job giving LDS firesides around the West earlier this year. Kyle
Whittingham has followed suit.
Well not exactly,
but Whittingham and his family spoke in Sacrament meeting just a two weeks ago
in their new ward where they recently moved. Again, according to a subscriber
and former mission president who lives in that ward, they did a very good job.
We know we are in
a BYU minority in this opinion, but Whittingham is actually a very good coach
and a very good guy. We now rejoin the BYU majority, however, because we still
hope he loses every game he coaches at
The fact that BYU
plays
It was a Pac 10
crew that worked that game. Pac 10 officials won't be working the game again in
The officials will
be from the Big 12. We have a family connection with one of the crew that will
be working the UofA-BYU game. He lives in
A few years back,
he also worked a Utah-Arizona game in
Ty Detmer will
have his number retired during halftime of the BYU-Arizona game. Gifford
Nielsen will also be honored in the same ceremony. Both wore #14 while playing
for the Cougars.
TELEVISION
TIMETABLE
BYU vs.
Saturday, Sept. 1 at
Kickoff: 3:30 pm,
Mountain Time
TV: Versus Network
BYU vs.
UCLA
Saturday, Sept. 8 at
Kickoff: 4:30 pm Mountain
Time
TV: Versus Network
BYU vs.
Saturday, Sept. 14 at
Kickoff: 7:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: CSTV
SUMMER
SUMMARY OF BYU BASKETBALL
Now that BYU
started football camp last Saturday, you can expect the next newsletters to be
all football, all the time. It will take about a week and several days of
practice before there is anything real to write.
Before we do, now
seems like a good time to catch up on BYU Basketball during the summer.
The months of
April and July are actually the two most critical months when it comes to
recruiting. Forget the high school basketball seasons. They mean very little
these days. When it comes to recruiting and evaluation and deciding who will
get precious scholarships, that was basically decided last month during the AAU
tournaments held around the country.
Summer
Squatting
If you want know
where BYU's recruiting interest lies for the future, all you need to do is
follow Dave Rose around in July and see which summer tournament games he
attends.
The last two weeks
of July says plenty about where Rose and BYU's focus is in recruiting.
He and his
assistant coaches attended every game of 6-9 Jeremy Olsen. He is at Collins
Hills HS in
This LDS prospect
was playing on the Worldwide Renegades AAU team. He was also playing against
some of the elite AAU teams in the country.
It was a little
hard to get a handle on him because in the three games we saw, he probably had
less than ten touches. His teammates were reluctant to get him the ball.
He does have a
mid-range game, but against the elite athletes we saw, he is a mediocre
rebounder and has some serious defensive liabilities against bigs who have
quickness.
That said, he is a
player who would flourish at BYU.
His recruitment
will not be a slam dunk. He has programs like Ole Miss, Xavier and
In games we saw he
had at least one of his family entourage who attended the games in
Michael Boswell is
another 6-9 player that BYU bird-dogged in
Hot On
Haws
There is no
question that BYU's biggest recruiting target for the near future will be Tyler
Haws, the 6-5 guard from Lone Peak HS in
His summer play
include a Lone Peak team stop at North Carolina and appearances in Long Beach
and a late stop in Las Vegas in July where Dave Rose was front and center for
all seven games.
Of course so was
Jim Boylen, the new coach of
Haws will be a
junior this coming season and based on his play this summer, will definitely
end up being a national recruit.
He was at his best
late in July when he played for the Salt Lake Metro Prospects in Hal Pastner's
Las Vegas Summer Classic.
The SL Metro team
had just seven players, four from Lone Peak HS and three from Pleasant Grove
HS.
They were coached
by Marty Haws, the former Cougar basketball player and father of
They breezed
through pool play without breaking a sweat and then dominated in bracket play,
which is basically a one and done tournament which featured all other
undefeated teams from their respective pools.
Playing in the top
Platinum bracket, they defeated the Fairfield Ballers from Northern California
75-67, beat a very talented Arizona Stars Bibby team from Arizona 95-84 and
also whipped a good local
That got them to
the championship game against Cecil-Kirk, a team from
Here are Haws'
stats for those last four games:
Ballers; 3pt=0-0,
2pt=10-17, FT=4-6, Total
Pts=24, Rebs=4
The players from
Lone Peak HS on the Salt Lake Metro Prospects team included Haws, Josh Sharp,
Kimball Payne and Nate Austin.
Another
Also on the Salt
Lake Metro Prospects team were C.J. Wilcox and his cousin, LeSean Wilcox from
Pleasant Grove HS. Both played well in
They are both
juniors this coming year. C.J. is the son of former Cougar basketball player
Craig Wilcox. He signed out of
While this appears
to be a lean 2008 recruiting class for LDS basketball prospects, there is no
question that it picks up dramatically from here with top junior LDS prospects
Haws and Olsen. Throw in Sean Carey of
You can even go
one class deeper to find top notch LDS prospects. BYU spent time watching and
have already expressed major interest in a player who has yet to play a minute
of high school basketball.
Last year Jordan
McLelland, a 6-3 shooting guard, played at Stapley Jr. High in
This year he will
be a sophomore at Mountain View HS. He has already made a name for himself this
past spring and summer while playing for the Arizona Magic Blue AAU team. BYU,
European
Tour
Dave Rose and his
BYU basketball squad will embark later this month for
This is part of
the NCAA rule that allows teams to tour internationally once every four years.
Rose will take his
staff and seven players. New incoming recruits or those who have never been on
the roster are not allowed to participate.
Those headed to
Miles returned last
Wednesday from his LDS mission to
Miles, a 6-10 post
player saw significant minutes as a freshman in 2004-05. There had been some
rumblings that he was not happy at BYU during his freshman year and even some
talk that he might return and enroll elsewhere, but the hiring of Dave Rose and
the success the Cougars have enjoyed in Rose's first two season, cured all
those potential problems.
The trip to
Because the
official practices cannot involve new incoming recruits, and because the
Cougars only have seven players, former Cougars have been recruited to help
scrimmage and participate in practice. Jimmy Balderson, Mike Hall, Keena Young,
and Derek Dawes are just a few former Cougars who are helping out with
practices.
New
Recruits
There are eight new
recruits that are already on campus who have been playing in organized pickup
games. Most of those eight recruits have already been enrolled in school for
this last summer semester.
Only six will show
up on the official roster because they are on scholarship, but two others are
here and participating as invited walkons.
The six new
players with scholarships include Chris Miles, a 6-11 post from Timpview HS in
Provo (Okay, he is a returning player from an LDS mission who played as a true
frosh), James Anderson, a 7-0 post player who signed two years ago out of Page
HS in AZ and just enrolled for the first time after serving an LDS mission and
Chris Collinsworth, a 6-9 forward from Provo HS. He signed with the Cougars
last fall during the early signing period.
Lamont Morgan, a
5-10 point guard from Saddleback JC in
The two remaining
scholarship players include Archie Rose, a 6-5 wing from the
The last
scholarship player is Michael Lloyd, a 6-2 guard from Palo Verde HS in
The two
non-scholarship players who have been participating in workouts are Matt
Pinegar, a 6-2 guard from Timpview HS, and Nick Martineau, a 6-1 point guard
from Davis HS.
Pinegar is
returning from an LDS mission and Martineau will play as a non-scholarship
walkon this year, go on an LDS mission and then return to play with a
grant-in-aid.
Impressions
We have watched
the newcomers play this summer in pickup games against the returning players.
Here are some of our evaluations.
We have always
like what we saw of Jimmer Fredette on tape. We weren't disappointed in person.
He has tried to fit in and curtailed his shooting attempts, but our scouting
report on him remains the same. He has great range on his outside shot and can
also create his own shot. He is strong and can also get to the basket. He will
play this year.
Chris Collinsworth
has been able to consistently hit a mid-range jump shot this summer. That
ability will make him a very good player because he can post up, run the floor
and has some athleticism for his size.
The sleeper and
surprise for us is Archie Rose. This guy is a player and will see minutes this
year. He has some size for a guard and is strong going to the basket. Our
biggest surprise was how well he shoots it from outside. In our opinion, this
guy is the surprise of the recruiting class.
Michael Lloyd and
Lamont Morgan are both guys who will struggle offensively, but both can
penetrate and get to the basket. Their playing time will be situational and depend
on how well they can defend opposing guards with quickness.