Since the game last Saturday afternoon, there has been a tidal wave of sentiment from BYU fans that feel that next year’s Cougar team will be pretty darn good and that Utah should be worried, very worried. Why?
If we speculate (which is all we as fans do anyway, right?) on next year’s squads, I just don’t see how Y fans can believe that the Cougars will be better than the Utes. Your obvious and frivolous belief is that the Cougars are only losing one starter, while the Utes will be losing four. Hmmm. If only it were that easy.
You see, Cougar fan, all you have to do is look at last Saturday’s game to understand why your proclamations won’t ring true. You lost the game because of THREE reasons: 1) inexperience, 2) lack of depth, and 3) inferior talent.
This will again be the case next year for you. So what that you only graduate Sylester Rivers. In looking at your roster for next year I count the following as being SURE BETS to give QUALITY minutes (I define "quality minutes" as a player being able to offer contributions to the team that will make a difference; that their presence will be felt on the court and that they could not be easily replaced by another player or that they would not be an utter void as a roster spot) next year: Wesely, Lyday, Vranes, Cooper (maybe), Christiansen (maybe), T. Hansen (maybe), and Pinnegar (maybe). Everyone else that’s worth counting would be "pine grabbers" in the Big Sky Conference (E. Nielsen, Howard, Montague, Chrisman, etc..) I count seven or eight guys. That, my friends, is not a deep squad.
Cougar fan, you had your chance to steal a "W" in the Marriot Center on Saturday but you couldn’t. Face it, you played a Utah squad that played VERY average and are still not "gelling" yet as a cohesive unit and rotation, AND YOU STILL LOST.
To answer your questions regarding Utah’s supposed swoon next year, let me offer these tasty morsels as food for thought:
1) Utah will have a startin front line next year that goes 6’11", 7’0", and 6’11". These aren’t stiffs, they’re upper echelon D1 players.
2) Utah will be starting TWO H.S. McDonald’s A-A’s in Britton and Burgess.
3) Colbert will have had a year under his belt at PG and should be fine as a distributor and feeder. No one is asking him to be Andre. Remember, he’s still only a first year non-qualifier this year-give him a break.
4) Utah will have several very capable players that will be the patented roll player that play tenacious Utah "D" and can be counted on with crucial baskets in crunch time: Jeff Johnsen (remember ’97 Sweet Sixteen v. Stanford in overtime? I thought so) Trace Caton, Phill Cullen, Adam Sharp and Mike Puzey . Don’t laugh Cougar fan, because all 5 of these roll players are capable of starting at BYU-the operative word here is "capable". This comment goes back to my earlier criticism about your inferior talent. Where you guys arguably go 7 or 8 deep with D1 talent, the Utes go 10-11 deep with legit D1 talent.
5) The only real question mark is at the two guard. Nick Jacobsen could be the guy, and so could Spivey, if Utah signs him, or the Jackson kid from Olympus (although I don’t see him being here next year because he’ll be mission bound). It looks like Caton or Jeff Johnsen will probably get the call. Not too shabby.
So there you have it, Cougar fan. A starting five of Altoff (he has better range than you think), Britton (his legs may take a year to come around, but that’s fine by me), and Burgess (don’t even run smack about this guy, Cougar fan. You would have pushed Brigham Young himself off a cliff to get this guy, so quit your whinning!) In the backcourt, you have an experienced Colbert and a very capable Jeff Johnsen or Trace Caton. No lineup shuffling you can do with your squad can match up with that lineup, plain and simple.
Oh, and one last thing, quit your hogwash about us going way downhill once Hanno and Alex leave. I seem to recall that we have lost Keith, Doleac and Andre the last three years in a row and we seem to be doing just fine.
Sure, the Cougars have improved, but what else were you supposed to do after going 1-25. I’d be more concerned about how good YOU’ll really get with the guys you have coming in. There looks to be some good players coming back/into your program such as Pinnegar, Meads (maybe), Bobik, and Bigelow, but nothing that would make people stop and notice on a national level. Don’t get me wrong. Cougar basketball is much improved, and it’s great to have a real rivalry again, but to attempt to put yourselves in the same class as Ute hoops is preposterous.
It still looks like several more years of the Cougs looking up at the Utes…
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