With the start of the college football season now 100 days away, preseason projections are coming into sharper focus as various web sites and publications ramp up their 2013 previews.

Whether online or in print, BYU has yet to appear in anyone's Top 25, but in a pair of recently-released preseason annuals (Athlon and Lindy's), the Cougars are featured in the "next 25."

BYU's 2013 schedule is being framed as the program's toughest-ever, and the predictions back up the assessment, with three of four of BYU ranked in the Top 25s, and five opponents ranked ahead of the Cougars to start the season.

BYU has again boosted its backcourt numbers, obtaining a written commitment from Louisiana native Frank Bartley, a combination guard who spent last season playing for a Los Angeles-area prep school that set the national single-season wins record.

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A 6'3", 205-pound incoming freshman from Baton Rouge, Bartley said in a Monday phone conversation with me that he "can't wait" to join the Cougars, after signing his National Letter of Intent in the early morning hours of Mother's Day, at the conclusion of his visit to the BYU campus.

Calling his transfer to BYU "a perfect fit," former Wake Forest shooting guard Chase Fischer on Friday committed to play basketball for Dave Rose and the BYU Cougars.

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A 2011 first-team Parade All-American out of Ripley (W. Va) HS, Fischer played for the Demon Deacons as a freshman and sophomore, appearing in 62 games with six starts. The 6'3", 195 lb. three-point specialist will sit out BYU's 2013-14 season under transfer rules, with two years of playing eligibility remaining, beginning with the 2014-15 campaign

Less than a month after earning MVP Honors at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, BYU product Brandon Davies has marked the next significant milestone in his quest to make an NBA roster.

On Thursday, Davies' name was included on the list of 60 players invited by the NBA to its draft combine in Chicago. The event is scheduled for May 16th and 17th from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. MDT each day, and will be televised on ESPNU.

Davies is one of two West Coast Conference prospects to receive combine invitations; the other is projected lottery pick Kelly Olynyk of Gonzaga. Olynyk's teammate Elias Harris and St. Mary's star Matthew Dellavedova were not among those on the 60-player roster.

BYU Basketball's offseason roster shuffle continued Thursday with the news that center Ian Harward is discontinuing his hoops career because of injury.

In a press release issued by the school, head coach Dave Rose said Harward (a redshirt freshman in 2012-13) will remain a student at BYU.

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College football's No. 3 defense in yards and points allowed last season featured six senior starters. All but one of those BYU products will get a shot at playing in the National Football League.

Meantime, the nation's No. 1 men's volleyball team will get its shot at a fourth national championship, as BYU takes its MPSF tourney title to Los Angeles and the NCAA's Final Four.

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Guard Raul Delgado is leaving the BYU Basketball program, a little more than a year after joining the Cougars as a junior college transfer.

The school on Friday confirmed Delgado's transfer intentions, which were first reported by CBSSports.com, whose Jeff Goodman this week listed Delgado on his updated list of transferring Division I hoopsters.

On Saturday, Delgado announced via Twitter, that he will be transferring to DII Metro State in Denver.

The day after becoming BYU's first top-ten NFL Draft pick in 31 years, Ezekiel Ansah was already on the move--headed for Detroit and a Motor City welcome from Lions fans who saw their team take Ansash with the fifth overall selection last night in New York City.

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Saying "it's kind of sad for me to see him go," BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall talked on Friday about Ansah's big night, with the coach invited to be a part of Ziggy's support group at Radio City Music Hall.

With the NFL Draft one week away, the buzz surrounding BYU defensive end Ezekiel Ansah continues to grow.

Thursday, the story of this Ghanaian football phenom occupied a full 15-minute chunk of time on ESPN's SportsCenter, with the program labeling Ansah as "the Cinderella story" of this year's draft.

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Two weeks to the day that his team's season came to an end in the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden, BYU head basketball coach Dave Rose sat down with members of the local media for individual end-of-the-season interviews.

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Rose reflected on a season that featured

Brandon Davies is having a productive early offseason, and has placed himself on the NBA's radar with the league's draft a little more than two months away.

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Coming off a four-game NIT run during which he averaged 18.3 points and 9.3 rebounds per game, Davies was immediately off to Atlanta, where he turned in a 12-point, nine-rebound, four-assist performance in helping his team to victory at a pre-Final Four all-star game.

BYU and the University of Arizona announced on Friday a three-game football series, to begin in 2016 at the University of Phoenix Stadium in suburban Phoenix (Glendale), continuing with games in 2018 (Tucson) and 2020 (Provo).

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In school press release, BYU AD Tom Holmoe called the arrangement "a great regional series and a unique opportunity for our large fan base in Arizona to see us play."

I sat alone in the audio booth at Broadcast House as the seconds ticked away on the BYU basketball season.

It ended just like it started, with Greg Wrubell's voice reverberating in my ears--the voice to which I had become so accustomed this season, while interning at KSL Radio.

Although BYU had been on the ropes for weeks, it was a surreal moment realizing I would not be coming back to the booth and recording the highlights for another game. I packed up and shut the lights off, not just on another BYU basketball season, but on my experience as "The Clintern".

The BYU Cougars wrapped up spring football on Friday afternoon with a scrimmage at Lavell Edwards Stadium.

"I think we got a ton done," head coach Bronco Mendenhall said about spring practices. "I think we've established a unified mindset and work ethic; I think we've got an offense installed. I think we have a tempo built in. I think they have a good idea at what conditioning will look like, to be ready to play at this pace...and we didn't get anyone hurt -- so yeah, I thought it was productive."

Quarterback Taysom Hill, who did not participate in Friday's scrimmage, agreed with his coach that the spring was beneficial for this group.

With Tuesday night's 76-70 loss to Baylor, BYU's NIT run is done, but in reaching the tournament semifinals at Madison Square Garden, the Cougars not only altered perception in the present, but inspired hope for the future.

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For Dave Rose's team, the phrase "Final Four" represented more than a trip to New York City. The Cougars final four games of the season offered a glimpse of the 2012-13 squad's true potential, and allowed some of 2013-14's most important players to shine on a big stage.

MANHATTAN — For the first time in 47 years, the BYU Cougars will be playing postseason basketball at Madison Square Garden, a venue head coach Dave Rose calls "the mecca of college basketball, or basketball itself."

BYU meets Baylor on Tuesday night at MSG in the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament, an event the school won in 1951 and again in 1966.

In a Monday press conference at New York City's Marriott Marquis, Rose said "at BYU, the NIT is extremely special."

The BYU Cougars practiced outside on Monday as they began their final week of spring football.

Head coach Bronco Mendenhall said the team's effort during Monday's practice was "strong." He also mentioned that the offensive execution was farther ahead at this point that he thought it would be.

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On the day the BYU Football team held its annual spring game, the Cougar hoopsters held their final Provo practice of the 2012-13 season.

Bronco Mendenhall's team separated into East and West teams (by sideline) for a 65-play exercise that featured few projected first-stringers, but showcased an up-tempo offense that was clicking off plays every 12-18 seconds--incorporating offensive coordinator Robert Anae's 'hard and fast' mantra.

Four touchdowns were scored: a Jamaal Williams run, a Tanner Mangum scamper, a Terenn Houk reception and a Paul Lasike rumble to end the scrimmage.

The BYU Cougar hoopsters are in Hattiesburg, Miss., one win away from a trip father east, to New York City and the NIT semifinals.

40 minutes of play against Southern Miss are all that separate the Cougars and one of sport's grandest stages, underscoring the distance BYU has already traveled in closing a pervasive gap between potential and performance.

It was less than three weeks ago that the Cougars trudged off the floor at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, having lost in their West Coast Conference tournament opener — a third loss in four games and a fifth loss in eight games at the end of the season, to that point.

Due to the un-springlike weather we're experiencing, the BYU Cougars held Friday's practice inside the indoor practice facility.

As the Cougars wrapped up Week 3 of spring ball, head coach Bronco Mendenhall said Friday's practice was designed to be lighter since the team has been going so hard and injuries are catching up. The Cougars practice in just helmets and shorts.

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