Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
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For as much success as the BYU Basketball program has had this decade, it has been a long time since the Cougar hoopsters won their conference road opener. The last time BYU emerged a winner in its first MWC road trip was January 20th, 2003, as the Cougars won 80-69 at San Diego State.
Five straight conference road-opening setbacks have followed, but BYU is favored to snap that particular streak Saturday at Colorado State.
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I spoke with Lee Cummard for a few minutes after the Cougars' Thursday afternoon practice--you can hear the conversation by clicking on his audio link in the "Cougar Cuts" box to the lower right. He begins by talking about heading into conference play after a 12-2 nonconference slate.
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Fort Collins is as good a place as any to open conference competition. The Rams have dropped 18 consecutive regular-season conference games, and BYU has beaten CSU four times in a row. It has been a while, however, since BYU last won consecutive games at Moby Arena--the Cougars last turning that trick in 2003 and 2004.
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This year's CSU team is the only team in the Mountain West Conference that has allowed more points than it has scored (-0.9 in scoring margin). BYU, on the other hand, leads the MWC in scoring margin, at +17.3.
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If there's one thing with which the Rams have been consistent in the last few seasons, it's inconsistency. CSU's starting lineup has been a constantly-revolving door, and this year has been no different. Ten players have started at least one game, and only one player has started all 15 games. The Rams "started small" at TCU, benching big man Dan Vandervieren, who played only 5 minutes in the Fort Worth loss. Cougar coaches are expecting Vandervieren to return to the starting five against BYU, but you just never know what the Rams are going to do from game to game.
This much we do know: leading scorer Marcus Walker is now coming off the bench, and that isn't expected to change anytime soon. With Walker as a reserve, CSU may be the only team in Division One basketball that does not start a single player averaging 10 points a game or better. Walker is the only player averaging double-figure scoring, and his 16.3ppg are now bench points.
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Former BYU assistant and current Wyoming head coach Heath Schroyer was publicly reprimanded by the MWC today for media remarks critical of Wyoming's conference schedule. Here are the comments that led to Schroyer's wrist-slap:
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"The thing that I don't like about our league schedule is two things," Schroyer said Friday. "Number one is we're playing five of our first eight (games) on the road. And the second thing is, I believe that we're the only team that plays three back-to-back road games within the league. Everyone else plays a league game and comes home, or plays one back-to-back..."
"As a coach, I don't know what you do about it," Schroyer said. "But I don't think that's very fair, personally. I'm sure that's probably how they rotate it around, but as a coach, those are the two things that aren't good."
"On the same token, if we play well in the first half of league, in the second half of league we have five of our eight at home and the other games that we have are in our region."
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As it turns out, Wyoming is one of four MWC teams that will play consecutive conference road games on three separate occasions (Utah, Air Force and TCU are the others). BYU, UNLV and SDSU have only one set of back-to-back conference road games. The Cougars' consecutive road games will be at UNLV and SDSU in late February.
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BYU Football Media Relations Director Brett Pyne informs us of the following:
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BYU's Matt Reynolds Named FWAA Freshman All-American
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Jan. 8, 2009) - The Football Writers Association of America and Aon Insurance announced their eighth annual Freshman All-America Team on Thursday during the association's annual awards breakfast. BYU offensive tackle Matt Reynolds was named to the team, marking his fourth freshman All-America award of the season.
Reynolds is the only player named to the team representing a Mountain West Conference school. The Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Southeastern, Big 12 and Pacific-10 conferences each placed four players on the 27-man team. Conference USA was the only other conference with multiple players on the team with two.
Reynolds was previously named to Freshman All-America teams selected by Rivals.com, CollegeFootballNews.com and The Sporting News.
Reynolds selection marks the sixth straight season a BYU player has earned Freshman All-America accolades. Tight end Daniel Coats (2003), wide receiver Austin Collie (2004), offensive lineman Dallas Reynolds (2005), defensive lineman Jan Jorgensen (2006) and running back Harvey Unga (2007) previously received Freshman All-America honors. Coats is currently a tight end in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals while the other recent recipients, including older brother Dallas, were all teammates on BYU's nationally ranked 10-3 team this season.
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