HB Arnett’s
801
372 - 0819
1391
West 800 South –
Vol. 34,
Issue 36 –April 7, 2014
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Here To Order Or Renew Your Subscriptions
We
Can’t Have it Both Ways
Matt Carlino has gone to
play his senior season somewhere else other than BYU. His departure has caused
some to complain about his lack of commitment to Dave Rose and he Cougar
program.
The irony of those
complaints is that I have never heard any BYU sports fan complain about Jordan
Leslie leaving UTEP for BYU. That’s probably because they have seen some
of his high school highlights on You Tube. Click here to see for
yourself. Also, so far there have been no complaints from Cougar fans about
Chase Fischer leaving
Carlino has taken some
heat from some BYU fans for supposedly abandoning BYU for his last year of
eligibility. Yet, those same fans are excited and exhilarated about Taysom Hill
forsaking his letter of intent to Stanford and bringing his talents to
We loved the way Uani
Unga played middle linebacker last season for BYU, but conveniently forgot he
took the same option Carlino is taking by leaving left
As a fan base we were
more than happy to get Dave Rice as a coach from
Nobody
Knows
Look, nobody knows why
Carlino is moving on. He may not even know. It could be playing time or lack of
it. It could be because he felt underappreciated, it could be family dynamics.
It’s his life. And
in this country, the last time I checked, it is still about choices.
We love it when we get to
exercise our right of choice in our own lives, but when it comes to others and
especially others in sports that play for the team that we root and pull for,
how dare they leave our favorite team. And ironies of all irony, Keanu Nelson,
a seldom used wide receiver from Stanford, is opting to play his last year at
BYU this coming season using the same NCAA out provided by getting a degree and
then moving on without any eligibility penalty.
I have a good friend that
has had four wives. Actually he has ha
That’s life in
general and in sports in particular.
I still think had I never
left
I left town looking for
greener pastures and all I found was a wannabe gig as a pseudo sports
writer/commentator/observer. Blythe residents were the better for it.
I like my Church and its
semi-annual conferences, but I made the choice to skip the Saturday afternoon
session to go to a BYU (same church) baseball game and plant peas in my garden.
I think there is a scriptural and agriculture reference in there somewhere
about “reaping what you sow”.
Pea
Planting Proof
You will have to wait at
least two weeks for germination to get proof of the pea planting, but I have
posted a pix below of me and my niece (visiting from Arizona with her family
for conference) to verify my baseball attendance.
I am also hoping my
picture post will make me more recognizable in Wal-Mart checkout lines across
I don’t begrudge
Matt Carlino opting out of BYU for what he considers greener pastures, playing
time or whatever the reason. It’s about choices. If I cherish my right to
choice, I can’t begrudge him or anybody else that same right.
Now speaking of choices,
there are some BYU fans who think Carlino was the best player on the BYU
basketball team. Others would vehemently disagree.
Here’s the beauty
of old age and sports history. The older I get, the more I have seen and the
more I realize that nobody is irreplaceable. Joe Montana was replaceable by
Steve Young. Steve Young was replaceable by Colin Kaepernick.
At BYU, we always are
hoping that the last star certainly is replaceable. We are hoping that Taysom
Hill can replace Ty Detmer. We are hoping that the next Lone Peak HS star will
be better than Jimmer Fredette. If you live long enough those hopes are
eventually realized.
That’s why Matt
Carlino transferring for one last season of playing basketball elsewhere really
is a non story for me. Everybody is replaceable, including me. Just ask my
wife.
Collinsworth’s
Prognosis for Full Recovery Just Got Better
I’m no doctor and neither
is Matty Basketball, but Matt Carlino’s decision to look for another
playing option for next year, in my opinion, is a pretty good prognosis and
projection issued by Carlino that he expects a full recovery from Collinsworth
in time for the start of the coming BYU Basketball season.
A healthy Collinsworth
will be playing the point for Dave Rose next season. There can be debate,
discussion and even doctoral dissertations on Collinsworth at the point, but
Dave Rose is the MD (Making Decisions) writing the prescriptions and he has
decided to give hefty doses of Collinsworth to BYU basketball fans for the next
year and beyond.
That means, barring a
full recovery, that there would have been limited minutes available for Carlino
to play his preferred position this coming season. It also means that there
will not be lots of minutes available for other potential point guards at BYU
next year.
Those potential points
will be Frank Bartley IV, Jordan Chatman and maybe a little Anson Winder. Rose
has already said that all three are combo guards who can play the 1 and 2
spots.
Chase Fischer can’t
and won’t play the point, but he will fill in very, very nicely in
providing the three point shooting that Carlino did when he was hot.
Steve Cleveland, in his
first year as a novice Division I coach at BYU, foresaw the problem with BYU
basketball and its guard line this past season.
Shoot
the Three and Play Some D
In case you forgot,
Carlino and his transfer
may be getting the headlines, but the headaches for Rose more likely will be
who is going to take the place of Eric Mika?
The guard line issues for
BYU will somehow resolve itself for next season, but resolving who can score in
the low block, rebound and defend in the front court will still be a mystery.
The possibilities of a
consistent and productive BYU post presence will come from these five players:
Nate Austin, Isaac Neilson, Ryan Andrus, Luke Worthington, Jamal Aytes and Josh
Sharp.
Dave Rose is convinced
that these guys will make BYU a better team than they were last season. He has
pronounced his optimism publicly.
But really, does that
front court sound like Final Four material? How about Sweet Sixteen? How about
just NCAA invite material? Heck, it doesn’t even sound like WCC
championship material.
Just one guy’s
opinion, but the departure of Matt Carlino and the health of Kyle Collinsworth
is the least of Dave Rose’s worries for next season. But remember Rose is
still the guy calling the shots and he has vigorously stated that he likes his
front court for next season.
That means he likes the
players he has and the NCAA post season play has proven it is all about
players. Half court offenses are nice, strategy is sometimes good, but good
players make good coaches. That is the bottom line in basketball and always
will be.
BYU will only be as good
as its players and Rose thinks his will be better next year. I’ll take
his word on that assessment until proven otherwise.
BYU-Idaho,
BYU-Hawaii…Could BYU-Provo Be Next?
I had a subscriber email
last week and asked if I thought BYU would ever drop sports like was done in
Rexburg a few years back and in Laie last week.
Not in my lifetime was my
original answer, but after reading
this a few days ago, I might die sooner than I expect.
In the decisions by
BYU-Idaho and BYU-Hawaii to cut sports, the crucial criteria were based on
facilitating the education of more students.
Cutting athletics at BYU
would potentially free up a few hundred openings for additional students, but
the key factor is that at the other two BYU schools, athletics weren’t
self sustaining. They required funds that could be used for education. Now
there’s a novel thought at a university.
BYU adamantly claims that
their athletic programs in
Tom Holmoe, BYU’s
current athletic director, has maintained that BYU will do whatever it takes to
be competitive at the highest athletic levels in college sports.
But what if that means
having to opt to pay players a stipend, salary or what ever you want to call it
to participate at the highest levels of football and basketball?
Board of
Trustees?
Holmoe may want to do it,
but would the Board of Trustees?
In my opinion, it’s
all about money. Those that are producing it want to keep it and make their own
rules to insure they don’t have to continue sharing their money with the
have not’s.
Paying to play would
widen the gulf between the big boys and the little boys and insure that the big
boys get to play by their rules. In theory, paying for players sounds like it
would work for men’s football and basketball. Assuming you are hiring 85
football players to work for you and 13 basketball players to be on the payroll
that is just 98 jobs you need to fill and fund.
Tell that to the Title IX
people. If you are going to pay 98 men, you will also have to pay at least 98
women to do the same thing. And if unionization of college athletic teams is just
around the corner, you can bet that the Olympic sports on campus will be
organizing and orchestrating their plans and litigation in order to get paid.
If it was about hard work
effort and determination all would be equal because all athletes, regardless of
the sport, are equal in trying to do their best in their particular sport.
Unfortunately, it’s about revenue and who produces it and who gobbles it
up. That is what the NCAA fight is all about.
Look, we are already in
the pay for play game in college basketball if you know how AAU basketball
works during the summer for most of the prominent teams on the circuit.
Annuities
and Stock Options?
And what about
recruiting? Forget about jobs, cars and cash. They would become obsolete and be
replaced by deferred annuities and stock options as incentives to sign a letter
of intent.
Yeah, but think of the
missionary message that BYU and big time athletics provides the Church. The
last time I checked, missionaries don’t have to fill out a W-4 form when
they are called.
The sooner we get to the
soccer system worldwide, the better off we will be. That’s where
players are paid by their respective clubs and advance monetarily based on
their talents and abilities.
It is a total farce to
say that the big boys of college athletics espouse amateurism in athletics. The
money is way too big to believe that.
Privatize college
football and basketball and all other sports and let clubs or other business
interests take them over. Then all the universities would have to do is make
the highest bid to insure that their names were displayed prominently on the
jerseys worn by those club teams.
The faster we get to that
model, the faster universities can get back to educating students and get out
of the sports business into which they have invested and continue to invest
millions of dollars.
Bottom line: Yes, I
actually can see BYU dropping sports. If you disagree, you better hope I live
to be 100 years old.
Spring
Sports Recap
BYU lost two consecutive
men’s volleyball matches this past week against the
The Cougars are now 18-6
overall and 18-4 in MPSF play. They still are the No. 1 seed and will host
opening matches in MPSF tournament play later this month. The Cougars face UC
Santa Barbara Friday and UCLA Saturday, both at 7 p.m. PDT. BYU locked up a
share of the conference title with its win against UCLA March 29, and will host
at least the first round of the MPSF tournament starting April 19.
In baseball and softball,
BYU took two of three games in their respective series against Pacific and
The men bested the Tigers
of Pacific 10-1 and 9-3 in the first two games of the series, but lost 11-7 on
Saturday, in a game that was played on the campus of UVU in
The BYU softball team
traveled to
I could
have been a big shot in Blythe but optioned to transfer out because I
couldn’t shoot the 3 and definitely didn’t play any D!