HB Arnett’s
COUGAR SPORTSLINE
801
372 0819
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West 800 South –
Vol. 32,
Issue 27 – January 23, 2012
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BYU AND
GUARD LINE EXPOSED BY LMU
Coaches are clones. Once
one finds a way to beat a team, other coaches pile on.
It will begin to happen
to BYU now. Loyola Marymount found the way to beat the Cougars in
The LMU formula was to
take away, or at least make it difficult for BYU insi
They weren't up to the
task against Loyola. BYU's front line is good enough to still carry this team
against the lower echelon teams they will face the rest of the season.
That was evi
Even in the loss to LMU
in
But against the top tier
teams remaining on the BYU schedule, you can look for coaches of Saint Mary's,
Gonzaga and LMU again in the WCC post season tournament to put the pressure
squarely on the BYU guard line to
Based on the most recent performances
against LMU and even Pepperdine, it doesn't appear that they will be up to the
task.
Four
Baskets
Against Loyola Marymount,
BYU's top three guards, Brock Zylstra, Matt Carlino and Craig Cusick logged a
total of 83 minutes on the floor between them. They managed just four baskets.
Against Pepperdine, they
saw 79 shared minutes on the floor and only produced one field goal in all that
time.
In NCAA tournament play,
pundits like to say you will go only as far as your guards can carry you.
Based on last weekend, we
don't have to wait for March. What we saw against LMU and Pepperdine from the
guard play of the Cougars last week, BYU won't be in NCAA post season action
and at this rate they won't be in contention for a WCC regular season or post season
tournament crown.
There have been some nice
offensive performances by the BYU guard line this season, but they all have
been when Cougar guards were hitting wi
They still had those wi
Atrocious
Even in the win on the
road at Pepperdine, the outsi
Zylstra was zilch. He was
just 1-6 from the floor. Backups Craig Cusick didn't even attempt any shots and
Anson Win
In the last two games,
BYU guards shot just 20% from the field against LMU and just 9% against
Pepperdine. In three-point shooting, they were 11% against LMU and 0% against
Pepperdine.
Hopefully, last week was
just an atrocious anomaly because you can bet opposing coaches now smell blood
and are going to make BYU guards prove that they can do more than get the ball
to Noah Hartsock and Brandon Davies.
With the split last week
against LMU and Pepperdine, BYU is now in third place in the WCC standings with
a 6-2 record. They are 17-5 overall.
On the
Road
Dave Rose and his crew
will travel to
BYU will fly back and
have a short turnaround for the all important return engagement with St. Mary's
in
The Gaels are currently
in sole possession of first place in the WCC standings with a perfect 8-0
record. Overall they are 19-2.
Before facing the Cougars
in
For the Cougars, this is
a must win if BYU entertains any serious thoughts of getting a piece of the WCC
regular season championship..
HOW DID
WE GET HERE?
If we are honest, we all
knew there would be a serious step down in guard play this season from the tan
What we didn't expect is
to see the total mediocrity of the current guard line we saw last week.
And it could have been
much, much worse. What if Matt Carlino hadn't fortuitously fell into Dave
Rose's lap last year when he became disgruntled with UCLA and left the Bruins'
program looking for somewhere else to play?
Carlino stunk it up last
week along with every other BYU guard, but at least he has potential to be a
good guard in the future.
What would it be without
Carlino? It would be two walk-on guards starting for the Cougars. Brock Zylstra
is a walk-on who earned a scholarship last year. Craig Cusick is a walk-on who
will earn a scholarship next year.
Rose tried to re-stock
the guard cupboard a year ago. He spent a lot of effort on recruiting two
guards to help ease the transition from Fre
He pursued Damarcus
Harrison and Brett Kingma very hard.
If you still won
As mentioned, Zylstra and
Cusick play because they are better than what is on the bench. It also doesn't hurt
that both are tough and gritty and fit the history of Rose playing guys that
remind him of himself when he was at
Rose wasn't talented, but
he was tough min
Zylstra and Cusick fit
that mold. So did Brock Reichner, Rose's son-in-law who also was a walk-on that
en
The question is how will
BYU's guard line improve for the future?
Nothing will change next
season. Barring an unexpected recruitment of a juco guard, the personnel will
remain the same.
The only hope for better
guard play next season will be improvement from Carlino and Harrison as
sophomores.
BYU did sign two
outstanding prep prospect guards in November. They won't be available for a
couple of years, however. Both Cory Calvert, a 6-3 guard from Chaparral HS in
Parker, CO and Jordan Chatman, a 6-4 guard from Union HS in Camas, WA, will
serve LDS missions before enrolling at BYU.
Nick Emery, who can
score, is still a season and a half away from putting on the BYU uniform. He
currently is a junior at Lone Peak HS.
What it all means is that
the next upgra
Tyler Haws returns next
season from his LDS mission, but he will take over for Charles Abouo and likely
only see limited action at the guard line.
Last week we talked about
potential BYU players for the future. Several subscribers emailed us reminding
that we left two guys off the future list: Eric Mika and Isaac Neilson.
We just spaced out and
forgot about Mika, the 6-8 front court player, who has committed to BYU and
will be playing his senior season next year at Lone Peak HS.
We didn't forget about
Neilson. He is still at least two seasons away from playing. He worked out with
BYU this past summer after graduating from Mission Viejo HS last year.
He was always ticketed to
serve an LDS mission first and then enroll at
He received his mission
call to
We also received feedback
from a subscriber last week about future players and recruiting of future
players for BYU basketball.
He sent along a very nice
spreadsheet that he put together that helps him track BYU basketball players.
We were impressed enough
to pass it along as an attachment to this week's newsletter.
50
DEGREES DIFFERENCE IN TEMPERATURE ONE REASON THE WCC IS BETTER THAN THE MWC IN
BASKETBALL
We are well aware of the
fact that many think BYU took a backward step when it left the Mountain West
Conference for the West Coast Conference in basketball.
That
The top two BYU
administrators and their wives were all in attendance at the Pepperdine game in
We can guarantee that
they didn't just spend two hours in
We can't remember a
sighting of a non-athletic BYU administrator watching a BYU basketball game in
We can almost guarantee
that those same administrators will now find much more business to conduct at
WCC venues than they ever did at MWC venues. Plus, it is a great way for them
to rack up bonus points for road trip date nights with their spouses.
RECRUITING
RECKONING JUST NINE DAYS AWAY
Football recruiting
letter of intent day is just 9 days away and set for Wednesday, February 1.
Basically BYU is set.
They are still working on a few prospects, but all the heavy lifting is done.
As usual, there are
always a few different and unusual stories surrounding the recruiting game and
this year is no different.
This is the first time since
we have been covering recruiting that the outcome of whether BYU will sign a
particular recruit is contingent on his getting married or remaining single.
If he does marry, BYU is
in the hunt. If he doesn't, the Cougars have no chance of landing him.
If he ends up married and
at BYU, we won't say any more. If he lands elsewhere, we will give
Apparently BYU is still
in a neck and neck battle for Hiva Lutui, a highly touted offensive lineman out
of
Count on USC. BYU's
recruiting record against USC when the Trojans really want a prospect is 0-25.
We don't expect that to
change anytime soon.
Once again, here is the
latest list of commitments for Bronco Men
Marques Johnson, DL, 6-2,
305, El
Sawyer Powell, LB, 6-1,
205,
Troy Hinds, DL, 6-5, 230,
Jamaal Williams, RB, 6-2,
190,
Jherremya Leuta-Douyere,
LB/FB, 6-0, 220, Servite HS, CA
Butch Pau'u, LB, 6-0,
215, Servite HS, CA
Micah Hannemann, DB, 6-1,
185, Lone Peak HS, UT
Steven Richards, TE, 6-2,
240, Alta HS, UT
Austin Hoyt, DL, 6-7,
240, Argonaut HS, CA
Phillip Amone, LB, 6-0,
220, Dr. Phillips HS, FL
Dylan Collie, WR, 5-10,
200,
Taysom Hill, QB, 6-2, 225,
Tanner Mangum, QB, 6-2,
185, Eagle HS, ID
Josh Weeks, WR, 6-4, 200,
Show Low HS, AZ
Rhett Sandlin, DB, 6-3,
220, Alta HS, UT
Matt Hadley, DB, 5-11,
190, Connell HS, WA
Ammon Olsen, QB, 6-4,
210, SUU/Alta HS, UT
Roman Andrus, DL, 6-5, 235,
BYU
SWEEPS USC IN VOLLEYBALL
The BYU Men’s
volleyball team swept two matches from USC last weekend in
The Cougars are now the
No.1 ranked team in the country.
We don’t often
cover BYU volleyball, but it looks line we will be paying much more attention
to the sport this year.
It is hard to ignore a
team when the have their own Jimmer Fre
Taylor San
You don’t need to
un
It’s good that
there is no NBA equivalent in volleyball because if there was San
He is a one-and-done type
of player.
With sold out crowds in
the Smith Fieldhouse, the only way most of you will see San
BYU
TELEVISION TIMETABLE
BYU vs.
Virginia Tech
Wednesday, Jan 25 at VT
Tipoff: 5:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: ESPN3
BYU vs.
Saint Mary's
Saturday, Jan 28 at
Tipoff: 7:00
TV: ESPNU
BYU vs.
Gonzaga
Thursday, Feb 2 at
Tipoff: 9:00
TV: ESPN2
BYU vs.
Stanford (Men’s Volleyball)
Friday, Feb 3 at
Starts: 7:00
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs.
Saturday, February 4 at
Tipoff: 8:00
TV: BYUtv