Jimmer, You've Been Reilly'd!

I have spent the last four days in New Orleans watching BYU lose an overtime thriller to Florida, witnessing Butler make yet another run to the Final Four despite being seeded 8 in the Southeast bracket, and - according to Rick Reilly - sinning just by osmosis.

Rick Reilly has been voted National
Sportswriter of the Year 11 times, but he
is not a fan of Jimmermania.

I find many of Rick Reilly's articles to be witty and entertaining, but little did I know that much of that wit may actually be masking his ability to effectively communicate and support his biased opinion.  Rick Reilly has been a full-fledged BYU hater since at least 2001 when he wrote here (with many inaccuracies) about how BYU's older football players gave them a distinct advantage over the younger, and therefore less talented, smaller, and weaker opposing players.  I have always found this argument to be rather amusing because although BYU was 9-0 in 2001 when Reilly wrote the article, no one ever made this argument from 2002-2004 when the Gary Crowton-led Cougars would amass a 13-25 record.  BYU magically went from an NFL-ready team in 2001 to a Geriatrics ward in 2002.

In Reilly's most recent religious jab at BYU and Mormonism, he wrote here about Jimmer Fredette's last collegiate game and Jimmer's inability to be a star performer at the next level in the NBA simply based on his performance against the Gators, while also throwing darts at Jimmer's religion.  I'm sure Jimmer would be the first to tell you that he did not play his best on either end of the floor against Florida, which was one of the reasons why he and the "pizza delivery guys" came up short in the Sweet 16.  Over time, Jimmer will have the opportunity to disprove Reilly's contention that he will be an ineffective NBA player, but my bigger issue with Reilly is the way he hides behind his magic curtain by not allowing comments to be posted at the end of his articles, thus preventing his readers from publicly sharing their own opinions or providing a forum to disprove his conclusions based on actual facts, forcing many readers, including Ryan J., to post their opinions here.  During the past couple of days many have come to Jimmer's defense (including to the defense of his Mormon religion) such as here and here.  Good stuff.

No doubt Reilly missed out on Jimmer's spectacular
42-point performance on the road against
Colorado State on January 22, 2011.

Clearly, Rick Reilly didn't have the mtn (but of course who does?) during the basketball season and based his arguments on the 30-second SportsCenter highlights he saw throughout the year leading up to the Florida game.  As Ryan J. pointed out in his "Letter to Reilly", Rick Reilly evaluated Jimmer's potential as an NBA player based upon a single performance in which he still scored 32 points.  Personally, I would have loved to have read Rick Reilly's article criticizing Kobe Bryant's capabilities as an NBA player when he shot 6-23, including 0-6 from three-point range, turned the ball over 4 times, and only scored 23 points (well below his average) in Game 7 of the NBA Finals!  Lucky for Kobe, his own "pizza delivery" buddy, Ron Artest, saved Kobe and his beloved Lakers from a loss to the rival Celtics on basketball's biggest stage by scoring 20 points and nailing a three-pointer in the final seconds to seal the NBA Championship.

Kobe is relieved that no one judged his ability to play
in the NBA based upon a single-game performance.

Jimmer will be the first to tell you that although he has been voted an AP All-American and is the favorite to win the Naismith Award (College Basketball's Heisman Trophy) this weekend, he has a lot to work on in order to translate his talents and skills to the next level.  He has been there before.  He was a good Freshman when he came to BYU, but he worked hard to achieve All-American status during the past four years and will likely be a lottery pick in June's NBA draft.  As Rick Reilly so eloquently pointed out, Oklahoma City point guard Russell Westbrook said, "I know from just watching (Jimmer Fredette) he's going to be a great NBA player."  Reilly's second-grade response to Westbrook's analysis: "No! No he isn't!"  Thanks, Ricky, but I'm going to go with the All-Star basketball player's opinion when evaluating Jimmer's potential as an NBA player, not an established "funny-guy" and long-time BYU-hater.

Which makes me wonder:  Which side of the argument would Rick Reilly have taken if Jimmer had gone on a mission?

Maybe we would have seen that Kobe article after all...

Quick Hits #1

Madness, Madness, and More Madness!:  The tournament started with a tremendous bang! on Thursday when three of the first four games on Thursday afternoon were decided on the game's final possession - Butler, Morehead St., and Temple all won on buzzer-beaters.  The Madness was off to a pretty good start.

Matt Howard (54) got the tournament started in style
with a game-winning shot against ODU.

Don't Miss It!: In February, I wrote about the fact that you could watch every game in its entirety due to the NCAA's new TV deal with CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV, but the real thing was even better than I could have imagined.  Although I admittedly did catch the buzzer-beaters mentioned above on my phone while I was at work, you could find which channel had which game on as well as the scores and time remaining so you could jump over and catch a key moment of any other game.  I'm not the only one who agreed:  TV ratings were up 16% when compared to last year.  On a related note, the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament is also going on right now and can be found on ESPN3.com and ESPNTitleIX.com.

Sorry Mr. President, the Game is on:  While Pres. Obama addressed the nation on Thursday assuring the country that harmful levels of radiation were not expected to reach the United States, CBS did not cut away to hear him live as the other major networks did.  Instead, CBS summarized his report in a 60-second clip during a game's commercial break.  On Friday, when Obama addressed the country regarding potential military action against Libya, CBS  ran a split screen, with audio of Obama and his picture on top, with a silent game on the bottom.  The White House has denied that Obama's reference to wanting to "Jimmer" Libya is not in any way meant to be a threat of a potential war.

No disrespect, Mr. Gadhafi, but if you mess with
us, you're going to get Jimmered.

BYU Runs to "Sweetness":  For the first time in 30 years, Jimmer Fredette, Jackson Emery, and the Cougars have moved onto the Sweet 16 where they will face Florida in New Orleans on Thursday.  The Jimmer has averaged only 33 points in wins over Wofford and Gonzaga leading many experts to wonder if he will ever regain his ability to score.

How Do You Handle The Jimmer?:  Florida's best-defender, Kenny Boynton, missed practice on Monday after spraining his ankle in Florida's win over UCLA on Saturday.  Florida Gator Coach Billy Donovan expects him to play against BYU on Thursday, but that Boynton's history of ankle injuries does not give him confidence that Boynton will be ready to go mentally. "I think there's a mental hurdle for him that he's going to have to get over, that he does feel good and he's not playing in pain."  Ankle injury or not, the same could be said to the mental anguish Jimmer has caused to anyone who has tried to defend him this year.

Florida fans are hopeful that Kenny
Boynton's ankle will enable him to try
and stop The Jimmer.

MWC Bracketology

What a season for BYU and San Diego State!  There are very few people who would have predicted that the MWC Championship game would feature two top-ten teams.  In fact, who would have predicted that all three matchups between the two teams this year would have taken place while both teams were ranked in the top ten?  BYU finishes 30-4 while SDSU finishes 32-2 - and 31-0 against all teams without Jimmer Fredette.  Both teams knew they were going to the NCAA tournament before the game. The MWC Championship game was all about seeding, Sundays, and geography.

SDSU did the "Jimmering" in

the MWC Championship game.

On Saturday night in the MWC Championship game, San Diego State exhibited all the traits of a team that could make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament (senior leadership, powerful frontline, good guard play, and an experienced coach).  Being the champion of the #4-ranked conference in the country during both the regular season and the tournament merits a No. 1 seed when the brackets come out tomorrow.  But if I'm San Diego State, I could care less if I am a No. 1 seed or not, all I care about is being in the West bracket.  Even a No. 2 seed in the West bracket is more favorable than a No. 1 seed in any other bracket (East, Southeast, Southwest) because SDSU would be able to play their first and second round games in Denver/Tucson while potentially playing their regional games a short bus ride away from San Diego in Anaheim. I predict that SDSU will end up as the No. 2 seed in the West when the brackets come out on Sunday night.  I'll take a bus ride to the Sweet 16 over a No. 1 seed any day.

BYU has long been projected to be a No. 2 seed in the West by many "bracketologists" because their well-rounded team was cruising through the MWC while defeating SDSU twice during the regular season.  They were even projected a couple of weeks ago (which seems like a month ago) to be the No. 1 seed in the West.  The No. 2 seed in the West is favorable for BYU due to the geographical advantages as well, but it is also one of the "pods" within the bracket that allow for "No Sunday" play throughout the tournament.  BYU's unwillingness to compete on Sundays is a regulation that the NCAA committee considers when placing BYU in the NCAA tournament.  In years past, it has seemed that BYU was placed into a lower seed in order to accommodate the "No Sunday" rule.  The "No Sunday" rule combined with a 3-2 record since the suspension of Brandon Davies will most definitely move them out of the West No. 2 seed Denver/Tucson-Anaheim preferred bracket, and considering the other "No Sunday" location options they may be moved out of the West Region entirely.

Jimmer would love a No. 2 seed in the West,

but a No. 3 or 4 is more likely for the Cougs.

Given BYU's RPI rating, star power (The Jimmer), and strong season, BYU should receive no lower than a No. 4 seed (or else the committee will have some serious explaining to do), which in the West bracket would put the Cougars in Tampa or Tucson for the first and second rounds, and if they were to advance to the Sweet 16, back to Anaheim.  Another alternative is that they could be shipped to the Southeast regional as the No. 3 seed.  This would give the Cougars a sense of accomplishment going in as a high No. 3 seed, but may not be preferable from a travel standpoint.  Going from Utah to Tampa/Tucson to Utah and potentially back to New Orleans may be difficult on a team that already appears slightly fatigued from an emotional couple of weeks and three intense MWC tournament games.  Although it really shouldn't be taken as a sign of disrespect, I believe the committee will put BYU in as the No. 4 seed, citing the loss of Davies and BYU's loss of momentum down the stretch as the key factors.

Hey, 2 No. 5 seeds made the Final Four last year, including Butler, who advanced to the Championship Game.

I love Mormon rap songs about Jimmer - check it out:  Teach Me How To Jimmer

The Perfect Storm

BYU’s dream season came to a screeching halt on Tuesday night when Brandon Davies was suspended for the rest of the season, and then the Cougars stalled terribly as they tried to get going again amidst all the media attention and scrutiny that was prevalent throughout the day on Wednesday.  It was as ugly over the airwaves as I’m sure it was to witness in person or on TV.  The rebounding prowess and hot-shooting demonstrated by the 19-11 New Mexico Lobos on Wednesday night stood in stark contrast to BYU’s worst performance of the season.  In the span of only 24-48 hours, BYU went from the highest of highs as a strong contender to receive a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and make a possible run to the Final Four, to the lowest of lows as they squandered the opportunity to claim at least a share of the Mountain West Conference Championship and a No. 1 seed in the Conference tournament while shooting a un-Cougar-like 34 percent from the field – at home – including 5-26 from 3-point range.  It was the perfect storm.

Jackson Emery can't believe how quickly
the momentum has changed against the Cougars.

Throughout the game, the BYU radio announcers kept saying: “There’s still time for the Cougars to make a run, but they have to get going right now!”  Unfortunately, the Cougars never got going.  Emotionally drained from the ups and downs of winning a huge game at SDSU on Saturday, being projected as a No. 1 seed on Monday, and dealing with losing a brother (as so many players said after the game) on Tuesday, BYU never was able to pull within single digits in the second half.  With every second half point Jimmer scored (he scored 25 of his 33 points in the second half and 25 of BYU’s 38), New Mexico had an answer by either getting a big rebound, a defensive stop, or a clutch three-pointer.  For the second time this season, the New Mexico players played their best game against BYU.  Even The Jimmer admitted that New Mexico has their number.  Lightning struck twice.

Although I believe it is still way too early to panic, this is eerily similar to when Florida State waltzed into Lavell Edwards Stadium in 2009 after the BYU football team had come off a season-opening victory over #3-ranked Oklahoma, a dominating performance on the road against Tulane, and had quickly risen to a #7 national ranking.  The season was young yet BYU was poised and ready to make a run towards a BCS Championship Game appearance.  They had the talent and game experience at all the key positions on both offense and defense, and their performance during the first part of the season gave every Cougar fan the hope that a dream season was in store.  In that game, Florida State dominated the Cougars as the hope and excitement about a championship season was ripped from our grasp on our home turf.  FSU won 54-28 and dominated by outplaying the Cougars in every single facet of the game (except, of course, in turnovers given away – we won that battle 5-1!).  A Top-10 ranked BYU team underperformed and they were exposed.  Since the most important part of its season was still left to play, the Football team made adjustments and played to their strengths.  BYU ended up winning 9 of their last 10 games and dominated Oregon State in the Vegas Bowl to end the season with an 11-2 record and a #12 national ranking.

BYU fans remember this feeling after
Florida State came to town in 2009.

Now, the obvious difference is that the 2009 Football team didn’t lose a key starter that changed the entire makeup of their team and a teammate that the rest of the players had loved and were extremely comfortable playing with.  After the Davies suspension on Tuesday, time is what the Cougars needed going into the New Mexico game, and it was simply not on their side.  They still had to go into the storm on Wednesday night and perform as a team.  They didn’t.  The loss to New Mexico only counts as one loss, and even though San Diego seems like it was a month ago, BYU is still in control of its own destiny for the No. 1 seed in next week’s Conference tournament. BYU must make key adjustments that play to their strengths because every team from here on out is going to try and do exactly what New Mexico did:  Go inside, go inside, rebound, be ready to shoot the 3 as the Cougar defense helps inside, and go inside.  Do the Cougars become Syracuse-like and play zone 100% of the time, trying to create turnovers by getting their hands in passing lanes as was the case in the second half of the SDSU game?  Offensively, if the Cougars expect to win at least a share of the MWC Championship and make a run through the MWC and NCAA tournament, they need to shoot better than 34% from the field, get more than a combined 19 points between Abouo, Emery and Hartsock (Hartsock had 0 points against UNM), and not let the pressure of playing with one less brother make them feel like they can’t run their offense and only rely on the outside shot.  Dave Rose and the coaching staff will not let the loss of Davies become an excuse in the minds of the players or the fans.

Charles Abouo will need to be a key contributor
for the Cougars to make a deep run.

The reality is that the pressure to make a Final Four run is off at this point.  The entire country is ready to drop BYU to a 6-7 seed, and the fans’ expectations of a National Championship have gone out the window – just as they did after FSU left town in September 2009.  

Is there still time for BYU to make a run?  Absolutely.  But they have to get going right now!  Let’s just hope we don’t have to play New Mexico again…

Yet Another Challenge

Wow!  I feel like I just got punched in the stomach, and here is the BYU press release that did it:


PROVO, Utah (March 1, 2011) — Due to a violation of the BYU Honor Code, Brandon Davies will not represent the university on the men's basketball team throughout the remainder of the 2010-11 season.  Davies, a sophomore from Provo, Utah, has started 26 of 29 games for the No. 3-ranked Cougars, averaging 11.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 24.9 minutes per game in 2010-11.  BYU does not make public details regarding violations of its Honor Code.  Given BYU became aware of this violation yesterday, some decisions regarding Davies' future on the basketball team and at the university are yet to be determined."

Jimmer will have to carry even more of the offensive
attack with Davies out of the lineup.

After 3 days of reveling in BYU's biggest road victory ever and about 45 minutes after I heard Dick Vitale (ESPN) say that BYU is a "National Championship contender and deserves the #1 seed in the West", Cougar Nation is struck with the news that BYU is going to be playing the rest of its season without its third-leading scorer and its leading rebounder.  To say this news is disappointing is an understatement.  There hasn't been this much buzz about BYU Basketball in a looong time, and just as the calendar turns to March we are hit with a press release that couldn't have come at a worse time for BYU's National Championship hopes.

What is unfortunate is that many people across the country will view this as an opportunity to pile on BYU and justify that with Davies suspended BYU is no longer worthy of a #1 seed and is no longer worthy to be considered a National Championship contender.  We'll find out pretty quickly how Dave Rose, his coaching staff, and the players react to this news tomorrow night as they have to go out against a tough New Mexico team, who was the last team to beat BYU, without one of their key inside post players.  But if past performance is any indicator as to how the Cougars will respond, this will be just another bump in the road on their way to a long tournament run.  Rose, his coaching staff, and the players will need to view this situation as yet another challenge to overcome, just like when Jimmer missed a lot of last season due to mono, just like when Chris Collinsworth went down early this season with a knee injury, just like when Davies was in foul trouble seemingly every game - you get the picture.  The Cougars still had to go out and get wins, and they did so in every instance.  The natural reaction is to say that the season is over and the Cougars are doomed, but there will be no excuses for this team, and this will be a fantastic opportunity for Jimmer to cement his legacy in BYU lore by carrying his team through the MWC and NCAA tournament.  Mark my words, BYU will still finish the season strong and most likely will still be a high seed (if not #1) in the NCAA tournament.  No doubt, the Cougars will need to have huge contributions from Noah Hartsock, James Anderson, Stephen Rogers, Charles Abouo, Kyle Collinsworth in order to compensate for Davies' absence, but rest assured that Dave Rose (who on a personal level had a much more real and life-altering challenge called cancer to overcome...which he did!) will not let his team or its fans use Davies' absence as an excuse.

Coach Rose will have to rally Cougar Nation to
overcome Davies' absence.

Who knows what the long-term impact of Davies' suspension will be or if we will ever see him in a Cougar uniform again?  But this much we do know: Davies will not be a part of the team for its March Madness run, and how far BYU goes will be determined by how BYU responds to this newest challenge.

Greg Wrubell's summary of the Davies situation hits home with Cougar fans everywhere:


"I can only imagine how Davies, the BYU players and coaches feel tonight, because I am sure most of Cougar Nation just feels crushed. An injury absence is in a way easier to overcome, because a player's health could be affected at any instant, for no reason at all. Injury may be unfair, but it is also without forethought or penalty.  Honor Code suspensions are a result of choice and consequence, and those elements make Davies impending absence tougher to understand and accept. He will now sit and watch (or possibly, not watch), as his teammates move on without him. The Cougars may or may not go farther than any team in BYU Basketball history, but Davies will not be along for the ride, and it didn't have to be that way."


Go Cougars!

Don't Miss It!

As a BYU / Mountain West Conference fan in New York City, I have struggled during the past 6 years to consistently watch BYU in action thanks to the MWC television contracts and the mtn (and yes, it deserves to be written in lower-case letters because you can barely see it).  As an alternative, I have become best friends with Greg Wrubell (BYU Football and Basketball radio announcer) while scanning the ESPN.com Gamecast.  So you can imagine that when I have a chance to actually watch a BYU game because it's on national television, you know I'll be watching.

Now that BYU has ascended to a projected #1 seed in both the ESPN and SI.com tournament brackets, March Madness will become a must-watch TV event in our home as well as many of your homes as well.  As an aside, my two-year old turned to me earlier tonight as we were watching the SportsCenter anchors discuss the new projected NCAA tournament brackets and said, "Dada, I na watch BYU! I na watch BYU!".  I hear ya, girl.

For years, CBS has been the sole broadcast channel for the March Madness NCAA tournament.  However, it has still been frustrating at times because in 2007, for example, Syracuse was playing their first-round tournament game at the exact same time that BYU was playing Xavier, so our New York region broke away from the BYU game after only 10 minutes, and I was forced to watch the rest of BYU's close loss to the Musketeers on my 12 inch computer screen.  The internet feed, even in 2007, was pretty archaic and I ended up seeing the word "Buffering..." more than the actual score of the game.  However, just in time for BYU's projected deep run through this year's NCAA tournament, CBS has partnered with Turner Sports in a multi-billion dollar deal in order to give fans everywhere the opportunity to serve as their own TV Guide during March Madness because all of the tournament games will be available live in their entirety across four national networks: CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV (formerly CourtTV).

Jimmer is excited that no one will be forced
to miss his team's run through the tourney. 

In all, CBS will broadcast 26 games throughout the tournament, TBS will broadcast 16 games, truTV will televise 13 games, and TNT will broadcast 12 games.  With BYU projected to head to the West bracket, it is most likely that the first and second-round games will be on either TBS, TNT or truTV.  You can read more about the programming details here, but one thing is certain - you better make sure you get truTV because I, for one, know what it's like when it's possible that BYU may have to play on a channel with a name in lower-case letters!  I just checked - whew!  I have truTV, so sorry, Greg, I'm going to be able to actually watch the Cougars in the NCAA tournament this year, but I promise I'll listen to the post-game show...

We're #1...But Who Cares?

You've heard it a thousand times: "We're #1! We're #1! We're #1!" When you think about it, this cheer is utterly pointless and even outright wrong most of the time unless your team is actually ranked #1.  But does being highly-ranked or even being ranked #1 really matter in College Basketball?  Absolutely not.

Every week, the Associated Press Top 25 College Basketball Poll is compiled from votes by 64 sportswriters from across the country.  The list of voters (and their latest poll) can be found here.  The ranked teams are then allocated a certain amount of "points" based on where they fall on each individual poll.  The #1 team in each poll is given the most points all the way down to team #25 which is given the least amount of points.  The points from all the 64 voter polls are added up and the team with the most points is the AP #1 team for that week.  As a BYU fan, I find it interesting that 2 voters (John Feinstein & Mark Berman) gave #7-ranked BYU a #1 ranking last week even before BYU beat down #6 SDSU on Saturday.

When the new poll comes out tomorrow, you should expect that BYU will pass SDSU in the overall poll.  BYU may also pass Texas, Pitt, and Duke (who all lost this weekend) on their way to a potential #3 ranking!  Incredible.  But what if the AP sportswriters still rank Texas, Pitt, or Duke ahead of BYU even if they lost this weekend and may all have more losses than BYU?  Who cares?  It doesn't matter.  A team's ranking this week or next week will have zero impact on their upcoming seed in the tournament when the brackets are announced on March 13. Why?  Because the NCAA committee members that determine the championship brackets and each team's "seed" are not among the 64 AP sportswriters that rank the teams from week to week throughout the season!

Duke was #1 in 2010 after beating
Butler in the Championship game

Take 2010 for example, Butler was ranked #11 in the AP poll just before the tournament, but when the brackets came out Butler was given a #5 seed in the West bracket, which means that the NCAA committee felt that there were at least 16 teams better than Butler (4 brackets x 4 seeds = 16 teams).  BYU was ranked #17 in the same AP poll when Butler was ranked #11, so BYU should get a #5 seed, right?  Nope - BYU was given a #7 seed.  The committee felt that there were at least 24 teams better than BYU.  Were the lower seeds a sign of disrespect to Butler and BYU?  Doesn't matter if it was or wasn't.  The tournament for the NCAA Championship is a playoff and not a Championship awarded by rankings (such as College Football).  Each team has the opportunity to win each game and advance in the tournament - just as Butler did all the way to the National Championship game last year.  By the way, do you remember who was the #1 team last year going into the tournament?  Kansas.  Where did that #1 ranking get Kansas?  Only to the second round when they lost to Northern Iowa.

So, whether BYU is ranked #3, #10, or even #1 in this week's AP poll, just tell yourself:  "It doesn't matter...when do the brackets come out?"