HB Arnett's COUGAR SPORTSLINE 801 372 0819 hbarnett@fiber.net and hbarnett@xmission <mailto:hbarnett@xmission.com> .com 1391 West 800 South - Orem, Utah 84058 Vol. 30, Issue 29 - February 22, 2010 Click <http://www.cougarstreet.com/products/index.php?type-450&PCID=450:0:0:0:0> Here To Order Or Renew Your Subscriptions BYU BASKETBALL...FOOTNOTES AND FLOODLIGHTS BYU won two road games last week to add to Cougars' basketball bibliography for this season. Let it be noted those games weren't exactly page turners. The scores for those contests were BYU 92 CSU 70 and BYU 85 Wyoming 63. File both wins as just minor footnotes in the main story of this basketball year that will unfold in Provo in a few days. It will be the floodlights of national exposure and rankings instead footnotes and Fort Collins this week. With San Diego State coming to town on Wednesday and New Mexico arriving for a conference championship showdown on Saturday, these games will not only have the attention of the rest of the conference, but a smattering of the national spotlight also. That is to be expected when two top 15 teams face each other as is the case with UNM and BYU. We expect both games to be battles of boinks and boards. Against the Aztecs, it will be a battle for the boards. The Aztecs play like the old teams of UTEP under Don Haskins. Those old UTEP offenses were based around throwing the ball up at the basket and then going to get it for an offensive rebound and a put back. That is what we expect from SDSU. They are extremely long, athletic and talented up front. They will be all over the offensive boards. BYU will have to find a way to negate this advantage. The Cougars can't match up inside with SDSU but are a much better perimeter team. We hate to keep hammering the same theme, but if BYU shoots the ball well from the outside, they are almost unbeatable. Boinks Against New Mexico, the Lobos are also very aggressive on the glass, but this game will be a battle of boinks. We expect this game to be decided by three-point shooting. The team that has the most boinks and misses from long distance will find themselves on the losing end of the score. We expect BYU to play a lot of zone against UNM to try and keep Dairese Gary from penetration to the rim. That means UNM will have to be hot from the arc to win this game. We expect Jimmer Fredette to have a good game, but we also expect that it will take some more help from the outside for BYU to win. Either Jonathan Tavernari, Jackson Emery or Tyler Haws will have to be scoring big from long distance if the Cougars if BYU is to win. We will tow the party line on these two games and call two BYU wins. Neither will be easy and both should be nail biters. FLUFF AND STUFF FIGURE SKATING AND BASKETBALL...We like football more than we like basketball. The main reason for our preference is that in football, there is less subjectivity when it comes to games. Sure there are blown calls, but overall, if a football team is bigger and better than their opponent, they just keep knocking the other team on their behinds and then get up and do it again. The vast majority of the time, regardless of some missed calls, the better team will win. We realize that in basketball, officiating, by nature, has to be subjective. Overall, we think game officials do a very good job, considering the job requirements. Most coaches acknowledge the rigors of officiating, but sometimes they can also get a little annoyed. The most annoyed we have seen BYU's Dave Rose this season was a few weeks back when he obviously was disgusted with the lack of calls given Jimmer Fredette going to the basket in the final minutes of the BYU-UNM game in Albuquerque. We acknowledge that our perspective may be a little tainted because we see way more of BYU basketball than we do of other teams in the league. We admit that our viewpoint is very subjective, but in our opinion, Jimmer Fredette is not getting the same calls by conference officials that he was getting in other games officiated by non-conference officials. We are aware of all the variables of officiating. Players that go to the basket get more calls than jump shooters. But again, in our opinion, Fredette doesn't get equal treatment when he goes to the basket in MWC games as he did in non-MWC games. We also realize that officials tend to swallow the whistle when a blowout is in progress and seem to be more interested in keeping the clock running than putting a player at the line. That is understandable and appreciated. With all of that said, here are some numbers we find interesting when it comes to three of the top players in the Mountain West Conference. In all games (conference and non-conference) played to date by Jimmer Fredette, Tre'von Willis of UNLV and Dairese Gary of New Mexico, here are their free throw numbers. All three have basically played the same number of contests. Fredette, overall this season, has shot 169 free throws and made 152 of those attempts. Gary, overall this season, has shot 191 free throws and made 143 of his attempts. Willis, overall this season, has shot 171 free throws and made 143 of his attempts. Here are the free throw numbers for the same three players in Mountain West Conference play only. Fredette, in MWC games, has shot 75 free throws and converted 65 of those. Gary, in MWC games, has shot 111 free throws, making 85 of them. Willis, in MWC games, has had 117 free throws, making 94 of them. According to our math, in non-conference contests this season, Fredette had 94 free throw attempts, Gary had 80 and Willis just 54. As soon as conference play started, those numbers flip-flopped with Willis getting 117 attempts, Gary at 111 and Fredette just 75 free throw attempts. It was obvious that Dave Rose thought Fredette should have had more calls, especially in the late going of the first UNM game when he was taking the ball to the basket and never got to the line. We saw at least seven or eight times in last week's games against Wyoming and CSU when Fredette was knocked to the floor while going to the basket and nothing was called. Maybe it would have been different if those games were hanging in the balance, but who knows? All we do know is that when it comes to free throw attempts, it appears that Fredette is not getting the same calls in conference play that he was getting in non-conference games. Maybe conference defenders against Fredette are just much better than those non-conference players who defended the junior guard from New York. Maybe Fredette isn't as aggressive in MWC games in going to the basket. Again, who knows? All we really know is that there is a discrepancy between the numbers of non-conference games and MWC games when it comes to Fredette and his frequency of going to the free throw line. We don't think you can blame it on his early conference season bout with mononucleosis. We will also bet that when BYU gets into NCAA post-season action, that Fredette will spend more time at the charity stripe than he currently does now in MWC play. Again, these are just our observations and another reason we prefer football over basketball. NO DISCREPENCY IN ROSE'S NUMBERS...One place where the numbers don't lie is with Dave Rose. In five years at the BYU basketball helm, he has put together the following numbers; 20-9; 25-9; 27-8; 25-8. With a current record of 25-3 and with at least 6 games remaining to play, which includes at least one game each in the MWC and NCAA post-season tournaments, a 30-win season for Rose and BYU is not out of the question. Rose has received a lot of national attention this season. Most of it deals with his inspirational and heartwarming story in regards to his battle with cancer. All of the media coverage is well-deserved. Where he should be receiving more coverage is in his coaching record. Much praise is heaped on Bronco Mendenhall for his model and matrix with BYU football. It too is deserved. What is obvious to us is that Rose has a very good model for BYU basketball. He knows his recruiting base and talent needs and always seems to find a way to fill those needs with his realistic pool of talent. You don't win as many games as Rose has without being a great recruiter and a great coach. THE FUTURES MARKET Listed below are how BYU's most recent signees and future prospects fared during the last week. All except recent signee Anson Winder, are LDS. Kyle Collinsworth, 6-6 guard/wing, senior, Provo HS...Collinsworth had 34 points in a 69-44 win over Westlake HS last Tuesday. He added 22 more points in the 51-49 rivalry win on Friday against Timpview. The regular season ends for Provo this Tuesday with a game against Timpanogas HS. The state championship tournament begins the following week. Nick Emery, 6-0 freshman guard, Lone Peak HS...The talented frosh scored 17 in a 59-51 overtime win against American Fork. Emery had 12 points in a 48-44 win over Hillcrest. His team finishes off the regular season this week with a game at Jordan HS on Tuesday. A win and they should advance to the 5A State Championship Tournament. Anson Winder, 6-3, guard, Senior, Bishop Gorman HS...In a 90-51 win over Arbor View, Winder scored the first nine points of the game and finished with 33. He connected on eight 3-pointers and finished 12-for-17 from the floor. Bishop Gorman will meet Desert Oasis on Monday afternoon in the Sunset Region Playoffs. Jabari Parker, 6-5, wing, Freshman, Simeon HS, Chicago...Simeon lost 64-46 to De La Salle last Saturday night. No box score was available. DeMarcus Harrison, 6-4, guard, Junior, Christ School, Arden, NC...He had 5 assists and 10 points in a 99-77 win over Rabun Gap last Saturday night. It is now on to the NCISAA tournament where Christ School is the No.1 seed. Jordan Chatman, 6-3, guard, Sophomore, Skyview HS, Ridgefield, WA...We couldn't find any games for Skyview that were played last week. They will play this Thursday in a District Championship game against an opponent yet to be determined. Chatman has averaged 17 points per contest in 20 games. Jordan Smoot, 6-10, center, Junior, Crown Point HS, Crown Point, IN...Smoot had 12 points and 17 rebounds in a 52-45 win over Portage last week. He scored 6 points in a 51-44 loss to Lowell. Stephen Rogers...6-8, 190, forward, Freshman, Mesa Community College, AZ...In a big 65-64 win on the road against Arizona Western, MCC kept their championship hopes alive. Rogers had 11 points, six boards, three blocks and two steals. Here are the current MWC Basketball Standings as of Monday, February 22 New Mexico......11-2.....25-3 BYU........................10-2.....25-3 SDSU........................9-4.....20-7 UNLV.......................8-5.....20-7 CSU..........................6-6.....15-11 Utah..........................5-7.....12-14 TCU..........................4-8.....12-15 Wyoming..................2-11.....9-18 Air Force..................1-11.....9-16 TELEVISION TIMETABLE BYU vs. San Diego State Wednesday, Feb 24 at Provo Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: CBS C BYU vs. New Mexico Saturday, Feb 27 at Provo Tipoff: 2:00 pm Mountain Time TV: Versus BYU vs. Utah Wednesday, Mar 3 at Salt Lake Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: CBS C BYU vs. TCU Saturday, Mar 6 at Fort Worth Tipoff: 4:00 pm Mountain Time TV: The Mtn MWC Post Season Tournament March 11-13 at Las Vegas Tipoff: TBA TV: Mtn/CBS C/Versus