Monday Musings

The more I think about Saturday's BYU win at the Huntsman Center, the more impressed I am with what the Cougars pulled off.

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While certain individuals weren't at their best on the offensive end, those same players found ways to contribute.

You saw Trent Plaisted diving for loose balls, screening well to free Lee Cummard for shots, and helping to keep Luke Nevill to 7 points fewer than his average against BYU. He was also the only BYU player other than Ben Murdock to record more than one assist. He added a block and a steal.

You saw Jonathan Tavernari play only 24 minutes, but play hard on the defensive end, and his steal led to an early momentum-boosting breakaway that stretched a lead the Cougars would take to halftime (key, since Utah hadn't won a game all season when trailing at the break).

You saw Ben Murdock fail to make a field goal, but only Lee Cummard played more minutes, and his 4 assists were two more than anyone else had.

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In Saturday night's blog, I mentioned the resurgence of Sam Burgess as a huge factor in the win. Consider that at halftime, Sam had hit on only 2 of his previous 15 three-point shots, and only 4 of his previous 15 shots from the field overall. In the final 20 minutes on the hill, Burgess hit 2 of 3 from the arc, and 4 of 5 from the field overall.

There's a reason Sam's a captain, and the second half of play Saturday showed a captain's poise, competitiveness and knack for making the big play. The former high school quarterback (Lone Peak) played like the team leader he is.

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Individual efforts aside, for the BYU team to come together as a team after its discouraging outing at UNLV was particularly impressive.

I sense the players and coaches felt the "BYU Bandwagon" had emptied considerably over the last few weeks, and perhaps they felt they were the only ones who believed in each other heading to the hill.

It's my belief that such a sentiment acted as a galvanizing force and, combined with the coaching acumen of Dave Rose, helped the Cougars considerably in the buildup to the game.

Rose has always known which buttons to push with his players, and going from a blowout loss at UNLV directly into the Huntsman Center to face the best-shooting team in the Mountain West Conference tested his motivational and tactical abilities. He and the team responded in way that can't help but serve as an inspirational spark as the team continues down the MWC road.

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As soon as Coach Rose made his way upstairs for his postgame interview, I noted he was wearing last year's conference championship ring. It's extremely unusual to see Rose flashing the jewelry, so the ring was definitely serving as a good luck charm Saturday. If you ever hear a coach say he's not superstitious, don't believe him. :)

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I ran into Tyler Haws and chatted with him for a few moments after the BYU-Utah game. He was at the contest on an unofficial visit using tickets provided by Utah. The night before, he scored 29 points in leading Lone Peak to a big win at Spanish Fork. The BYU coaching staff was represented at the Knights-Dons game. Also present were coaches from UNLV and Wake Forest, and some University of Utah players were also in attendance.

For the record, Haws has been to a number of BYU games this season, both with tickets provided by the school and on his own. Goes without saying the Haws recruitment will be the most-watched off-the-court story for the Cougars in the year to come. Not to say this lightly, but based on his pace of development to this point in his career, we could be looking at a player with Danny Ainge-type talent, and if Tyler chooses BYU, he will be turning down some big names nationally to do so. To say Haws would be a huge "get" for BYU would be to say Britney Spears has responsibility issues.

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