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West 800 South –
Vol. 30,
Issue 28 – February 15, 2010
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BYU
BLOWS BY AIR FORCE 91-48
Hapless, helpless and
hopeless.
Those were three words
that come to mind if you are an Air Force Falcons basketball fan and had to sit
through BYU's 91-48 mauling of the Cadets.
Happy, hopeful and
history are the three words that come to mind if you are a BYU fan and sat
through the same game.
Let's face it. Air Force,
for a variety of reasons, is not a very good basketball team. Hapless, helpless
and hopeless are cruel adjectives used in describing the Falcons, but they are
accurate.
BYU's win was nice. It
made Cougar fans happy that BYU was able to rebound and play extremely well
coming off the most recent loss and dismal play at UNLV a week earlier.
It made BYU basketball
fans hopeful that the Cougars are back on track and ready to roll through the
remainder of the regular season.
If the Cougars can do
that, they are on the road to making some nice history. That history would be
Dave Rose and BYU winning their fourth straight Mountain West Conference
Basketball Championship. It would also mark the fourth time Rose has done that
in his five years of being the head coach in
BYU will try and keep the
happy, hopeful and history streak alive and well this week with road games at
CSU and
ABC,
NBC, CBS, CNN and Cougar Sportsline
Declare the Winner Before the Polls Have Closed
It's annoying, but
usually very accurate.
We are referring to the television
networks declaring the winners of elections before the polls have even closed.
One of the tools used by
pollsters and pundits in making their declarations is sampling voting districts
that are great indicators of how an election will pan out.
We are using that same
method in determining how the rest of BYU's basket season will play out.
Our best voting district
when it comes to BYU basketball this season is Jackson Emery.
When he is hitting
three-point shots, BYU is unbeatable. When he isn't, the Cougars are very
beatable. It's annoying, but so far very accurate.
BYU has three losses this
year. They all came on the road at
Against USU, Emery hit
only 2-of-6 shots. They were all from three-point range. He scored just 8
points. We hesitate to put it all on him, because Jonathan Tavernari went
1-of-11 from the field and just 1-of-5 from the arc against the Aggies, but the
common denominator in the three losses is Emery's sub-par outside shooting
performances.
Against
In the loss at UNLV, he
was 3-of-9 from the field which included just 1-of-6 with the three ball. He
finished with 10 points.
Emery is a very talented
player with great athletic tools and has helped BYU win 23 games. When he is
shooting it well from distance, BYU is unbeatable.
That's why it's not fair,
and certainly not scientific to blame the Cougars' three losses this season on
his outside shooting. That said, we doubt we are the only ones who hang on how
the junior guard shoots the three-ball in the early going of games.
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...Two more wins for the Bulldogs last week with Collinsworth
scoring 22 in a 49-40 win over Mountain View and 17 points in the 59-38 victory
over Orem. He also had 13 rebounds and 7 assists in that game.
We actually attended the
We put up some video of
Collinsworth in the
Nick Emery, 6-0 freshman guard,
Anson Winder, 6-3, guard, senior,
Bishop Gorman HS...It was limited playing time for Winder in the 84-41 blowout
of Desert Oasis and a 93-52 win over Bonanza where he scored 12.
Jabari Parker, 6-5, wing, freshman,
Simeon HS, Chicago...The second round of the Public League playoffs is underway
and Simeon defeated Von Steuben 47-37 last week. The only mention of Parker was
a free throw he hit in the fourth quarter.
DeMarcus Harrison, 6-4, guard, junior,
Christ School, Arden, NC...It was a busy week for
Jordan Chatman, 6-3, guard, sophomore,
Skyview HS,
Jordan Smoot, 6-10, center, junior,
Crown Point HS, Crown Point, IN...Smoot had 9 points and 5 rebounds in a 62-55
loss to LaPorte last week.
Stephen Rogers...6-8, 190, forward,
redshirt freshman,
FLUFF
AND STUFF
2010 NFL Scouting Combine
Max Hall, Dennis Pitta
and Manasa
It kicks off February 24
and runs through March 2. They are the only BYU players invited of the 330
other players who also received invites. Here are the other Mountain West
Conference players invited.
Utah...Matt Asiata, RB;
Zane Beatles, OL; Koa Misi, DE; David Reed, WR; Stephenson Sylvester, LB
TCU...James Gresham, DB;
Jerry Hughes, DE; Marshall Newhouse, OL; Daryl Washington, LB
UNLV...Jason Beauchamp,
LB; Joe Hawley, OL; Ryan Wolfe, WR
CSU...Cole Pemberton, OL;
Shelly Smith, OL
While it certainly is a
prestigious invite, it is not like Max Hall and Dennis Pitta won't have plenty
of other quarterbacks and tight ends with them in
QB's
Sam Bradford, Oklahoma;
Levi Brown, Troy; Jarrett Brown, West Virginia; Sean Canfield, Oregon State;
Jimmy Clausen, Notre Dame; Armanti Edwards, Appalachian State; Tim Hiller,
Western Michigan; Mike Kafka, Northwestern; Dan LeFevour, Central Michigan;
Thaddeus Lewis, Duke; Tony Pike, Cincinnati; Zac Robinson, Oklahoma State; John
Skelton, Fordham; Riley Skinner, Wake Forest; Jevan Snead, Mississippi; Tim
Tebow, Florida
(There were 19
quarterbacks invited)
TE's
Nathan Byham, Pitt; Dorin
Dickerson, Pitt; Ed Dickson, Oregon; Jim Dray, Stanford; Brody Eldridge,
Oklahoma; Dedrick Epps, Miami (Fl); Riar Geer, Colorado; Garrett Graham,
Wisconsin; Jimmy Graham, Miami (FL); Jermaine Gresham, Oklahoma; Rob
Gronkowski, Arizona; Clay Harbor, Missouri State; Aaron Hernandez, Florida;
Michael Hoomanawanui, Illinoise; Robert McCoy, Southern; Tony Moeaki, Iowa;
Colin Peek, Alabama; Andrew Quarless, Penn State
(There were 20 tight ends
invited)
FB's
John Conner,
(There were 29 running
backs invited, of which only three were fullbacks)
Class of 2011 Already Filling Up
If early verbal
commitments for the 2011 BYU football recruiting class are any indication, this
class will also be top heavy with
BYU now has six early commits,
all of which are from
Baker
Austin Heder, LB, 6-2,
215, Pleasant Grove HS, UT
Manoa Pikula, RB/LB, 6-0,
205, Bingham HS, UT
Alex Kuresa, QB, 5-11,
165, Mountain Crest HS, UT
Lui Lapuaho, OL, 6-6,
285, Hunter HS, UT
Moses Kaumatule, DL, 6-2,
245, Bingham HS, UT
BYU already has offered
other
Handicapping the Home Stretch
As of Monday, the New
Mexico Lobos are atop the MWC basketball standings. BYU is tied with the Lobos
in the loss column. That is also the way he standings should look in another
week of conference play.
While BYU will be on the
road this week at
The next two teams in the
standings will need some serious help and a few miracles if they hope to bring
home a regular season championship.
In our opinion, it will
come down to the showdown in
Even if the Cougars win,
the race is still up for grabs. That is because even if
Assuming BYU can beat
Being a No. 1 seed in he
subsequent MWC tournament is not necessarily a good thing. It depends if and
how early UNLV shows up in your bracket.
The No. 1 seed for the
MWC tourney opens with the winner of the pigtail or play in which will be
either the No. 8 or No. 9 seed. The No. 2 seed opens with the No. 7 seed. UNLV
could end up at either a No 3, 4 or 5 seed. At No. 3, they would be in the same
bracket as the No. 2 seed. At either a No. 4 or No. 5, they would be in the
same bracket as the No. 1 seed.
The fact that we are even
worrying about UNLV and their bracket in the MWC tournament with weeks to go
before the start of the tourney, is proof that the home court advantage the
Rebels have is real and unfair.
Here are the current MWC
Basketball Standings as of Monday, February 15.
BYU........................8-2.....23-3
UNLV……….........7-4.....19-6
SDSU......................7-4.....18-7
CSU.........................6-4.....15-9
TCU.........................4-7.....12-14
Air
Force…………..1-10....9-15
TELEVISION
TIMETABLE
BYU vs.
Wednesday, Feb 17 at
Tipoff: 6:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: The Mtn
BYU vs.
Saturday, Feb 20 at
Tipoff: 4:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: The Mtn
BYU vs.
Wednesday, Feb 24 at
Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: CBS C
BYU vs.
Saturday, Feb 27 at
Tipoff: 2:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: Versus
BYU vs.
Wednesday, Mar 3 at
Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: CBS C
BYU vs.
TCU
Saturday, Mar 6 at
Tipoff: 4:00 pm Mountain
Time
TV: The Mtn