HB Arnett’s
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West 800 South –
Vol. 34,
Issue 32 –March 10, 2014
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BYU 85 LMU 74
Cougars Grammar
and Hammer Lions in Quarterfinals
I no never said what I has written over the last 30 plus years in this newsletter is good grammar, but me knows it when I sees it.
Good grammar, with all
its components, is what I saw last Saturday in
If you are keeping score,
good grammar consists of verbs, nouns, pronouns, adverbs,
adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, modifiers and other
terms, which are mostly foreign to a guy like me, a prodigal product of a
I can’t diagram a sentence, but I can diagram BYU’s recent winning streak, including the victory over LMU.
Tyler Haws is the noun around which the Cougars have constructed this winning streak. He is still the focus of this offense and opposing defenses. He was good for 21 points against the Lions.
Anson Winder is the modifier of this winning streak. Dave Rose decision to include Winder as an interjection into the starting lineup a couple of weeks ago is when BYU began its late season run of good basketball. Winder had 16 points and 6 steals against LMU. The modification of Winder into the starting lineup has paid definite dividends for the Cougars.
Dangling
>From Distance
Kyle Collinsworth seems like the perfective adjective. His play describes BYU’s recent winning surge. His outing against LMU was not only descriptive, but devastating to any LMU upset hopes that the Lions held. Collinsworth led all scorers with 23 points and also led both teams with 16 rebounds.
Collinsworth also serves as BYU’s dangling participle. He is a nightmare for opposing coaches who don’t know what to do with him defensively. He can be a go-to guy as a scorer, penetrator, rebounder, and defender. He also is a dangling shooter, where his skills from outside and the foul line sometimes seem to dangle and hang by a thread. He is deadly at the rim, but from 8 feet out, his offensive game leaves a lot of punctuation and points on the table.
Despite leading BYU with 23 points, Collinsworth was just 3-8 from the charity stripe and 0-1 beyond the arc. If he can learn to pick up those dangling participles of his game, he, as LMU coach Max Good said post game, has NBA written all over him.
Matt Carlino provides the
conjunctions
for the Cougars during this current winning streak. Grammatically speaking, a
conjunction is a joiner, a word that connects (conjoins) parts of a sentence.
That’s what Carlino does. He makes it all work. If BYU is struggling, he
comes in and gives the team either an offensive or defensive lift.
When his game is on,
especially offensively, Carlino can go from conjunctive to being a noun,
adjective and definite game modifier in just a few quick minutes.
Prepositions describe the
relationships between other words in a sentence. BYU’s post play does the
same with the rest of the team and its current success. BYU is certainly not dominant
inside, but with the play of Eric Mika, Nate Austin and now Luke Worthington,
they have to be reckoned with by opposing teams.
Without a post presence
offensively and defensively, BYU would be struggling. Basketball is still a
game played by big guys and BYU’s big guys are playing well enough to be
consistent contributors to the current string of wins.
A predicate can be a completer of a sentence. So here’s
my predicate and prediction for
BYU in the coming week. The Cougars will win the WCC post season tournament and
get an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament come selection Sunday on March 16.
Grammar that Gonzaga and
WOMEN’S
WINDOW NOT AS LARGE AS MEN’S
BYU’s women’s
window to the NCAA tournament is not as big as the Cougar men’s window.
The men still have a
chance to get to the tourney if they can win one more game. For the women, they
will need to win the WCC post season tournament to make the final field.
That won’t be an
easy task for this group. They are playing good basketball, but they now face
Pacific and Gonzaga, both of whom they must defeat to keep playing meaningful
games.
I like BYU’s
chances against the Tigers of UOP, but Gonzaga is tougher than BYU and will
have a game plan to take away BYU’s best options in Jennifer Hamson and
Lexi Eaton.
That’s just who
Gonzaga is and how they play and are coached. There is always a chance for an
upset, but not a big chance.
The Lady Cougars have had
a nice season. With the win over Pepperdine last Friday, they are currently
25-5 on the year. Pacific is now 18-11 and Gonzaga is 26-4.
Spring Football
Strengths
Critiquing spring
football practice at BYU is like critiquing a movie before scenes are shot and
editing done for the final product.
Bronco Mendenhall has
some seasoned stars signed for leading roles, but nobody, including the BYU
coach, knows what he will have as a team, until he gets a full cast of new
recruits and returned missionaries on board in the fall.
That said, if a preview
and trailer was produced to entice viewers and BYU football fans to get excited
about the 2014 BYU football movie, here is what would be included and featured.
The running game. BYU has
two proven stars that can rush the football. That would be Taysom Hill and Jamaal
Williams. Their numbers last year were blockbuster, especially when you
consider what they produced on the ground without the supporting cast of an
offensive line.
You can count on Hill and
Williams being pampered and protected from danger and harm this spring. Why
expose them to paparazzi and pounding when they have nothing to prove?
A key ingredient of
filmmaking is watching “dailies”. They are the raw, unedited
footage shot during the making of a motion picture. These dailies are watch by
the director after each day of shooting.
Heresy
I know this might sound
like heresy, but the first “dailies” of spring drills that Bronco
Mendenhall and his defensive staff are watching would indicate that cornerback
might be the strongest and deepest spot on the roster for next fall.
Let me repeat that for
long time followers of BYU football like myself. Cornerback could be the
strongest and deepest position on the team. That’s like saying Harry Reid
and Nancy Pelosi are now Republicans.
This will require a major
adjustment for Cougar fans when watching a game. Now instead of always looking
10-15 yards down field away from the line of scrimmage to find BYU corners,
they won’t be there.
Press coverage is what
movie stars and their agents want and it is also what BYU can now play with its
corners. The ripple effect will make Mendenhall giddy while putting together
his defensive game plans.
With corners that can
cover, it means that Bronco can bring more pressure from the outside and blitz
more frequently. He has to be licking his chops over his corners.
So who has Bronco
salivating? Let’s start with the return of two proven players. Robertson
Daniels showed he can play last year. Jordan Johnson was BYU’s best
corner two years ago. Daniels is back and so is Johnson, who will return in the
fall, completely healed from his knee surgery.
Throw in Trent Trammel,
who was slated to start last season before busting up his knee last spring. He
is back and making waves. New incoming freshman Michael Shelton from
Look for Mendenhall to
produce a defensive football film this fall that won’t be
pretty…especially for opposing offensive coordinators.
Moving Bronson Kaufusi to
outside linebacker should make him a pass rushing force off the edge. The key
for him will hinge on being productive in pass coverage. His role will be
limited, but as long as he isn’t a liability, this move could be a good
one for Mendenhall.
Skinny
Here’s the skinny
on Alani Fua, the other returning outside linebacker. He’s still skinny.
Thick or thin, however, he can play and doesn’t need to prove himself
this spring. He is on the endangered species and special player list this spring.
On the defensive line,
Bronco is going with a cast of thousands. As of one week of spring ball, there
are no bona fide stars, but plenty of bodies that have Mendenhall smiling and
missionaries returning.
Keep an eye on these
returned missionaries. Graham Rowley, Travis Tuiloma and Kesni Tausinga. Rowley
and Tuiloma both played significant minutes for BYU on the defensive line
before opting for missionary service. Tausinga could be the surprise of the
bunch. When Bronco talks about a player before he has never played a down, you
know he has something. Bronco is talking about Tausinga, the returned
missionary from Bingham HS. He will be a true freshman this season.
Okay, now it is time to
address the two big issues of this spring; the passing game and the offensive
line.
Most fans worry about
Taysom Hill and his percentages throwing the ball. Don’t count me as one
of those fans. We can talk about mechanics, happy feet and presence in the
pocket, but before I judge Hill as a passer, I want to see what he can do with
playmaking receivers. So far, in two seasons, he hasn’t had any and he
won’t have any this spring.
Yes Cody Hoffman was a
consistent and reliable receiver, but he was not a game changing type receiver.
Check out his NFL combine numbers to see why.
Nick Kurtz could be a
play maker at wide out for BYU and he is participating in spring drills.
Unfortunately, because of other play making receivers not arriving until the
fall, Kurtz is relegated to running wind sprints this spring. You know, go
deep, catch your breath and do it again.
If you are expecting big
time passing improvement from BYU and Hill this spring, you will be
disappointed. The real test will be fall camp when he finally will have several
wide receivers that can get open and off the line of scrimmage. Then Hill will
either show he can or can’t hit those guys downfield. If he can, look
out, this might be a special football team. But only if Hill can remain
standing and in one piece.
That, of course, will
depend on the offensive line and major improvement from that group of players.
BYU’s offensive line coach Garret Tujague returns plenty of experience
from last season to spring practice. Experience is good, talent is better.
Bronco thinks he has more
talent in the offensive trenches this coming season in two guys who should make
a difference. We are talking Ului Lapuaho, the 6-7 300 pound tackle from Hunter
HS in
BYU has also moved Tuni
Kanuch from the defensive line to guard on the offensive line. He is a big dude
at 6-2, 325 pounds. He was making waves on the defensive side of the ball
before he torn his pectoral muscles and missed last season.
The Cougars will be
without Brayden Kearsley, the highly touted freshman from last season, during
spring drills. He is experiencing some academic issues that have to clear up
before he can play next season.
Is a better passing game
and better offensive line play too much to hope for this spring and coming fall?
Probably, but if we had to pick just one, it would be hope for better offensive
line play. That, in and of itself, would make the passing game better.
Television
Timetable
Men’s Basketball
BYU vs.
Monday, March 10 at
Tipoff: 9:30 pm MDT
TV: ESPN2
Possible
WCC Championship Game
BYU vs.
Gonzaga or St. Mary’s
Tuesday, March 11 at
Tipoff: 7:00 pm MDT
TV: ESPN
Women’s Basketball
BYU vs.
Pacific
Monday, March 10 at
Tipoff: 3:00 pm MDT
TV: BYUtv
Possible
WCC Championship Game
BYU vs.
Gonzaga or St. Mary’s
Tuesday, March 11 at
Tipoff: 2:00 pm MDT
TV: ESPNU
Baseball
BYU vs.
Thursday, March 13 at
First Pitch: 6:00 pm MDT
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs.
Saturday, March 15 at
First Pitch: 1:00 pm MDT
Men’s Volleyball
BYU vs.
UC Irvine
Friday, March 14 at
Match Start: 7:00 pm
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs.
UC
Saturday, March 15 at
Match Start: 7:00 pm
TV: BYUtv