HB Arnett’s

COUGAR SPORTSLINE

 801 372  0819

hbarnett@fiber.net

1391 West 800 South – Orem, Utah 84058

 

Vol. 32, Issue 26 – January 16, 2012

                                                                                                    

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TO STAY IN THE HUNT, BYU MUST HIT FROM OUTSIDE

 

BYU is in the hunt for a piece of the WCC basketball title in the Cougars' first-time trip through the league. They kept those hopes alive with a nice 95-78 win over Santa Clara last Saturday in Provo. BYU is now 4-1 in league play and 15-4 overall.

 

The win was the result of some big-time balanced scoring from Dave Rose's crew.

 

Brandon Davies led the way with 23 points. Noah Harsock added 21 points and Matt Carlino represented well from the guard line with another 21 points.

 

BYU now hits the road for two games this week in conference play. They meet San Diego tonight and then finish the week on the road Saturday at Pepperdine. Sandwiched between those two games is a rematch with Loyola Marymount on Thursday in Provo.

 

From what we have seen this season, the key for BYU to succeed on the road is their three-point shooting. BYU has to be able to shoot the ball from beyond the arc to have consistent success away from Provo.

 

Brandon Davies and Noah Hartsock have proven themselves to be legitimate inside scorers.

 

They will continue to produce at home and on the road. To make their production hold up and produce road wins, however, BYU has to have a threat from the outside.

 

It won't be any different this week on the road against San Diego and Pepperdine.

 

How the BYU guard line goes from beyond the arc, so go the Cougars.

 

BASKETBALL RECRUITING

 

It will take a while, but BYU basketball fans are going to like what they see when Dave Rose's two most recent signees finally arrive on campus in 2014.

 

You may remember that last November, during the early signing period, Rose signed Cory Calvert, a 6-3 guard from Chaparral HS in Parker, CO., and Jordan Chatman, a 6-4 guard from Union HS in Camas, WA.

 

Both will serve two-year LDS missions before enrolling at BYU.

 

Both are having big-time senior seasons.

 

Last week, Chatman scored 32 points in a 69-61 Union win over his former team, Skyview HS. Chatman is the son of former BYU basketball player Jeff Chatman.

 

He turned down offers from Utah, Utah State, Washington State, Portland and Stanford to sign with the Cougars.

 

Calvert originally committed to Utah State as a junior. This last summer, after having a very successful AAU session, it appears to us that he realized that he he could have more and better offers if he had not committed so early.

 

He de-committed from the Aggies and BYU was immediately in the picture based off what they saw last summer.

 

He signed with BYU in November.

 

Division I Player

 

He continues to show that he is a major Division I player. His team is currently ranked No. 2 in the Colorado prep ranks. He missed five games during this season because of broken wrist, but in the 7 games he has played, he is currently averaging 30 points per contest.

 

Last Friday, in a 73-67 win over Legend HS, he scored 20 points. With Chaparral trailing by 9 points going into the fourth quarter, Calvert scored 12 of his 20 points to secure the come-from-behind win.

 

A couple of days earlier, Calvert scored 40 points in an 84-51 win over George Washington. He was 7-of-11 from the three point line.

 

BYU will lose two players from the current roster with the graduation of Noah Hartsock and Charles Abouo. Neither Chatman or Calvert will be taking those scholarship openings because of their delayed enrollment plans.

 

One of those available scholarships will go to Tyler Haws upon his return from an LDS mission to the Philippines. We look for the remaining scholarship to go to Craig Cusick, who will finally be on the payroll next season as a senior. He certainly has earned it.

 

Five to Give

 

That means that BYU would then have five scholarships to give out this coming November because Brandon Davies, Nick Martineau, Stephen Rogers, Craig Cusick and Brock Zylstra are all juniors.

 

In November, we expect Rose to sign Nick Emery, who has already committed to the program. We also expect BYU to sign Jakob Hartsock, a 6-7 junior from Bartlesville HS in Oklahoma. Yes, he is the younger brother of current Cougar Noah Hartsock.

 

Throw in the return of Kyle Collinsworth from his LDS mission from Russian for the 2013-2014 season and there are three of the five scholarships spoken for.

 

Of course the one scholarship the Cougars will hold forever is the one for Jabari Parker. The 6-7 front court LDS player from Chicago's Simeon HS, is the nation's top recruit for next year. BYU is still a legitimate contender for his signature in November.

 

We also look for BYU to add another big man in this class. Don't know who or where he is, but it will be a priority.

 

The following year, T.J. Haws will be on board. He is currently a sophomore at Lone Peak HS and the younger brother of Tyler Haws.

 

They Can All Score

 

To flesh out the games with the names mentioned above, Dave Rose was in Bartlesville last week to watch Jakob Hartsock play. He didn't disappoint with 31 points in a 65-33 win over Claremore.

 

Later in the week, Bartlesville played undefeated Tulsa Edison on the road and came away with a 58-48 win.

 

Hartsock dominated the game with 29 points and 10 rebounds.

 

Closer to home, last week Lone Peak HS picked up two more wins, a a 63-36 mismatch over Viewmont and a 57-39 victory over Riverton.

 

Emery had 22 and 23 points respectively while Haws finished with 17 and 11 points.

 

IN WCC, RPI REALLY DOES MATTER

 

It is looking more and more likely that BYU will enter the West Coast Conference post-season tournament late in February as the No. 3 seed.

 

It is not too hard to see how it will probably play out.

 

Based on WCC play so far, St. Mary's, Gonzaga and BYU appear to be the top three teams. If those three teams can hold serve against each other and win on their home courts, a three-way tie as conference champions in the regular season is very probable, That assumes the big three teams don't lose any game(s) against the lower tier of teams in the WCC.

 

Here is the current WCC formula for Determination of Seeds/Tie-Breaker found in Section 3 of the WCC Handbook.

 

(a) All conference teams will be seeded based on the order of the final regular season conference standings.

 

(b) If there is a tie in the standings, regardless of the number teams involved, the following factors will be used, in this order, until all ties are broken:

 

(1) Head-to-head competition.

(2) Won-Loss record versus each league member (or the cumulative record of teams tied in a position) based on descending order of finish in the final conference standings.

(3) This comparison on a descending basis will continue until seeding is complete. If a tie still exists, the final deciding factor will be the team's placement in the most recent Collegiate Basketball News Company RPI published by Jim Sukup.

 

Currently, Gonzaga has a RPI national ranking of No. 8. St. Mary's is ranked No. 24 and BYU comes in at No. 40.

 

With the exception of BYU playing Virginia Tech next week on the road in Blacksburg, all three teams will be playing WCC teams the remainder of the year until the WCC tourney. That means it will be impossible for BYU to have a higher RPI rating than Gonzaga or St. Mary's if there is a three-way tie for the regular season championship.

 

If that is the scenario, the best BYU can get is a No. 3 seed in the WCC post season tourney in Las Vegas beginning February 29 and running through March 5, 2012.

 

That is not good for the Cougars. It means they would have to win three games to come away with the tournament championship, while the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds would only have to win two games to get the same hardware.

 

In WCC tournament action, the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds get automatic byes into the tournament semi-final games on Saturday March 3.

 

The No. 3 seed begins play in the quarterfinals the previous day, Friday March 2.

 

Complete WCC Tournament brackets can be seen here:

www.wccsports.com/ot/west-baskbl-tournament.html

 

HOSTING AND HOPING WITH RECRUITING JUST TWO WEEKS AWAY

 

Bronco Mendenhall and his staff hosted 20 commits and potential football recruits last weekend in Provo.

 

The good news is that 18 of those 20 visitors are already committed to the program and will all sign letters of intent on February 1. They include:

 

Marques Johnson, DL, 6-2, 305, El Camino JC, CA

Sawyer Powell, LB, 6-1, 205, Richland HS, WA

Troy Hinds, DL, 6-5, 230, Davis HS, UT

Jamaal Williams, RB, 6-2, 190, Summit HS, CA

Jherremya Leuta-Douyere, LB/FB, 6-0, 220, Servite HS, CA

Butch Pau'u, LB, 6-0, 215, Servite HS, CA

Micah Hannemann, DB, 6-1, 185, Lone Peak HS, UT

Steven Richards, TE, 6-2, 240, Alta HS, UT

Austin Hoyt, DL, 6-7, 240, Argonaut HS, CA

Phillip Amone, LB, 6-0, 220, Dr. Phillips HS, FL

Dylan Collie, WR, 5-10, 200, Oak Ridge HS, CA

Taysom Hill, QB, 6-2, 225, Highland HS, ID

Tanner Mangum, QB, 6-2, 185, Eagle HS, ID

Josh Weeks, WR, 6-4, 200, Show Low HS, AZ

Rhett Sandlin, DB, 6-3, 220, Alta HS, UT

Matt Hadley, DB, 5-11, 190, Connell HS, WA

Ammon Olsen, QB, 6-4, 210, SUU/Alta HS, UT

Roman Andrus, DL, 6-5, 235, Oak Ridge HS, WA

 

The two other visitors were Tenney Palepoi, a 6-3, 290 pound defensive tackle from Snow College and Theodore King, a 6-3, 240 pound defensive end from Valley Christian HS in San Jose.

 

Palepoi prepped at Skyline HS in Salt Lake and signed with Utah State out of high school, but was a non qualifier. He spent two years at Snow College, where according to the school's website, he played last season as a redshirt freshman.

 

He reportedly has offers now from BYU, Utah State, Oregon State and Washington, but has not committed to any of those schools yet.

He has made two official visits (BYU and Utah State two weeks ago).

 

Palepoi visited Logan and Provo with his fiancé. As a matter of fact, several family members of his fiancé drove up to Provo Saturday from St. George to check out the BYU campus and participate in the Palepoi's recruiting experience in Provo.

 

MEN'S VOLLEYBALL SWEEP NO. 1 UC IRVINE

 

BYU men's volleyball has high hopes for another national championship this season.

 

They made a nice step in that direction last weekend defeating No. 1 ranked UC Irvine by sweeping two matches from the Anteaters.

 

The wins were not upsets because BYU was ranked No. 2 in the country. They started the preseason as the top ranked team in the country but lost to UCI two weeks ago in a tournament in Santa Barbara.

 

The difference was that this time it was MPSF league play and the games counted.

 

Friday night BYU, under first-year head coach Chris McGown, BYU swept UCI 3-0. Saturday night it was a closer match with the Cougars winning 3-2.

 

BYU returns to conference action this weekend while hosting USC at the Smith Fieldhouse on Friday and Saturday.

 

The Friday match will begin at 7:00 p.m MST and will be televised live on BYUtv.

 

BYU TELEVISION TIMETABLE

 

BYU vs. San Diego

Monday, Jan 16 at San Diego

Tipoff: 8:00 p.m. Mountain Time

TV: BYUtv

BYU vs. Loyola Marymount

Thursday, Jan 19 at Provo

Tipoff: 6:30 p.m. Mountain Time

TV: BYUtv

BYU vs. USC

Friday, Jan 20 at Provo

Match begins: 7:00 p.m. Mountain Time

TV: BYUtv

BYU vs. Pepperdine

Saturday, Jan 21 at Malibu

Tipoff: 6:00 p.m. Mountain Time

TV: BYUtv

BYU vs. Virginia Tech

Wednesday, Jan 25 at Blacksburg

Tipoff: 5:00 pm Mountain Time

TV: ESPN3

BYU vs. Saint Mary's

Saturday, Jan 28 at Provo

Tipoff: 7:00 p.m. Mountain Time

TV: ESPNU

BYU vs. Gonzaga

Thursday, Feb 2 at Provo

Tipoff: 9:00 p.m. Mountain Time

TV: ESPN2

BYU vs. Portland

Saturday, February 4 at Portland

Tipoff: 8:00 p.m. Mountain Time

TV: BYUtv