HB Arnett's COUGAR SPORTSLINE 801 372 0819 hbarnett@fiber.net and hbarnett@xmission <mailto:hbarnett@xmission.com> .com 1391 West 800 South - Orem, Utah 84058 Vol. 30, Issue 28 - February 15, 2010 Click <http://www.cougarstreet.com/products/index.php?type-450&PCID=450:0:0:0:0> Here To Order Or Renew Your Subscriptions 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 Provo. BYU will try and keep the happy, hopeful and history streak alive and well this week with road games at CSU and Wyoming. 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 Utah State, New Mexico and UNLV. 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 New Mexico, Emery was 3-of-10 from the floor, including just 1-of-7 from beyond the arc. He finished with 8 points. 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 Orem game and it reminded us again that there is a reason that college coaches focus more on summer AAU games than high school games in evaluating prospects. We put up some video of Collinsworth in the Orem game. It is on our blog at www.cougarsportsline.blogspot.com <http://www.cougarsportsline.blogspot.com/> . Nick Emery, 6-0 freshman guard, Lone Peak HS...It was another week with just one game. The Knights lost 50-43 to Pleasant Grove HS. Emery had 12 points. 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 Christ School as the racked up four wins. Harrison had 11 points in the 89-65 win over Meadowcreek HS of GA. He had 14 in the 88-29 blowout of Spartanburg Day and 9 points in the 79-50 win over Greensboro Day. In the final game of the week, he scored 24 points in leading his team to a 96-76 win over Patrick Henry HS of Roanoke, VA. Jordan Chatman, 6-3, guard, sophomore, Skyview HS, Ridgefield, WA...The sophomore had 17 points in a 69-56 win over Heritage last week. The victory clinched a league title for his team. 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, Mesa Community College, AZ...Rogers had 30 points in a 67-55 win over Scottsdale CC last Wednesday. He followed that up with 26 points in a 68-50 win over South Mountain. He scored 16 of those points in the first 6 minutes of the game and the rout was on. FLUFF AND STUFF 2010 NFL Scouting Combine Max Hall, Dennis Pitta and Manasa Tonga have all been invited to participate in the upcoming NFL Scouting Combine set for later this month in Indianapolis. 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 New Mexico...Erick Cook, 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 Indianapolis. Here are the other Quarterbacks and Tight Ends that were invited fro around the country. 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, Kentucky; Rashawn Jackson, Virginia (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 Utah high school signees. BYU now has six early commits, all of which are from Utah. Here they are. Baker Pritchard, DE, 6-2, 240, Bingham HS, UT 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 Utah prep prospects for the 2011 class. They include Ryker Matthews, OL, 6-7, 270, American Fork HS; Harvy Langi, RB, 6-1, 210, Bingham HS (Langi made an unofficial visit to Washington recently with his family). 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 Colorado State and Wyoming, UNM will host Wyoming and Air Force in Albuquerque. Both teams should add two more wins to their impressive resumes. 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. San Diego State and UNLV both have four losses and will have to have some huge upsets of the Lobos and Cougars to have a chance. In our opinion, it will come down to the showdown in Provo between UNM and BYU in Provo on Saturday, February 27. If UNM can beat the Cougars in Provo, it's over. Even if the Cougars win, the race is still up for grabs. That is because even if New Mexico loses to BYU and has three losses, we expect the BYU-Utah game to go either way. It is very, very plausible that the Utes could whip the Cougars in Salt Lake City and force a tie for the conference championship with BYU and UNM having three losses each. Assuming BYU can beat San Diego State in Provo ten days from now, the tie-breaker between the Lobos and Cougars would go to BYU. That is because the Cougars and Lobos would have split games with each other and UNLV. BYU would have swept SDSU and the Lobos didn't. 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. New Mexico......9-2.....23-3 BYU........................8-2.....23-3 UNLV............7-4.....19-6 SDSU......................7-4.....18-7 CSU.........................6-4.....15-9 Utah.........................4-6.....11-13 TCU.........................4-7.....12-14 Wyoming........2-9.....9-16 Air Force......1-10....9-15 TELEVISION TIMETABLE BYU vs. Colorado State Wednesday, Feb 17 at Fort Collins Tipoff: 6:00 pm Mountain Time TV: The Mtn BYU vs. Wyoming Saturday, Feb 20 at Laramie Tipoff: 4:00 pm Mountain Time TV: The Mtn BYU vs. San Diego State Wednesday, Feb 24 at Provo Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: CBS C BYU vs. New Mexico Saturday, Feb 27 at Provo Tipoff: 2:00 pm Mountain Time TV: Versus BYU vs. Utah Wednesday, Mar 3 at Salt Lake Tipoff: 7:00 pm Mountain Time TV: CBS C BYU vs. TCU Saturday, Mar 6 at Fort Worth Tipoff: 4:00 pm Mountain Time TV: The Mtn