HB Arnett’s
COUGAR SPORTSLINE
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West 800 South –
Vol. 32,
Issue 31 – February 20, 2012
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BYU
ALMOST LEAVES HEART AND KNEES IN BAY AREA
It was not a typical Tony
Bennett win for BYU last Thursday in
With a thrilling 85-84
win over the Dons of USF, BYU had multiple heart options. They could have left
their heart in
A loss would have left
Dave Rose's Cougars with their hearts ripped out.
Instead they opted for
option No. 2 and showed some heart by making one more play than USF to secure
the win.
Option No. 3 for hearts
was left for BYU fans. Most are still trying to extricate their own hearts from
their throats after the thrilling finish.
For Matt Carlino, the BYU
freshman guard, the game against
He saved BYU early and
late. Early, he had 20 points with just 10 minutes gone in the first half. He
saved the game with just 20 seconds remaining in the game by answering the bell
after USF took their first lead with under a minute to go.
It was Carlino who went
coast to coast to hit a five-foot floater for the go ahead score and win.
Heart
Stopper
Two days later at
BYU cruised late to
defeat the Broncos 82-67, but saw Noah Hartsock go down with what looked like a
season-ending knee injury.
Turns out he returned to
action, but coupled with Matt Carlino playing with a knee brace because of a
knee sprain suffered against
BYU, like all good bread,
BYU rose to occasion. It was Hartsock and Brandon Davies that lead the
uprising. Hartsock had 21 points and 5 rebounds while Davies, playing just 26
minutes because of foul problems, tossed in 20 points.
Speaking of knees, they
haven't been good to BYU this season. While Hartsock's and Carlino's knees are
hopefully just minor nuisances, BYU has been hit hard this year by the knee
injuries to Chris Collinsworth and Steven Rogers.
While optimism still
abounds that
There is a optimism that
he will make a full recovery in time for next season, and even a little
optimism that the NCAA will restore this season of eligibility to him. It is a
long shot, but he has a case.
As a true freshman, he
played 557 minutes. After returning from an LDS mission to
This year, he returned to
action before being derailed by that same knee. This season, he saw just 12
minutes of play in the first two games.
If somehow Collinsworth
can make it back and be healthy, he will make BYU a much stronger team next
year on the front line.
At 6-9, he would join 6-9
Brandon Davies, 6-11, Nate Austin, 6-11 Ian Harward and 6-8 Steven Rogers.
There likely wouldn't be a bigger front court in the country.
HOW DO
YOU LIKE US NOW?
If we were the WCC, that
is the question we would be asking BYU fans right about now.
As BYU is finding out, the
competition and intensity level is pretty good in this new league and will get
even more intense in
There are some dogs in
the league, but there are dogs in the MWC.
Home court is home court,
and there certainly is a home court advantage in the WCC.
It is our observation
that coaches' wives and BYU administrators suddenly find the need to travel
with the team because of the WCC affiliation.
It makes sense. There
certainly is more to do in
We could go on and on,
but you get the point.
We have never bought the
idea that small gyms would make the WCC an inferior league. Basketball has
become a studio and television game. You may know that the gym of
All they see is that the
game is on one of the ESPN networks and there is intensity and competition.
You may think that the
WCC isn't a great league, but it is our league now and we like it just fine.
Did we mention that the
team in the WCC without any league wins beat the current MWC leader this year?
That's right.
The Big Ten and ACC have
preseason games that they play against each other early in the year. They
rotate home and home sites.
In our opinion, we think
a similar series between the WCC and MWC would have been very interesting.
Forget Sagarin ratings
and national rankings, put
Wait, we do know what
would happen. The nationally ranked Aztecs got band boxed Saturday at Air
Force.
It's not the size of the
gym that matters. It's the home court that counts.
BYU found out that there
is no difference playing at
You get beat by good
teams. Home court advantage is manufactured by noise, not the number seats in
the building.
The noise and intensity
of the WCC is good enough, thank you.
BYU will find that out
again this coming week when they face Gonzaga in
This is a very important
game.
The current league
standings and tie breaker formula for post season league tournament seeding
tells why.
|
TEAM |
CONF |
OVERALL |
|
12-2 |
23-5 |
|
|
11-3 |
21-5 |
|
|
11-3 |
23-6 |
|
|
10-4 |
18-10 |
|
|
8-7 |
18-11 |
|
|
6-8 |
11-15 |
|
|
3-10 |
6-20 |
|
|
2-12 |
8-18 |
|
|
0-14 |
8-19 |
|
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.
Translation: The chances
of BYU beating Gonzaga in
We expect the Cougars to
come out with a loss. A gimme win in
There are many scenarios
that can still happen in this final week, but assuming a 12-4 record; we see it
all unfolding this way.
BYU will finish in a tie
for third place in the league with Loyola Marymount and enter the league
tournament as the fourth seed. LMU gets the third seed because they split with
St. Mary's and BYU was swept by the Gaels.
That means that the
Cougars more than likely will face either
FOOTBALL
IN NOVEMBER WAS ALMOST BETTER THIS YEAR...WILL BE BETTER NEXT YEAR
BYU finally announced
their 2012 football schedule last week.
It took a while because
they thought they had a chance to move Notre Dame to a late season date. It
didn't happen, but the Irish and BYU will tentatively be meeting on November 16
in
Meanwhile, bac back to
2012. Here is BYU's schedule.
Sep
1 -
Sep
8 -
Sep 15
-
Sep 22
-
Sep 29
-
Oct
5 -
Oct 13
-
Oct 20
- Notre Dame at
Oct 27
- Georgia Tech at
Nov
3 - bye
Nov 10
-
Nov 17
-
Nov 21
-
On paper, November looks very
similar to last year with cupcakes culminating the season. Before we groan too
loudly, however, here is something to keep in mind that we learned from
If BYU is undefeated
heading into November,, the slate of
If something is really on
the line for the Cougars in November, BYU fans will be ecstatic to be facing
the Vandals, Spartans and Aggies again for the second year in a row.
A cupcake is a cupcake,
regardless of where they fall during the season and on the calendar.
BYU gets theirs in
November.
When it comes to the 2013
season, here are games and dates that we are aware of. They could all change,
but here is the latest.
Sep 7 -
Sep 14 - Most likely spot
for a Div I-AA team at
Sep 21 -
Sep 28 -
Oct 4 -
Oct 12 - Georgia Tech at
Oct 19 -
Nov 16 - Notre Dame at
South Bend
FLUFF
AND STUFF
Spring football will
start for Bronco Mendenhall and his team Monday, March 5.
Like all spring drills, several
players will miss action because of injury, surgery or just as a precaution
against both.
The biggest name missing
will be linebacker Kyle Van Noy. He had shoulder surgery last week, but will be
ready for fall camp.
According to published
reports, others missing from spring will be kicker Justin Sorensen, Braden
Brown, OL; Preston Hadley, DB; Jason Munns, QB; David Foote, RB; Teu Kautai,
LB; Russell Tialavea, DL; Dallin Tollestrup, DB; Austin Holt, TE; Devin Mahina,
TE; Richard Wilson, TE and Jordan Richardson, DE.
In basketball, we can't
remember if we mentioned before that Damarcus Harrison is probably 50-50 on
whether to serve an LDS mission. His brother is currently serving a mission in
With tickets now scarce
or even non-existent for the upcoming WCC tournament in
Our little golf group
never pre bought tickets. We just simply played golf in the mornings then went
to the Thomas and Mack arena and hung out at the exits for the conclusion of
the early games featuring the lower seeds. We always could buy tickets from the
fans of the losing teams.
They had no use for
watching any more basketball and tickets were always plentiful.
BYU is currently
guaranteed to play no earlier than Friday, and if all goes well in
If this method hold form
as it did in the MWC, there is still a pretty good chance that you could get
yourself into the
Remember, this is no
guarantee. So if you try and come up empty, please don't sue.
TELEVISION
TIMETABLE
BYU vs.
Thursday, Feb 23 at
Tipoff: 7:00
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs. Gonzaga
Thursday, Feb 23 at
Tipoff: 9:00
TV: ESPN2
BYU vs. UC
Friday, Feb 24 at
Start: 7:00
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs.
Saturday, Feb 25 at
Tipoff: 4:00
TV: BYUtv