BYU Basketball and P.O.Y. Fraud

Well, the college basketball season has ended for the Cougars of BYU. This year’s BYU team broke the school’s record for the most wins in a season (going 30-6) and were able to grab a handful of other records as well. Jimmer Fredette set a BYU record by scoring 49 points at Arizona (passing Bob Skousen’s mark of 47 set against UCLA in 1961). This feat was also a McKale Center record and tied the record for the most points in a game by a MWC player. Also in that game he hit 9 three pointers which passed Mike Rose’s mark of 8. In addition to these records, many individual awards were given to BYU players. Jimmer Fredette was awarded All-American Honorable Mention by the Associated Press and All-American 3rd Team by Sporting News. He was also named District VIII Player of the Year by the US Basketball Writers Association. In addition to their making the all MWC team (Tavernari also made this squad) Fredette and Emery were included on the All-District Team put out by the USWBA and the NABC. In addition to these accolades, BYU got the monkey off their back ending a 7 game NCAA tournament losing streak with a first round win over the University of Florida.

In all, the year has been good for BYU, beginning with the football team’s surprise upset of then #3 Oklahoma at Cowboy Stadium and ending with the first NCAA basketball win in over a decade (also the women‘s basketball team made the Elite 8 in the WNIT).

The only thing that could have made the year better would have been a MWC championship and Jimmer’s being named MWC Player of the Year.

We now enter the rant portion of this post, so prepare yourself.

During the 2009-2010 Men’s Basketball season there were 11 individual players who took the 20 MWC Player of the Week awards (3 co-players of the week). BYU and UNM each took 6 with the rest being split up among 5 other teams. Jimmer led the way winning the award 5 times, Kawhi Leonard of SDSU (Freshman) won 3 and 3 other players won twice. These other players include Roman Martinez of UNM, Tre’von Willis of UNLV, and Darington Hobson of UNM.

It seems logical that the player most deserving of the player of the year award be the player who won the most player of the week awards, right? Well, instead it went to Hobson whose two on the year was not even the most received on his own team. (Roman Martinez won two also).

Well, then it must be more about what they accomplish during the conference schedule, right? Wrong again. Hobson won the award only once during the months of conference games falling behind Fredette (2), Willis (2), and Leonard (2). In fact, two other players (Dairese Gary and AJ Hardeman) from his own team won it once over that time period.

When you compare their stats, Jimmer Fredette and Darington Hobson are almost identical in steals, blocked shots, turnovers, and assists. Jimmer scored just over 6 more points per game and Hobson rebounded about 6 more per game. Fredette also shot a higher percentage in each category (FG, FT, and 3PT).

In a form of fantasy basketball that I participate in, a statistic (TDX) is calculated to provide an idea of the “per minute” impact of an individual player. As such, I took the total stats of these two players, divided by minutes and added them up, subtracting turnovers and personal fouls from the total, and these were the results.

Fredette -- 0.880
Hobson -- 0.789

These scores mean that in 30 minutes of play Fredette would assemble some collection of stats totaling 26.4 (losing points for fouls and turnovers, but gaining them for rebounds, assists, points, steals, and blocks) while Hobson would tally 23.7 in the same amount of time.

This being said, the past cannot be undone and Darington Hobson is the MWC player of the year for 2010; the best player on the best team. However, but I feel it impossible to say that he is truly the best player in the MWC while the stats seem to imply otherwise.

Vegas Baby! Vegas!!

On March 10 I left Provo, UT to attend a family trip to Las Vegas. It was a trip centered around seeing my dad, two of my three brothers, my wife's grandparents, and the BYU men's basketball team make an attempt at the MWC tournament title. This was my second trip to Las Vegas and the first since getting married. The last time that I went was to meet my sister's husband (though we were also able to sneak in a BYU-UNLV football game). Since there were no new people meet this weekend I was forced to pretend to meet one. While waiting in the airport for the rest of my family to show up I became familiar with Chaun. Chaun is from Texas and owns a small fluffy dog. He also happens to be a Chippendale's dancer.Chaun is identified by the arrow and circle. I didn't get familiar enough with the rest of the crew to provide you with there names, but Chaun became an important part of the remainder of our trip.

Often when the family gets together something happens early on which becomes a running joke for the rest of the time that we are together. This means that if you know you are going to be around each other for any amount of time longer than a few days than it is important not to allow yourself to become the target of said joke. As may be imagined by the inclusion of the picture above, I failed. So, Chaun became a constantly referred to part of our group. We joked about cropping him in to family photos, saving space for him at restaurants, and, of course, not taking my wife (the only non-male member of our party) to the Rio for fear that Chaun would steal her away. However, as with all jokes of this nature, Chaun will be forgotten soon enough, so consider this a farewell. "Chaun, we will surely miss you."

Most of our non-Chaun morning time was spent at the Original Pancake House. I don't have pictures of the goods, but you can rest assured that the plain and chocolate chip pancakes, ham n' eggs, bacon, sausage, crepes, orange juice, and dutch oven pancakes were delicious... all three times that we got them. Big time thanks go out here to Pay-Pay and Grandfather Smith for their kindness in filling my belly and the belly of my wife and siblings.

We spent much of our non-Chaun down time playing cards, watching the old Mission Impossible TV show, and stuffing our faces with Jack in the Box. There are no JitB's in Utah Valley (where I reside) or in the greater Denver area. In fact, the only known JitB in all of Utah is in St. George (a four hour drive from Provo). This wouldn't be a big deal except that it is easily my favorite fast food burger place. So, during our trip, I ate a marvelous Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburgers and found time to squeeze in another trip to get milkshakes after a BYU game. Which leads me back to whole point of the trip.
The first round of the MWC tournament featured a rematch of BYU-TCU (a match-up that had happened only a week earlier in Provo) that was far closer than it needed to be. The other first round games were close as well, though the second game we attended, UNLV-Utah, was the most one sided of them all. The next day we got to see UNM play SDSU (SDSU won) and BYU-UNLV. The BYU game was exciting, but in the end the home town Rebels took the victory. UNLV then lost to SDSU in the title game, but we didn't buy tickets for that game. Instead, we went to dinner at the Texas Station Gambling Hall and Hotel. Naturally I ate until I couldn't imagine eating ever again, and could not have been happier about it.

The trip was great and I must say thanks to everyone who came and who helped make it possible (mostly that means our uncle, but dad and brothers get some consideration in their help planning). Also, thanks to my wife for coming and thanks to her grandparents and sister for making it fun for her as well. I can't wait until next year to see if we can't do it again, though maybe next year BYU makes it to the title game.

However, it really won't be the same without Chaun...

BYU 2011 Preview

I thought that Utah game really showed how good, if not better, BYU might be next year. Freshman Brandon Davies and his rookie teammate Tyler Haws combined for 27 points, 13 rebounds, and 3 assists. The team's Sophomores, not wanting to be outdone, combined for 25 points, 17 rebounds, and 4 assists of the their own (Noah Hartsock, Michael Loyd Jr, James Anderson, and Charles Abouo). The rest of the team had 19 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 assists (Miles, Fredette, and Emery).

Haws leaves on a mission to the Phillipines after the season is over, but Davies, I believe, will be back next year. I expect Fredette to test the waters of the draft, but not to hire an agent, and when he sees he won't get first round money, to come back for his senior season. We graduate Lamont Morgan Jr, Jonathan Tavernari, and Chris Miles. Two former starters (Tavernari has got to 6th man of the year in the conference, if they even give out that award) but we add Chris Collinsworth (F) back from a mission (started games in the 07-08 campaign), his brother Kyle Collinsworth (G) a top-100 high school recruit, Anson Winder (G) from Bishop Gorman High, and Nick Martineau (G) also returning from a mission.

With players coming in to fill the gap left by Haws and Tavernari (the Collinsworth brothers) and Loyd playing well enough to be an upgrade offensively to replace Morgan Jr off the bench, BYU is in a position to be as good or better next year with both Hartsock and Davies being an offensive upgrade at the 5 and guard play on level with this year's.

Leaving Position Points Rebounds Assists Reason
Miles C 5 3.6 1 Grad
Tavernari F 10.1 4.7 1.5 Grad
Morgan G 2 0.6 1.5 Grad
Haws G 11.7 4.5 1.6 Mission

Coming
K. Collinsworth G/F 23.2 10.8 8.7 Freshman* (Utah 4A SC as yet undecided)
A. Winder G 17 7 NA Freshman* (Nevada 4A State Champion)
C. Collinsworth F 3.2 4.8 0.45 RM
Martineau G 0.7 0.4 0.7 RM

* Stats are from High Scool games in their senior season only

I am happy that Haws has opted to go on a mission, he will be a big time contributor in the future. Davies opts to stay as he stands to get considerable playing time with Hartsock and Anderson the only other big men around. C. Collinsworth started 6 games in his 07-08 season with BYU and played well on a team that went 28-7 overall. Martineau was on that team as well, averaging about 5 minutes per contest.

The optimal replacements for those leaving are, in my opinion, as follows:

Hartsock for Miles (Davies has a pretty tough time playing solid defense and this will keep him from starting)

Loyd for Morgan (Loyd has shown in his extended minutes with Morgan out that he can score prolifically when Jimmer or Jackson are on the bench)

K. Collinsworth for Haws (Collinsworth is arguably the best player in Utah and one of the best BYU recruits in many years, he might have beaten out Haws to start had he opted not to leave on a mision)

C. Collinsworth for Tavernari (At 6'9", 205 lbs Collinsworth is more likely to play a true PF over Tavernari's version, which will be good for a team that needs more offensive rebounds because of how many shots the guards take)

Charles Abouo may become the most important player off the bench (maybe second to Loyd) and will need to step up big.

I know it is too early for post/preseason looking ahead, but I think that whatever this team accomplishes the rest of the way, it is likely that they will out-perform themselves next year. I just hope CSU beats Utah on Saturday so UNLV might go for the trifecta, losing to Utah for the third time this year in the MWC tournament so we can play Utah instead of UNLV. (A man can dream can't he?)