CS Lite, Vol. 38, Issue 19 - December 2, 2018

HB Arnett’s “Lite” <mailto:hbarnett@fiber.net> hbarnett@fiber.net 801 372 0819 Vol. 38, Issue 19, - December 3, 2018 Heart Stopping Moment! It will be 17 years ago this coming February that I had a heart stopping moment. It was an even bigger heart stopping moment for one of my close friends. He had an official title for the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. It was: Look of the Games Coordinator. One of his duties was to make sure that the Olympic torch lighting looked good to the world. Along with the 1980 USA Olypmic Hockey team, he was also standing next to the torch, but behind the view of patrons and television viewers world wide. He was next to the engineer from Los Angeles who designed and built the torch and assured everyone that it would work without a hitch. I tried to find video of the actual torch lighting, but it is owned by the Olympics and can’t be downloaded. Instead Click Here <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT28SNK1YEk> to see the actual torch ceremony. It is 7:48 minutes long. Start watching at the 6:25 mark. The previous footage is fluff and stuff, but good fluff and stuff if you are an Olympic fan. Stop at the 6:52 mark. The torch fire goes out. It is a 1 ½ second heart stopping moment for me, but ultra heart stopping for my friend. Fortunately, the engineer and designer earned his money because he was able to manually restart the fire and the rest is history. I knew what happened, but probably only 5 other people also knew the fire quit burning. My friend still tells me it was the longest 2 seconds of his life. It was a disheartening and heart stopping moment. If you are a BYU football and basketball fan, you probably have figured out that we are in the midst of our heart and fire stopping moment for those two sports. I bring this up because I believe we are witnessing the restart of the BYU athletic fire. The lighting of the fire above is represented by the USA Hockey team. They symbolize the pride and production of BYU years gone by. The last two seasons in football and basketball symbolize the fire going out of BYU sports. The first 30 minutes of the Utah football game was the relighting of the fire for me. We are a running back and deep threat receiver away from a reignition of football fire at BYU. Look, it is obvious that BYU doesn’t have any x’s and o’s coaches in football and basketball. Kalani Sitake has his game planning limits and Dave Rose is a chip off the block of his college coach Guy Lewis at Houston. He was a “roll it out coach”, but with Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon. This will certainly date me, but I remember in the early ‘70’s attending a BYU vs. New Mexico basketball game in the Marriott Center. The game was close, and New Mexico called a timeout. I was returning from the rest room and somehow, KSL radio had a microphone in the New Mexico huddle and anybody on the concourse could hear what was being said. I remember well the strategy of Norm Ellenberger, then the head coach at UNM and also a great roll it out coach. What the microphone caught in the Lobo huddle was Ellenberger screaming, “Somebody get me a hoop. Somebody get me a hoop” Somebody did and if I remember correctly, New Mexico beat BYU. No question coaches like Mark Few, Mike Krzyzewski, Bill Self and Jay Wright are great coaches and teach fundamentals and game strategy. But even after their teams have run the plays they called, reversed the ball three times, gone inside and out, and set great screens, they still can find themselves with 8 seconds on the shot clock and all their coaching not working. What they need and what they have are players, with the set offense faltering, that can individually break down a defense and get a good shot up. They don’t have to yell, “Somebody get me a hoop”, but that is what happens 50 percent of the time. Even with those big-name teams. You must have players that can, when all else fails, get their coach a hoop. Bronco Mendenhall had a lot of idiosyncrasies while coaching football at BYU, but he was often quoted in his post-game comments as saying, we made one more play than they did. Or it was they made one more play than we did. As I have repeatedly said the last few weeks, BYU football has a game changing quarterback and an offensive line. They are just a running back and deep threat receiver from their Cougar cauldron burning again. For those who say that BYU doesn’t have good enough coaches, they don’t need any. They need recruiters. Look, the NCAA only allows 10 assistant coaches. Then why was Gary Anderson on the sideline of Utah’s championship game against Washington wearing a head set and talking to players? He can’t recruit because he is not an assistant coach, but he can consult during practice, film sessions and at games. He is a paid consultant for the Utes. Alabama always has 6-7 consultants on their staff over and above assistant coaches. Heck, a year ago, Kalani had Aaron Roderick as a consultant when Ty Detmer was struggling. So, stop with the coaching complaints. Get some players and get some consultants. Yes, they are paid just like other staff members. They just aren’t official assistant coaches. They don’t have to be big name consultants, just somebody that understands football and can implement it on the field. Sitake already has close to 5000 consultants who offer their services for free. He just doesn’t have time to read my letter or the other fan websites. Dave Rose gets it. He is never going to get the blue chip non-LDS athlete with great athletic African American skill sets. The school’s admittance policy and honor code policy just is not conducive to attaining that goal. He can’t get the administration to budge on the English proficiency qualifications to get good foreign players on his roster. He may have found the fortuitous answer to the future of BYU basketball and it started with his signing of Brazilian, Bernardo Da Silva, by way of Wasatch Academy in Utah. Call it the aligning of stars and luck, but in this age of cut and paste, I am pasting an outstanding article written by Steve Pierce of Vanquish the Foe from a few weeks ago. BYU may be only a few years away from “Get me a Hoop” and having somebody that can do it. Click here to read the article. <https://www.vanquishthefoe.com/2018/11/17/18098492/byu-basketball-offers-ma dy-sissoko-richie-saunders-leonardo-colimerio-wasatch-academy> Sitake knows the value of playmakers as well as anybody who has watched BYU football recently. Here’s another cut and paste article that shows that Sitake is trying to do something about it. Click here <https://www.vanquishthefoe.com/2018/11/29/18118490/byu-football-recruiting- running-backs-south-aidan-robbins-jamontez-woods> to read another Vanquish the Foe article written by Robby McCombs. As for consultants, they tell me that Darrell Bevell is now living in Utah Valley in order to be able to watch his daughter play softball for BYU this spring. His wife is also originally from the Provo area. Heather Olmstead is currently busy getting her BYU women’s volleyball team ready for the final 16 appearance for the 7th straight year. Since being named head coach in 2015, she is now 4-1 against Utah. Sounds like she should be considered as a football consultant. Tony Robbins is unavailable because of his current consulting schedule and appearances and Michel Cohen, currently has other issues other than consulting that he is addressing at the moment. Perceptions Change Decades ago, I was the starting shortstop for Paul’s Bootery (not booty), a shoe store that sponsored a Little League team in Blythe, California. Times change. If I was to mention that I was affiliated with Paul’s Bootery now, some might think I was a famous rapper or porn star, not an innocent and not very good shortstop. Currently, my bootery is bigger and I blame it on the 3-4 times a month I go to Mi Rancherito, a drive thru Mexican food place on the corner of Center Street and Freedom Boulevard in Orem. I always get the same thing, day or night: A Bacon Breakfast Burrito with extra green sauce. It has bacon, cheese, scrambled eggs and fried potatoes wrapped in a great tortilla served hot. It weighs about a pound, but somehow after eating it, I gain two. I bring this up because, the main ingredient of this burrito is fried potatoes. I recommend it to anybody. But now I will be recommending it with more reverence and reverie. That’s because it’s not just made with any potato, but I’m now sure it is made with at least one fried Famous Idaho Potato. Who would have thought that a burrito and bowl game will now be stuck in my mind forever? That’s because BYU will be playing Western Michigan in a bowl game in Boise December 21 called The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Yes, forget the game is in Boise where the average temperature for December 21, according to Weatherspark.com typically ranges from 26°F to 35°F and is rarely below 13°F or above 46°F. Instead, focus on the fact that BYU is in a bowl game. That means 15 additional days of practice, a bag of booty (not bootery) for players and coaches and inclusion in the exclusive club of 78 other teams that were invited to a bowl game. There were 82 teams eligible for bowl bids, but 4 didn’t get the call. That would be hard to stomach (see below), which makes a cold game in Boise, not seem so bad. Speaking of stomach, those four teams excluded include Wyoming, Southern Miss, Miami (Ohio) and Louisiana Monroe. They aren’t happy having to forgo their breakfast burrito and settling for menudo, a Mexican soup made from tripe (cow’s stomach). Last I checked, BYU has a coveted bowl bid, Boise has blankets and heaters in motel rooms and is a two Temple town. The only thing that could make this a perfect bowl game for BYU fans is snow. Anything to cover up that hideous blue turf. Rubbing Shoulders Helps? Some say research has shown that we eventually dress, think, talk and act like the people we surround ourselves with. Seems to have worked for BYU football this past season. Of the 12 teams on the Cougars schedule this year, 8 teams are bowl bound. They include: Cal: Chez-It Bowl vs. TCU Wisconsin: Pinstripe Bowl vs. Miami Washington: Rose Bowl vs. Ohio State Utah State: New Mexico Bowl vs. North Texas Hawaii: Hawaii Bowl vs. La. Tech Northern Illinois: Boca Raton Bowl vs. UAB Boise State: First Responder Bowl vs. Boston College Utah: Holiday Bowl vs. Northwestern What a Difference a Day Makes Saturday night I watched Weber State dismantle BYU in basketball. I came away depressed and despondent. That also describes BYU’s current 3-game losing streak. The final was 113-103. Sunday night I watched The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ First Presidency Christmas Devotional. I came away inspired, uplifted and edified. Consequently, because I was encouraged to be more charitable during the devotional, I have nothing to say about BYU basketball this week. Okay, since it concerns charity, I will say one thing about the 3-game losing streak.. If you can shoot the ball successfully from the charity line, you won’t win many more games this season. Merry Christmas to all, especially BYU basketball. Television Timetable BYU vs. Utah State (M Basketball) Wednesday, December 5 at Provo Tipoff: 7:00 pm MST TV: BYUtv BYU vs. Florida (W Volleyball) Friday, December 7 at Provo First Serve: 4:30 pm MST TV: ESPN3 BYU vs. Utah (M Basketball) Saturday, December 8 at Salt Lake (Vivint Arena) Tipoff: 12:00 pm MST TV: ESPNU BYU vs. Texas or Michigan (W Volleyball, if BYU wins Friday) Saturday, December 8 at Provo First Serve: 6:00 pm MST TV: ESPNU Ask your Wife if it is Too Early for a Christmas Stocking Stuffer Idea! Check out my Christmas gift or stocking stuffer ideas by clicking here: theputtpartner.com <http://theputtpartner.com/> Thanks, HB