HB Arnett’s
COUGAR SPORTSLINE
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hbarnett@fiber.net and hbarnett@xmission.c
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West 800 South –
Vol. 30,
Issue 32 – March 15, 2010
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Despite Jimmer Fredette
scoring 75 points in two games, a 95-85 win over TCU and a 70-66 loss to UNLV,
it wasn't enough for BYU to take home the hardware of the MWC Tournament.
Fredette and BYU will get
another chance this week against
The game is set for
Thursday, March 18 at the
The Cougars (29-5) are
the No. 7 seed.
Five
For BYU, the Cougars will
be hoping for the return of Tyler Haws, who missed the UNLV game with an eye
injury. If the swelling diminishes, he will be cleared to play against the
Gators.
For BYU, the formula for winning
remains the same. They are only as good as their outside shooting. Of secondary
concern is BYU's suspect rebounding.
They will need to be good
in both areas to defeat
As far as BYU's dismal
record of losing first round NCAA games, they will again be facing a very
athletic team. Another first round loss is not out of the question with
We are counting on the
If BYU does get by
For years, the cry has
been one-and-done. We now call it one-and-one with a win over
UNLV
LOSS TO SDSU DOESN'T RESOLVE THE PROBLEM
It just isn't so great
when one team has a home court advantage.
Those who love
We still don't think that
result will change any minds of BYU basketball fans, however.
Here is one of many
emails we received that pretty well sums up those Cougar opinions.
We're
stuck playing at the Thomas &
HERE’S
OUR ALTERNATIVES TO THE MWC TOURNEY PROBLEM
It is obvious that it is
all about making money. The fact that the Thomas and Mack was sold out this
year, says the MWC had its best revenue year yet from the tourney.
It is undisputable that
Here are two options for
solving the problem.
We would do what the WAC and
WCAC are doing and hold the tournament at the
Instead of 18,000 seats,
the
It also means that the
overall revenue would remain the same and still be divided evenly between the
schools. There would be no problem at all for each school to sell their
allotment of 666 tickets at the much higher prices.
They could sell the
limited tickets to the highest bidders from among their biggest boosters.
Here is where the bonus
kicks in. There would be a secondary market among athletic departments. A team
still gets its equal and annual cut of the revenue, but if they wanted,
they even sell a portion of their allotment of tickets to another school at
premium prices.
If UNLV needs more
tickets to take care of their biggest boosters, they can try and buy those
extra tickets from Air Force, CSU or even
A team like Air Force,
would not only get their 1/9 allotment of money from the conference for overall
ticket sales, but could likely reap another big bunch of cash from sister
schools trying to outbid each other for a few extra Air Force tickets to meet
their booster needs.
Talk about the ultimate
derivative market, this is it. Talk about competition among athletic
departments in the league, this would be more competitive than any real
basketball game.
It would also determine
who has the best athletic department and booster club staffs based on who can
soothe and solve all the inherent ego problems among boosters.
It also puts all schools
on equal footing and instead of the MWC making the decisions on how fair a site
Sure there will be some
irate fans, but that is what television is for. Think of the extra television
episodes that the Mtn could produce and the articles written about the back
room deals being cut between schools just to get a few extra tickets from each
other.
Think of the egos that
will be stroked or shredded among each school’s boosters, each of whom
think they are the biggest and best.
It is perfect for coaches
and administrators. If it is about fairness on the court, the
The tournament would take
on a Super Bowl aura, with only high rollers in attendance.
For us plebian patrons of
basketball, who will be priced out of a ticket, welcome to politics and the
real world. If you want fairness, somebody has to pony up the cash.
Maybe BYU would reserve a
major hotel for its fans that can't get tickets, but still want the
Think of it as a
hospitality hotel similar to a corporate hospitality tent at the Super Bowl.
Come to think of it,
there will be plenty of takers for those tickets also.
It's time to put the
monkey back on the backs of each MWC school that signed on for the current
Money, or equal
opportunity. Let the schools finally show their true colors.
For the basketball
purists who still want the regular season league games to mean something, give
the MWC winner 2000 of the 6000
How intense to you think
a late season matchup between BYU and
You could even make this
work at the Thomas and Mack. Simply do away with all public ticket sales. All
sales would be made by individual schools. This is our second option.
The winner of the MWC
regular season gets 6000 tickets to sell. Second place gets 4000 tickets. Third
place gets 2000 seats to sell. Fourth gets 1000 seats. The league gets 1000
tickets to accommodate teams, their families and school and league officials.
The remaining tickets
would be prorated to the remaining teams depending on their final regular
season standing.
You would still have
equal revenue sharing based on the total ticket sales, but you could also still
have a secondary market in ticket sales between sister schools of the league.
There would be some
logistical problems to be worked out and the ticket staffs and athletic
administrators will have to work harder, but it could be done.
By January, fans of each
school would have a pretty could idea of where their team will be come tourney time
and what the ticket situation will be.
They would still have
time to book rooms and golf in Vegas and still have a very good chance to get
tickets from their favorite school because of the secondary market between the
schools.
It would make the regular
season mean something and take away the UNLV built in advantage. If the Rebels
want the home court cooking, they will have to earn it like any other school by
doing something special during the regular season.
In an aberration year of
Air Force winning the regular season title, the Falcons would then get to make
a choice. They likely don't have a basketball fan base that could sell more
than 2000 tickets to the MWC tourney. They could choose to sit on those extra
4000 extra tickets they earned and maintain a home court advantage in
It's the American way of
politics and business.
This plan would make MWC
basketball a three season sport. You have the regular season, the competition
in the secondary market for tickets among the schools and then the MWC tourney.
All in favor say aye.
SORTING
THROUGH THE SCHOLARSHIPS
In the last issue, we
listed all of the BYU basketball players that would be on scholarship for the
coming season.
We had several
subscribers and observers reply that we had omitted Brock Zylstra from that
list. Zylstra was on scholarship this season.
If he is on scholarship
this coming year, it means that BYU is out of grant in aids and done
recruiting.
Only Dave Rose knows what
the scholarship status of Zylstra will be for the fall, but he has mentioned
before that Zylstra could end up being a starter for the Cougars before his
career is over in
That said, there have
been others who had a scholarship for a season when one was not being used and
was available, but it was a one and done deal. The most recent case was Matt
Pinegar.
Here is what we do know.
We don't know if it is related, but the fact that Rose mentioned last week at a
Cougar Club luncheon that James Anderson's status was up in the air, just
happens to coincide with news coming out of
Justin Hamilton, a 6-11 post
player for the Cyclones, who started 31 games this season for ISU, has asked
for and received his release from ISU's program so he can transfer to a school
closer to his home in Alpine, Utah. He played at Lone Peak HS, but is not LDS.
His father and mother both played football and volleyball for the Cougars.
Again, we aren't drawing
any conclusions, but will leave that up to you.
If
While it looks logical
that BYU might be in the mix here, if they are, it would leave BYU with four
post players on the roster when
It is highly unlikely, in
our opinion, that Brandon Davies will serve an LDS mission. That would make
Hamilton and Davies both juniors in 2011-2012. Throw in two other post players
returning from missions that same year in Nate Austin of
We will see.
This much we do know,
whether or not BYU has any more scholarships to give in April, they are still
out there recruiting.
Dave Rose and Dave Rice
made a stop at
BYU has already made
trips to MCC to watch Stephen Rogers play. That was done in February.
If it looks like
recruiting, smells like recruiting and walks like recruiting, you can bet it
is.
If BYU and Dave Rose
think that adding another player like
It has happened before
and it will continue to happen. That is how they do it in good Division I
programs.
In case you missed it on
our blog, you can see video of
http://cougarsportsline.blogspot.com/2010/03/hes-been-toro-torero-missionary-sun.html
SPEAKING
OF VIDEOS
Bronco Mendenhall and his
Cougars kick off spring football practice today, March 15.
The Cougars will be
looking to find players for several different spots, but BYU fans will only have
tunnel vision and be looking at the quarterback competition between Riley
Nelson, Jake Heaps and James Lark.
The last thing Mendenhall
wants is for fans to start picking sides in this battle. That is why all of the
practices are closed to the public. If you still want to pick a favorite, check
out these videos:
http://cougarsportsline.blogspot.com/2010/03/byu-footballamerican-idol-styleyou-be.html
It is still to be decided
if there will actually be a spring game. Mendenhall says it is because of the
shortage of healthy offensive linemen. That is certainly true, but you can bet
that that quarterback competition and fans oohing and aahing over their
personal favorite at a spring game, is something that he wants to avoid.
If there isn't an actual
spring game, there will be a final practice open to the public, but again, in
our opinion, it will be tailored not to show any head-to-head quarterback competition.
There are several of
players that will not participate or see very limited action this spring
because of injuries and or surgeries to correct those injuries. They include,
Andrew Rich, safety; Jordan Pendleton, linebacker, Houston Reynolds, offensive
lineman; Ross Apo, wide receiver; Jordan Richardson, defensive lineman; Brandon
Ogletree, linebacker; Shane Hunter, linebacker, Jason Speredon, offensive
lineman, Ryan Freeman, offensive lineman and Mike Hague, running back.
TELEVISION
TIMETBALE
BYU vs.
Thursday, March 18 at
Tipoff: 10:20 am Mountain
Time
TV: CBS and online at http://mmod.ncaa.com