HB Arnett’s
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372 - 0819
1391
West 800 South –
Vol. 33,
Issue 36 – April 1, 2013
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BYU HEADED TO
BYU and Baylor will face off Tuesday
evening, April 2 in the NIT semi-finals in
This will mark the first time since 1966
that BYU has made the trip to
The difference in BYU basketball since the
embarrassing exit and first round loss to
Here are some I can think of. Let’s
start with renewed enthusiasm and dedication from the coaches and team.
Opponents don’t get enough time to scout and exploit BYU’s inherent
weaknesses. BYU has been on fire offensively. In the last three games, Nate
Austin is playing the best basketball of his two year BYU career.
Tyler Haws and Brandon Davies have been
awesome offensively.
All of those reasons for BYU’s
spectacular play over the last two weeks are true, but the bottom line for the
resurgence, in my opinion, can be traced to the markedly improved play of Matt
Carlino.
What Happened?
So what happened between the dismal
disappointment of Carlino’s late regular season play and his spectacular
play in the NIT?
Here’s something I noticed. During
the interim between the end of regular season play and the start of the NIT,
Dave Rose made a statement to a Cougar Club luncheon that he expected Kyle
Collinsworth to be his lead guard next year and that the ball would be in Collinsworth’s
hands for the majority of minutes next season.
If I noticed that, I am supposing that
Carlino also picked up on it. His game has certainly picked up since that
remark from Rose. Chalk up an assist from
Despite the offensive consistency of Tyler
Haws and the good play of Brandon Davies this season, the bottom line appears
to be that as Matt Carlino goes, so go the Cougars.
That’s not news. I thought I had
been pointing that out through the season in this newsletter. After the win
over
Here is some of what he said after the
Haws put on shooting
clinic in NIT victory over Washington
Haws was great in the first half, but BYU still looked awful--they were just
grinding their way to a loss. Haws can score points, but he can't win games all
by himself. Neither can Davies.
But Carlino can win
games, because he gets steals, produces cheap baskets, and upsets the flow of
the game. He steals baskets from the other team and turns them into easy,
momentum-shifting baskets for BYU. Every single time BYU has looked great this
year, it's been because of Carlino. When he doesn't play, or when he doesn't
play well, BYU is beatable by almost anyone.
BYU's fans see the errors,
and the turnovers, but they don't understand what it is that point guards do
because BYU almost never has a real point guard. It's usually a black position
and quality point guards never go to BYU. Real point guards break a lot eggs,
but they still wind up with plenty of omelets (aka: wins) when the season is
over.
Am I crazy? Let's look
at Phil Pressey, from
Carlino, playing 20%
fewer minutes, has 148 assists, 61 steals, 110 rebounds, and 90 turnovers.
Remember, Pressey was
touted as the best point guard in
And. . . .Carlino is
willing to spend his college years without beer and sex. That's why BYU can't
have Pressey, or the other great point guards out there.
Go look at the numbers
and do your own analysis on a per-minute basis. Without Carlino this year, BYU
has a half-dozen fewer wins, and they certainly wouldn't have won last night.
This team has a lot of problems, but Carlino isn't one of them.
By the way, can you
think of one thing that any BYU player did last night who wasn't named Davies,
Haws, or Carlino? THAT is the problem with this team.
Now would be a good time to mention a
player not named Davies, Haws, or Carlino. Brock Zylstra had 23 points and was
on fire beyond the arc against Southern Miss. If the senior can back up that
game with a similar outing in
Recruiting Notes…April 17 signals the start of the spring
signing period for basketball recruits. BYU already has a commitment from
Skyler Halford, a 6-2 juco guard from
Said
A 4.0 student, the left-handed Tummala averaged 14.8 points and 5.9 rebounds on 50.9-percent shooting — 41.1 percent on three-pointers — in one season at Salt Lake City CC.
Tummala
played high school basketball at Brophy College Preparatory in
According to the
Now
Need to Watch Movie in Fall
BYU’s Spring
Football Game Was Just a Trailer
I learned a long time ago, that you
can’t judge a movie by its preview trailer. You don’t know if they
picked the only good scenes from the film and you saw the best there was to see
or if a film will be better than its previews.
With BYU Spring Football, the trailers are
never a true picture of what we will see in the fall when the real movie is
released. For Bronco Mendenhall, the movie is always better than the trailers.
What 12,000 fans saw in previews last
Saturday in Lavell Edwards Stadium was a trailer that featured the supporting
cast and a few bit players. The real stars of this fall’s BYU football
team, either didn’t appear or were relegated to limited cameo roles.
BYU always promotes the spring game as a
mega blockbuster, but the reality is that it is just a low budget B movie with
lesser known or no name actors or players.
So how do we judge BYU football by what
they put on the screen and field during the spring game? Like a lot of movies
we have to rely on critics and their critiques.
I have picked three separate video critiques
of the spring game for your peeking and perusal.
1. Baghdad
Bob
BYUtv is always upbeat and mostly
unrealistic, so this is the ultimate feel good critique.
2. Bad
Boy Bob
Bronco Mendenhall reaped a personal public
relations coup with the hiring of Robert Anae. Mendenhall, who always had media
struggles in the past, now sounds like a PR pro in comparison to Anae.
Listening to Anae’s assessment of the spring game, if Colorado School of
Mines was on the fall schedule, I’m betting on the Orediggers. If I had
to establish the
3. Bronco Bob
Crisp and Clean with plenty of clarity. That’s
not a description of 7-Up, but of Bronco Mendenhall’s post spring game
comments and assessment of Saturday’s scrimmage.
4. No video clips, but some snips and
snapshots of my assessment of BYU Spring Football.
BYU is back in the quarterback business.
Taysom Hill, if 100% healthy, is the real deal. Even better, his backups, Ammon
Olsen and Christian Stewart are also strong armed and competitive. The cupboard
is not bare at this most important position on the team.
The tight end mystery continues. Nobody
has emerged. The offensive line is also still a mystery, but I like what I see
of Garrett Tujague and how he runs the show at this position. Throw in a few more
bodies in the fall, and this will be a major upgrade over last year.
The offense is only as good as its
playmakers. BYU has plenty of those for the fall. Without a tight end to count
on, look for Hill, Jamaal Williams and Cody Hoffman to get at least 60 percent
of the offensive touches this coming season.
Defensively, BYU needs a nose tackle. If
they can find one by fall, the defense will be stout again. There is still one
corner to fill, but BYU is still scouring the juco scene for help in the fall.
The latest possible help is Robertson Daniel, a corner out of DeAnza JC in
SPRING SPORTS
Volleyball
On its way to what looks like a national
championship in volleyball, BYU continues to win in MPSF play. The Cougars
defeated Pepperdine and USC in
“Being senior night, one of the things we talked about was not having any family distractions or anything else," BYU head coach Chris McGown said. "But that is what is so great about this team. It doesn’t matter what day it is or who we are playing, they come out and play. Tonight, we played a complete game. The guys did great offensively, they dug well and blocked well. It was pretty fun to watch. We still have a lot of volleyball left to play, and we hope to be back here to host the MPSF tournament.”
Sander led the team with 17 kills and three blocks. Ben Patch contributed 10 kills and a team-high five blocks. Michael Hatch also had five blocks and five kills, and Ryan Boyce helped out with 33 assists. Josue Rivera finished the night with a team-high four aces with five kills on the night.
For the second time in history, BYU (19-3, 18-2 MPSF) won all of its matches in March, going 8-0 during the month. The Cougars, riding an 11-match win streak, also hit a .545 clip, a season high and third-best in BYU rally scoring history. BYU made only seven hitting errors, while the Trojans picked up 19.
Tied 6-6, Hatch stepped up for two quick kills to push the Cougars ahead 8-6 for the last lead change of the first set. Boyce launched an 8-0 scoring streak for BYU on a kill. Back-to-back aces by Rivera gave BYU a 19-11 lead and a third ace by Rivera put the Cougars ahead 10 at 21-11, capping the run. Sander finished off the set with a kill for a 25-14 win.
Sander led with six kills on a .857 clip in the first set. The team hit .750 during the set, the Cougars’ highest hitting percentage in a single set this season.
BYU skipped out to a 4-0 lead in the second set before USC could respond. The Cougars took a double-figure lead on a 10-2 scoring run. A block by Hatch, Patch and Sander brought the score to 17-7, and BYU took the set 25-15 on a Trojan error.
USC held strong in the third set, going ahead 3-1 to start the set and not relinquishing hold on the lead until late in the set. A Sander kill cut BYU’s deficit to 22-21 and the set was tied up 22-22 on a USC error. The Trojans couldn’t keep it together, as the Cougars took the lead 23-22 on a blocking error. An attack error by the Trojans put the Cougars at match point, but a kill by USC’s Tanner Jansen kept the Trojans in the game. Tied 24-24, Patch put down another kill and a Trojan attack error finished off the set 26-24.
BYU hits
the road for a four-match trip to
Baseball
The Cougars took two of three games from
WCC league leader Pepperdine last week in
Softball
This is not a very good team.
Television
Timetable
BYU vs. Baylor
(M Basketball)
Tuesday, April 2 at
Tipoff: 5:00 pm Mountain Time
TV: ESPN2
BYU vs.
Tuesday, April 2 at
First Pitch: 6:00 pm Mountain Time
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs.
Monday, April 8 at
First Pitch: 10:00 am Mountain Time
TV: BYUtv