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 32 - March 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 FREDETTE, FLORIDA AND FLYING IN THE FACE OF FIRST ROUND LOSSES 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 Florida, BYU's first round NCAA tournament opponent. The game is set for Thursday, March 18 at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City. Tip off is set for 10:20 am Mountain Time. The game will be televised by CBS and is also available on line for free. See Television Timetable below for details. The Cougars (29-5) are the No. 7 seed. Florida is a No. 10 seed. The winner of this game will advance to the second round to face the winner of No. 2 seed Kansas State and No. 15 seed North Texas on Saturday. Florida finished the season 21-12 and placed fourth in the East Division of the SEC with a 9-7 record. The Gators defeated Auburn in the first round of the SEC Tournament before falling to Mississippi State. Five Florida players average double figures, including super freshman Kenny Boynton (13.6), Erving Walker (12.6), Chandler Parsons (12.1), Alex Tyus (12.0) and Vernon Macklin, a Georgetown transfer (10.4). 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 Florida. 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 Florida. We are counting on the Oklahoma karma to get the Cougars over the hump. BYU's big football win over the Sooners of Oklahoma happened in Dallas, but maybe that Sooner karma can carry over to the Cougars in Oklahoma City. If BYU does get by Florida, they will be playing Kansas State. The karma isn't as good in this game. K-State dominated UNLV in a lopsided loss in Las Vegas this season. For years, the cry has been one-and-done. We now call it one-and-one with a win over Florida and a loss to Kansas State. UNLV LOSS TO SDSU DOESN'T RESOLVE THE PROBLEM Las Vegas is a great site for a conference post-season tournament. That is why the WCAC played theirs in Las Vegas this year and why the WAC is also heading to Vegas next year to play their tourney. Both will use the Orleans venue. It just isn't so great when one team has a home court advantage. Those who love Las Vegas as the site of the MWC post season basketball tournament will point to San Diego State's win over UNLV and say that the Rebels don't have an unfair advantage. 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 & Mack Center in Las Vegas through 2013. The irony is that the MWC is very vocal about the BCS using money to legitimize the unfair BCS post-season football system. Yet the MWC does the very same thing in continuing to allow UNLV to host the tournament championship year after year. UNLV has won 10 of 13 games on their home court in post season play. Make that 10 of 14 now. The MWC's complaints sound pretty hollow when you consider their own actions. By "MWC", we're talking about all the decision makers from all the schools who vote to hold the post-season tournament in Las Vegas. Shame on them. It's not right and it's not in the spirit of fair competition in college athletics. They seek mammon first, justice and fairness second, just like the BCS. 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 Las Vegas, minus the UNLV advantage, is the best place to hold the tourney. Here are two options for solving the problem. We would do what the WAC and WCAC are doing and hold the tournament at the Orleans. Instead of 18,000 seats, the Orleans only holds 6,000. No problem. Simply price the tickets three times higher and divide them up among all 9 MWC teams. That means that the tournament would be a battle of big time boosters from the respective schools. 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 Utah. 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 Las Vegas is, each school gets to decide for themselves if they are for fairness on the court or big money in their athletic coffers. 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 Orleans would be the perfect venue. If it is about money, then let's go big time and let the competing league schools cut their own deals with their allotted ticket assets, according to their needs and financial resources. 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 Las Vegas experience. Make it like a land locked cruise. They could wine and dine those fans with events, golf tournaments, speakers and all things BYU. They could set up nice convention type room for fans to watch the games, surrounded by friendly Cougar fans and avoid the Thomas and Mack grief of anti-Mormon slander and beer sloshing down their backs. 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 Las Vegas deal. Each school will have to make a decision on whether they want fair or fortune. 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 Orleans tickets. The regular season runner up would get 1500 tickets and third place 1000 tickets. The remaining 1500 tickets would be divided by the league also rans. It is the ultimate win, place and show. It also rewards the winner of league in seats and seeding. How intense to you think a late season matchup between BYU and New Mexico or UNLV would be if an extra 1000 tournament tickets went to the winner? 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 Las Vegas, or they can sell that home court advantage and 4000 tickets to a school like UNLV or New Mexico who are willing to pay for it. 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 Provo. 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 Iowa State this past weekend. 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 Hamilton transfers to a Division I school, he will have to redshirt a year. 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 Hamilton is again eligible. 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 Lone Peak and Ian Harward of Orem HS, and we don't see Rose carrying four scholarship centers on his roster. 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 Salt Lake Community College last Tuesday to take in the Mesa Community College vs. College of Eastern Utah game. It wasn't a courtesy call. 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 Rogers would make BYU a better team next season and he can convince a recruit to come on board, Rose will find a scholarship to give. 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 Rogers that we posted there, by clicking here: 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-style you-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. Florida Thursday, March 18 at Oklahoma City Tipoff: 10:20 am Mountain Time TV: CBS and online at http://mmod.ncaa.com <http://mmod.ncaa.com/>