Hoops team sounds better than last year
 

Cleveland really left at a good time for Dave Rose. The only thing that could be better right now is if Bronco's Boys had decided to play ball in the first half of the Ute game and were riding a 4 game win streak going into the Bowl Game. Regardless, most eyes of Cougar Nation are affixed on the Bowl Game and which college Stanley Havili will choose. Cleveland gave Rose a team with low expectations, the football program is on the rise and BYU has, what I believe to be, its most talented freshman duo in a very long time. And neither plan to serve missions.

I am still uncomfortable with the words "up-tempo" and Brigham Young going together very well, but I want to watch this team for a few years until I decide if it is up-tempo, in that we press and try to get more athleticism into the game, or if it just means that BYU will shoot 3's in transition. Further, with guys like Plaisted and Cummard on the floor BYU will usually have an athleticism advantage against most teams. Even teams that have had that athletic advantage in the past and will again in the future. Bluntly put, I believe if Rose is unable to win an NCAA game by the time these kids are juniors, he might be underachieving.

As far as this year. It is way to early to conclude anything. This team is better, but as far as determining what are reasonable expectations for this club, give it thru the USU game. I think after that game we will be able to gauge where this team is headed this year. The only huge concern I have right now is the low rebounding margin against some very poor teams. But BYU is young and the two big bodies have been out of action.

I am interested to see how much Burgess and Dawes play as well as how Plaisted develops into his role as a 5.

I said a couple of months ago that I believe BYU will win more bowl games and NCAA games the next 4 years than the past 15 total. That number is 4, two bowls and two tourney games. I still maintain that position. I believe that the football program is turning around and with the proliferation of bowls, the Y is going to get some beatable opponents. I also think the Y hoops program is going to experience a high point with Cummard and Plaisted that will not be repeated for a very long time.

Are they that talented?
 

Bball expectations are at an alltime low, so anything will be a pleasant surprise.

Do we know anything about the slavic kid who is redshirting?

Is Broadus for real?

I know nothing about Vuk Ivanovic
 

but Broadus sounds to be a good D1 PG.

I do believe that Vuk will play a lot next year, I also believe that either David Burgess will go on a mission or Derek Dawes will stop playing. Rose needs to create a spot for Toledo and those appear to me the most two likely players. I think Rose wants his 5's to be a little more athletic than either of those two.

I am not sure this is a good trend. One can win with slow big lumbering big guys, and BYU's recruiting base provides many more of them than Trent Plaisteds or even Chris Miles. To have two athletic 5's in the same class is a miracle, IMO.

We believe in miracles
 

we're just not genetically planning our breeding program for athletes.

So find some more athletes who should cross breed and will set up
BYU for the couple of decades.

Jennie Overdieck is now Jennie Keele
 

and rumor has it that the best athlete on the Y volleyball team, Chelsea Goodman, is being watched by one Trent Plaisted.

It all sounds so Fourth Reich to me.....

David Burgess is a major project
 

He'll never amount to much at BYU.

I was stunned how slow and plodding the kid is.

Cummard plays a smooth game. The game seems to come easy to him and as soon as he gets more used to playing in a system, instead of the free-wheeling that he was able to do in High School, then he'll only get better.

Plaisted is already demanding double teams.

Malaman is a pleasant surprise. He plays very fluid as well and always seems to be around the ball. He has a very quick release on his shot as well.

Broadus pushes the ball up court FAST. One of the main differences between Cleve and Rose is how fast a Rose gets up court. Broadus has speed to burn and is also a good outside shooter.

This team won't be in any post season games, but they'll win around 15-17 games.

Where this team will struggle is against the bigger and physical oppoments. Plaisted still gets pushed around rather easily and Cummard looks like he could buckle and break in half at any moment. You keep expecting hiim to get hurt, but he hasn't so far.

Oooo, a bullish Goatnapper, that has to be a good sign.
 

I'm still in wait and see mode, but I feel better for some reason. After hearing and reading about how great Cummard (technically an RM) was/is/will be, I'm a little confused by his less than productive line thus far (min - 15.8, pts - 6, reb - 2, ast - 1.5). Any insights into why this is?

. . . and a little like Chinese basketball matchmaking/genetic engineering. The story of how Yao came to be Yao is very interesting.

Re: Oooo, a bullish Goatnapper, that has to be a good sign.
 

And what is that?

Re: Oooo, a bullish Goatnapper, that has to be a good sign.
 

I read about it in SI's article, "The Creation of Yao Ming," which was adapted from the book Operation Yao Ming by Brook Larmer. According to the article, Chinese sports authorities arranged the marriage between Yao's father (Yao Zhiyuan, a 6'10" basketball star) and mother (Fang Fengdi, a 6'2" basketball star that played for the Chinese national team). At birth Yao Ming weighed in at 11.2 lbs and 23 inches. A quote from the article is interesting:

"News of Yao Ming's birth was quickly relayed across town to the top leaders of the Shanghai Sports Commission. They were not surprised. These men and women had been trying to cultivate a new generation of athletes who would embody the rising power of China. The boy in the maternity ward represented, in many ways, the culmination of their plan.

The experiment had no code name, but in Shanghai basketball circles it might as well have been called Operation Yao Ming. The wheels had been set in motion more than a quarter century earlier, when Chairman Mao Zedong exhorted his followers to funnel the nation's most genetically gifted youngsters into the emerging Communist sports machine. Two generations of Yao Ming's forebears had been singled out by authorities for their hulking physiques, and his mother and father had both been drafted into the sports system. "We had been looking forward to the arrival of Yao Ming for three generations," says Wang Chongguang, a retired Shanghai coach who played with Yao's father in the 1970s and would coach Yao himself in the '90s. "That's why I thought his name should be Yao Panpan." Long-Awaited Yao.

Giddy with the sense of possibility, some officials wanted to start helping the family immediately with food and finances. Others even began pushing for an exception to the country's strictly enforced one-child policy. If China truly wanted to compete internationally, they asked, why shouldn't the nation's tallest couple be allowed to breed an entire team of champions?"

But alas, the couple stopped at Yao, and he became their only child. His mother, a rapid communist and former Red Guard, became an opportunistic capitalist in seeking the best deal for Yao in the U.S. There is a sweet naiveté about her first coming to the U.S. after Yao was drafting, buying a 4-bedroom home and then cleaning it herself in anticipation of Yao's arrival. She also abandoned the spacious kitchen to convert the laundry room into a Chinese style kitchen for herself. Who knows what they did with the "cement pond."

An interesting read if you have the chance.

If only we could harness that type of power to create a race of BYU-committed Mormon giants with great passing skills and great shooting range.

here's to double digit wins this year!!!!