HB Arnett's 801 372 - 0819 <mailto:hbarnett@fiber.net> hbarnett@fiber.net 1391 West 800 South - Orem, Utah 84058 Vol. 35, Issue 23 - December 29, 2014 Click Here To Order or Renew Your Subscriptions <http://cougarclicks.com/product/Order-Cougar-Sportsline?ID=3173> Gonzaga Beats BYU Two Out of Three Not Bad Give Dave Rose and his BYU basketball team credit. Against Gonzaga, they played extremely hard and actually played well. That's two to their credit. The third part of the equation is talent. Gonzaga is simply a much, much better team than BYU. Talent told the story in this contest won by the Bulldogs 87-80. Based on what I saw, that talent will make it three out of three for the Zags over the Cougars this season. Gonzaga already has the win in Provo and will add two more in Spokane and in post season play in Las Vegas. The game plan going into the contest was to try and take away the inside game of Gonzaga and let the Bulldog guard line beat the Cougars if they could. They could and BYU still couldn't contain the inside scoring of GU's bigs. Kyle Wiltjer had 24 points from the Zags front court and Kevin Pangos added 21 from the guard line. Tyler Haws and Anson Winder led BYU with 17 points each and Kyle Collinsworth came up with his second triple double of the season with 13 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Next up tonight for the Cougars is Portland in the Marriott Center. The Pilots are off to a nice start in conference play and beat San Diego on the road 61-58 to start their WCC season. They are also 10-3 on the year overall. They will present good size up front for BYU to try and handle. The Cougars will have to shoot the ball much better from beyond the 3-point line if they are going to beat Portland. Against Gonzaga, BYU shot a dismal .280 from distance. The game is set for a 7:00 pm MST tip and will be televised live on BYUtv. Memphis Beats BYU Just Stop It.Please Can we stop it already? Another ordinary 8-5 season is getting to be like the Bill Murray flick, Groundhog Day. We've seen this Mendenhall movie before. As in three straight years of it. But with the road schedule next season at Nebraska, UCLA, Michigan, and Missouri, a season with just five losses would be a blockbuster year for Bronco and the Cougars. Can we stop it already? That was the problem for BYU this season. They couldn't stop anybody defensively. That trend continued against Memphis. They couldn't stop the Tigers from scoring the tying touchdown to send the game into overtime. They couldn't stop them from scoring on 4th and extremely long in the first overtime and couldn't stop them from scoring in the second overtime. Game over. Lack of a defense was the problem all season long. Don't know if it was a lack of players or Punxsutawney Phil seeing his shadow at spring practice and a new defensive coordinator. In any case, this was not a typical Bronco Mendenhall defense. The loss of Taysom Hill was certainly a factor, but the loss of the BYU defense was more responsible for the 8-5 year than the loss of Hill. Secondary issues were the primary cause of the defensive demise against Memphis and during the season, in my opinion. That was painfully obvious against Memphis. Offensively, once Christian Stewart and Robert Anae started throwing the ball downfield late in the season, there was enough offensive firepower to allow BYU to win this game. Stewart throwing the ball was the strength of this team in the latter stages of the season. That made the three picks that he threw against Memphis, extremely costly and unfortunate. But make no mistake, it was defense, or lack of it that cost BYU this game against Memphis and caused another mediocre 8-5 season for the third year in a row. Wait 'til Next Season.Hope is Always on the Horizon Spring football practice is still three months away and there are still at least 18 more games left to play this year in basketball, but when it comes to BYU sports, hope and optimism is always a year round deal. Let's start with football. Taysom Hill, Jamaal Williams and Nick Kurtz all will be back next season. That's a core of Cougars that will provide plenty of hope and hype for next season offensively. Defensively, Bronson Kaufusi will go back to the defensive line, Fred Warner returns from injury and hopefully Jordan Johnson gets an injury hardship season granted to him by the NCAA. And while some don't want to hear it, hopefully Kai Nacua will return because he is BYU's best defensive back next season. In basketball, BYU won't always be poor in the post offensively. Dave Rose already has two inside guys on the roster who can help score in the paint in Kyle Davis and Jamal Aytes. Corbin Kaufusi is showing signs that he actually could develop eventually into a low post monster. Tyler Haws departs, but Nick Emery returns from his LDS mission. There will be a bonus of optimism if Kyle Collinsworth returns for his senior campaign and doesn't opt to start his professional basketball career after this season. When comes to basketball and football coaching, it is inevitably tied to recruiting. The better the players a coach recruits and signs, the better coach he becomes. I'm always optimistic that BYU is just one recruiting class away from greatness. If you can't wait for the optimism for next season in both BYU basketball and football, here is a recent story from the Salt Lake Tribune concerning a coach that should at least register on either your BYU optimism or pessimism meters. Back to BYU? <http://www.sltrib.com/sports/1992784-155/monson-whittingham-will-leave-utah -i> Christmas Gifts That Should Have Been Given or Received If I was in charge of Christmas gift giving and receiving for BYU athletics, here is how I would have done it. Bronco Mendenhall.Should have received a new game management app for his phone. This one not only tells you how many time outs you have, but when to use them. It would have buzzed Bronco when he called two consecutive time outs in an attempt to ice the kicker on a PAT. It also lets you know how much time is on the clock and that you will get the ball back and could still use those two timeouts. Should have given to Nick Howell a college football letterman jacket and better players with better execution and position mastery skills. Dave Rose.Could have used two new apps for his phone. The first is the Harlem Globetrotter app. It illustrates how the three man weave is great for exhibitions, but is not a real offense against real teams. The other is called My Bigs are better than Your Bigs. It details just how many more teams on the schedule have better post guys than you have. Would have given Chase Fischer a tube of Icy Hot to apply to his right shoulder. He needs it after the Wake Forest transfer has hoisted up 106 three-point attempts in 14 games. That is 40 more than the next Cougar, Tyler Haws, with 66 from beyond the arc. Take away the Chaminade aberration and Fischer is shooting just .344 from behind the stripe. That ranks 7th among three point shooting for the Cougars. Here's the ranking: Jake Toolson; .500, Anson Winder; .404, Tyler Haws; .394, Kyle Collinsworth; .385, Skyler Halford; .385, Isaac Neilson; .350 and then Chase Fischer, minus the Chaminade game, .344. Kai Nacua.Should have received the Andy Warhol app for his phone. It tells you where you can hide after your 15 minutes of fame that suddenly turned into a week of constant replays on television and the internet. Kyle Collinsworth.Should have given Kirk Miles an autographed basketball. Miles is the shot doctor who worked with the 6-6 junior on his shooting for the last 9 months. In case you haven't noticed, Collinsworth went from a .576 free throw shooter last season to hitting at a .723 clip so far this year. BYU Football and Basketball Fans.All should receive a DVD of the Louisville-Kentucky basketball game from last Saturday and also a DVD of the Alabama-Ohio State football game later this week. It will crush all hopes and aspirations that BYU will ever have a chance at a national championship in either sport. It is all about athletes and BYU doesn't have enough and never will under the current NCAA system. That system has turned both sports at the highest levels into being simply an AAA minor league farm system full of can't miss professional players. Those same fans should receive a bottle of Purex to remind them that BYU still runs a squeaky clean athletic department that compared to other programs is still consistently NCAA compliant in comparison. Tom Holmoe.Needed a Names and Games app for his phone reminding him that Wagner is good as the last name of Honus, but an onus as a home football game for BYU next year. Staten Island, where Wagner is located, is known for its ferry, but certainly not football. If Wagner and Savannah State played, State would be a 9 point favorite. Robert Anae.Received a video of Taysom Hill singing the popular nursery song, "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" illustrating all the places Hill has been hurt and still could be hurt running the "Go Fast, Go Hard' offense against a schedule next season that includes UCLA, Boise State, Nebraska, Michigan and Missouri. Shawn Olmstead.Received the Louisa May Alcott award for taking BYU's "Little Women" to "Big Time Women" in Volleyball. Editing is Everything My Take on the Tussle at the Miami Beach Bowl I admit, I was a little uneasy watching BYU and Memphis duke it out after their game at the Miami Beach Bowl. But I didn't personally feel embarrassed. That is what I would have felt if it was coaches trading blows, or coaches' wives slapping each other silly? Now that would have been embarrassing. The post-game pugilism, should have made BYU officials and coaches blush, but this wasn't nearly as an embarrassing a moment for the Mormon Church as when a random member commits a serious crime or other heinous act and that person's religious affiliation is constantly mentioned by those reporting the story. This was a punch-throwing altercation between two teams that had already been hitting each other on the field and obviously didn't like each other. As Dan Hawkins so famously screamed a few years back when he was the coach of Colorado, "It's Division I football". The game itself is a battle. Here's my problem with the incident. It comes down to editing. Give me the raw footage of the melee that was available and I could have edited it and made it appear like a Boy Scout training video, with teammates going to the aid of other teammates in distress. With the right cuts and splices, I could have made BYU look heroic and done the same for Memphis. A good editor can make a video look anyway he or she wants. The problem that most of us BYU fans have is that the takes and cuts used by the national media, made BYU look not so lustrous. Actually, it was the takes and cuts, literally of Kai Nacua, that most have a problem with. That perception is going to last a long time. There will be a formal statement on the incident released by BYU and the football program sometime, but it won't and shouldn't involve any mention of shutting down the football program. If you think it should, you haven't followed BYU football as long as I have. A fistfight is meaningless compared to more serious offenses that have been perpetrated by some past players. The significant difference was that those infractions weren't televised and caught on tape. I know I'm probably in the minority with this viewpoint, but if it comes to embarrassment, I would rather blush about a post-game fight than an athletic department academic or sexual scandal. I don't condone fighting or violence or the "boys will be boys" mantra. I wish the post-game fight didn't happen. I wish Kai Nacua wasn't caught on tape and portrayed as a thug. But it did happen. As far as my take on Nacua, I reserve judgment on him for at least another ten years. It's a long life and young men grow up to be men and who knows, someday this kid may be my Bishop. TV Timetable BYU vs. Portland Monday, December 29 at Provo Tipoff: 7:00 pm MST TV: BYUtv BYU vs. Santa Clara Thursday, Jan 1 at Santa Clara Tipoff: 3:00 pm MST TV: BYUtv BYU vs. Santa Clara (Women BB) Thursday, Jan 1 at Provo Tipoff: 12:30 pm MST TV: BYUtv BYU vs. San Francisco Saturday, Jan 3 at San Francisco Tipoff: 9:00 pm MST TV: CSN Bay Area BYU vs. San Francisco (Women BB) Saturday, Jan 3 at Provo Tipoff: 2:00 pm MST TV: BYUtv If you also want a PDF copy of this issue, email and request it.
