HB Arnett's COUGAR SPORTSLINE 801 372 0819 hbarnett@fiber.net and hbarnett@xmission <mailto:hbarnett@xmission.com> PO Box 50424 Provo, Utah 84605 Vol. 28, Issue 1, August 6, 2007 Click <http://www.cougarstreet.com/products/index.php?type-450&PCID=450:0:0:0:0> Here To Order Or Renew Your Subscriptions As a subscriber you are allowed to access our new blog. You can view it by going to www.cougarsportsline.blogspot.com <http://www.cougarsportsline.blogspot.com/> Just a reminder that we are now sending the newsletter via two separate email accounts to help solve distribution issues that many subscribers experienced last year. That means you may receive two identical letters. If that is the case, please just discard the extra. IT'S REALLY JUST A THREE-GAME SEASON The problem with Bronco raising the bar for BYU football is that he has also raised the expectations of Cougar fans. The 2007 season shows 12 games to be played by BYU. But with the bar raised, it is really just a 3 game season within a season that will make or break BYU football this year. How Bronco and his boys do in these three games will determine if BYU fans remain invested, invigorated and interested. Let's break down the schedule and see if you don't agree. The three games that really matter include one at the start of the season and two at the end of the season. In between is just busy work. Let's start with the busy work which totals eight games. They include five games on the road against Tulsa, New Mexico, UNLV, San Diego State and Wyoming. It also features Air Force, Eastern Washington and Colorado State at home in Provo. We can count at least 5 absolute gimme games against this group. Quite frankly, anything less than a 7-1 mark against these opponents would be extremely disappointing. If we had to pick a loss here, we would most likely check the weather forecast for a possible blizzard in Laramie in November or a quarterback in Albuquerque. If either of those things occur, BYU could stumble at either locale. Loss in Los Angeles We have already penciled in a loss to UCLA. The Cougars and Bruins will face off in the Rose Bowl on Sept. 8. With a loss to the Bruins and a law of averages loss to some team in the busy work section of the schedule, that puts the Cougars on track to a repeat record of 11-2. That means the meat and potatoes of the season and the measuring stick of the program in 2007 will be determined against the three remaining teams on the schedule. That would be Arizona on September 1 to start the season and TCU and Utah to close out the year in November. All three games are in Provo, and in our opinion, those three contests will make or break BYU football's 2007 season. Nobody really knows how good BYU will be this year. On paper, it looks promising, but in the history books, it looks suspect. When BYU rolls out a new quarterback, it has not been a banner year. The lone exception to that rule is 1984 when Robbie Bosco, in his first year as a starter, led BYU to a national championship. We like Max Hall, but we would like him better if he had actually taken a snap in a Division I football game. That is our early assessment of the season, but we expect it to change as fall camp unfolds and there is actually something to evaluate and report. Those assessments will start in next week's letter after BYU has a week of practice under its belt. FOOTBALL FLUFF AND STUFF Since Bronco Mendenhall has injected a little ecclesiastical element into the football program, so will we. We have a subscriber from Salt Lake that is a die-hard Utah fan. This guy is born and bred in Utah, but is not LDS. He is very successful in business and has many associates and friends that are LDS. Why he takes the letter is still puzzling, but we have had many interesting and enjoyable conversations during the years. The best came just last week when he confessed that after watching the BYU-Utah game last year and repeatedly being subjected to replays of the Beck-to-Harline finish, he finally can comprehend the LDS doctrinal concept of "time and all eternity". In case you missed it, Bronco Mendenhall was given a contract extension and pay raise by BYU. We thought BYU paying market value for a coach was a sure sign of the last days, but then we remembered that BYU administrators were probably just complying with the new minimum wage standards that went into effect last month. Bronco did a very nice job giving LDS firesides around the West earlier this year. Kyle Whittingham has followed suit. Well not exactly, but Whittingham and his family spoke in Sacrament meeting just a two weeks ago in their new ward where they recently moved. Again, according to a subscriber and former mission president who lives in that ward, they did a very good job. We know we are in a BYU minority in this opinion, but Whittingham is actually a very good coach and a very good guy. We now rejoin the BYU majority, however, because we still hope he loses every game he coaches at Utah. The fact that BYU plays Arizona to begin the season opens a few old officiating wounds for some Cougar fans. The Matt Allen td reception that was called offensive pass interference in Tucson last year comes to mind. It was a Pac 10 crew that worked that game. Pac 10 officials won't be working the game again in Provo, but apparently it won't be a MWC crew either. The officials will be from the Big 12. We have a family connection with one of the crew that will be working the UofA-BYU game. He lives in Nebraska and is a Big 12 official. A few years back, he also worked a Utah-Arizona game in Salt Lake. We don't know, but would be willing to bet that either Arizona or the Pac 10 in general have a clause in their game contracts with the MWC that calls for Pac 10 officials when the games are played at their venues and non-MWC officials when the venues are in the MWC. Just a guess. Ty Detmer will have his number retired during halftime of the BYU-Arizona game. Gifford Nielsen will also be honored in the same ceremony. Both wore #14 while playing for the Cougars. TELEVISION TIMETABLE BYU vs. Arizona Saturday, Sept. 1 at Provo Kickoff: 3:30 pm, Mountain Time TV: Versus Network BYU vs. UCLA Saturday, Sept. 8 at Pasadena Kickoff: 4:30 pm Mountain Time TV: Versus Network BYU vs. Tulsa Saturday, Sept. 14 at Tulsa Kickoff: 7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: CSTV SUMMER SUMMARY OF BYU BASKETBALL Now that BYU started football camp last Saturday, you can expect the next newsletters to be all football, all the time. It will take about a week and several days of practice before there is anything real to write. Before we do, now seems like a good time to catch up on BYU Basketball during the summer. The months of April and July are actually the two most critical months when it comes to recruiting. Forget the high school basketball seasons. They mean very little these days. When it comes to recruiting and evaluation and deciding who will get precious scholarships, that was basically decided last month during the AAU tournaments held around the country. Summer Squatting If you want know where BYU's recruiting interest lies for the future, all you need to do is follow Dave Rose around in July and see which summer tournament games he attends. The last two weeks of July says plenty about where Rose and BYU's focus is in recruiting. He and his assistant coaches attended every game of 6-9 Jeremy Olsen. He is at Collins Hills HS in Atlanta and will be a junior this coming season. This LDS prospect was playing on the Worldwide Renegades AAU team. He was also playing against some of the elite AAU teams in the country. It was a little hard to get a handle on him because in the three games we saw, he probably had less than ten touches. His teammates were reluctant to get him the ball. He does have a mid-range game, but against the elite athletes we saw, he is a mediocre rebounder and has some serious defensive liabilities against bigs who have quickness. That said, he is a player who would flourish at BYU. His recruitment will not be a slam dunk. He has programs like Ole Miss, Xavier and Utah involved. In games we saw he had at least one of his family entourage who attended the games in Las Vegas wearing a t-shirt that said, "Friends don't let Friends Go To BYU" Michael Boswell is another 6-9 player that BYU bird-dogged in Las Vegas. He is from Aloha HS in Beaverton, OR. He played for the Oregon Rebels. We can see why BYU is interested, but we thought he played soft. Hot On Haws There is no question that BYU's biggest recruiting target for the near future will be Tyler Haws, the 6-5 guard from Lone Peak HS in Highland, UT. The reports we get is that both BYU and Utah have already offered scholarships. His summer play include a Lone Peak team stop at North Carolina and appearances in Long Beach and a late stop in Las Vegas in July where Dave Rose was front and center for all seven games. Of course so was Jim Boylen, the new coach of Utah. Haws also spent time this summer at Ben Howland's UCLA camp and the Bruins have been on Haws' heels since. Haws will be a junior this coming season and based on his play this summer, will definitely end up being a national recruit. He was at his best late in July when he played for the Salt Lake Metro Prospects in Hal Pastner's Las Vegas Summer Classic. The SL Metro team had just seven players, four from Lone Peak HS and three from Pleasant Grove HS. They were coached by Marty Haws, the former Cougar basketball player and father of Tyler. They breezed through pool play without breaking a sweat and then dominated in bracket play, which is basically a one and done tournament which featured all other undefeated teams from their respective pools. Playing in the top Platinum bracket, they defeated the Fairfield Ballers from Northern California 75-67, beat a very talented Arizona Stars Bibby team from Arizona 95-84 and also whipped a good local Las Vegas team in Dogcatchers Elite 87-78. That got them to the championship game against Cecil-Kirk, a team from Baltimore. Salt Lake Metro, after having a 60-49 lead midway in the second half, eventually lost 83-85 in double overtime. Because of only having seven players and experiencing foul problems, they played the second overtime with just four players on the court. Here are Haws' stats for those last four games: Ballers; 3pt=0-0, 2pt=10-17, FT=4-6, Total Pts=24, Rebs=4 Arizona; 3pt=0-2, 2pt=18-28, FT=11-14, Total Pts=47, Rebs=11 Las Vegas; 3Pt=2-5, 2pt=13-23, FT=3-5, Total Pts=35, Rebs=15 Baltimore; 3pt=0-0, 2pt=14-22, FT=5-11, Total Pts=33, Rebs=9 The players from Lone Peak HS on the Salt Lake Metro Prospects team included Haws, Josh Sharp, Kimball Payne and Nate Austin. Austin reportedly played well enough in Las Vegas and other AAU venues to make himself a prospect. He will be a junior this coming season. He is thin, but being 6-10 makes him interesting. Keep your eye on him. Another Lone Peak player made himself a Division I prospect this spring with his play. Justin Hamilton played a lot in the spring, but his summer play was limited because he accompanied his mother, who is Serbian, to visit family overseas and won't be back until school starts. Hamilton will be a senior at Lone Peak this coming season. He is also 6-10. Also on the Salt Lake Metro Prospects team were C.J. Wilcox and his cousin, LeSean Wilcox from Pleasant Grove HS. Both played well in Las Vegas. They are both juniors this coming year. C.J. is the son of former Cougar basketball player Craig Wilcox. He signed out of Georgia and played for Roger Reid. C.J. is 6-4 and LeSean is 5-10. While this appears to be a lean 2008 recruiting class for LDS basketball prospects, there is no question that it picks up dramatically from here with top junior LDS prospects Haws and Olsen. Throw in Sean Carey of Bountiful, whom BYU coaches also watched this summer and the future is bright. You can even go one class deeper to find top notch LDS prospects. BYU spent time watching and have already expressed major interest in a player who has yet to play a minute of high school basketball. Last year Jordan McLelland, a 6-3 shooting guard, played at Stapley Jr. High in Mesa, AZ. This year he will be a sophomore at Mountain View HS. He has already made a name for himself this past spring and summer while playing for the Arizona Magic Blue AAU team. BYU, Utah and Stanford are all currently involved. European Tour Dave Rose and his BYU basketball squad will embark later this month for France and a ten-day exhibition tour. This is part of the NCAA rule that allows teams to tour internationally once every four years. Rose will take his staff and seven players. New incoming recruits or those who have never been on the roster are not allowed to participate. Those headed to France include Trent Plaisted, Jonathan Tavernari, Lee Cummard, Gavin MacGregor, Sam Burgess, Ben Murdock and Chris Miles. Vuk Ivanovic could go, but he opted to play for the Serbian National team this summer and forgo the trip to France. Miles returned last Wednesday from his LDS mission to Seattle. He was able to be released about a month early from his normal release date to help get back in shape and make the trip. Miles, a 6-10 post player saw significant minutes as a freshman in 2004-05. There had been some rumblings that he was not happy at BYU during his freshman year and even some talk that he might return and enroll elsewhere, but the hiring of Dave Rose and the success the Cougars have enjoyed in Rose's first two season, cured all those potential problems. The trip to France is nice, but the main benefit for BYU is that it allows the team to officially practice with coaches in preparation for the trip. Official practices normally don't get underway until October. Because the official practices cannot involve new incoming recruits, and because the Cougars only have seven players, former Cougars have been recruited to help scrimmage and participate in practice. Jimmy Balderson, Mike Hall, Keena Young, and Derek Dawes are just a few former Cougars who are helping out with practices. New Recruits There are eight new recruits that are already on campus who have been playing in organized pickup games. Most of those eight recruits have already been enrolled in school for this last summer semester. Only six will show up on the official roster because they are on scholarship, but two others are here and participating as invited walkons. The six new players with scholarships include Chris Miles, a 6-11 post from Timpview HS in Provo (Okay, he is a returning player from an LDS mission who played as a true frosh), James Anderson, a 7-0 post player who signed two years ago out of Page HS in AZ and just enrolled for the first time after serving an LDS mission and Chris Collinsworth, a 6-9 forward from Provo HS. He signed with the Cougars last fall during the early signing period. Lamont Morgan, a 5-10 point guard from Saddleback JC in California, also signed early with the Cougars last November. The two remaining scholarship players include Archie Rose, a 6-5 wing from the Bahamas. He signed this past spring after playing two seasons of juco ball. His first year was spent at Northeast Colorado in Sterling, CO and his sophomore year was at Lee JC in Baytown, TX. Rose also spent this past season at Baytown, getting his academics in order to facilitate his moving on to Division I basketball. Consequently, he has no redshirt remaining. The last scholarship player is Michael Lloyd, a 6-2 guard from Palo Verde HS in Las Vegas. The two non-scholarship players who have been participating in workouts are Matt Pinegar, a 6-2 guard from Timpview HS, and Nick Martineau, a 6-1 point guard from Davis HS. Pinegar is returning from an LDS mission and Martineau will play as a non-scholarship walkon this year, go on an LDS mission and then return to play with a grant-in-aid. Impressions We have watched the newcomers play this summer in pickup games against the returning players. Here are some of our evaluations. We have always like what we saw of Jimmer Fredette on tape. We weren't disappointed in person. He has tried to fit in and curtailed his shooting attempts, but our scouting report on him remains the same. He has great range on his outside shot and can also create his own shot. He is strong and can also get to the basket. He will play this year. Chris Collinsworth has been able to consistently hit a mid-range jump shot this summer. That ability will make him a very good player because he can post up, run the floor and has some athleticism for his size. The sleeper and surprise for us is Archie Rose. This guy is a player and will see minutes this year. He has some size for a guard and is strong going to the basket. Our biggest surprise was how well he shoots it from outside. In our opinion, this guy is the surprise of the recruiting class. Michael Lloyd and Lamont Morgan are both guys who will struggle offensively, but both can penetrate and get to the basket. Their playing time will be situational and depend on how well they can defend opposing guards with quickness.