Lost in all the hoopla of Las Vegas these past few days, Jimmer's 52 and the Cougars ultimate demise at the hands of the Aztecas is a report by Jay Drew on the Salt Lake Tribune that BYU offered a Scholarship to North Carolina Prep star Stilman White. I wanted to get this in before the selection show. Here is a link to the original story.
The poll will make sense once you read the story.
Quotes and analysis after the jump.
Jay Drew ran into Stilman White in Las Vegas on Friday. He was in town, presumably with his father, to see his father's Alma Mater, the University of Utah, play in the MWC tournament. Utah's run didn't last very long but perhaps he was also here to see other team for the state of Utah.
Stilman White, a 6-foot-1 senior point guard from Wilmington, N.C., came to the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament to cheer on his favorite college basketball team, the University of Utah Utes.
Along the way, he got a scholarship offer from Utah's biggest rival -- BYU.
White confirmed Friday in Las Vegas that BYU assistant coach Dave Rice told his father (a University of Utah graduate) that the Cougars were indeed offering the product of Wilmington's Hoggard High a scholarship.
At first glance this looks great. BYU is getting ahead and trying to continue to bring great point guards to play in the shadow of the Wasatch front. But then you realize this little tid bit.
White is LDS and said he plans on going on a church mission, but isn't sure whether he will play a year of college basketball before his mission, or go right out of high school.
He said the BYU offer is not contingent on him going on a mission first.
Huh? I thought with the enrollment of Matt Carlino, the UCLA transfer that will be available next December to play and is practicing and traveling with the team now, all the scholarships were taken up for next year. Jay gives his analysis of what this means for the Cougars going forward.
The offer likely means one of two things: 1) BYU expects suspended center Brandon Davies will not return to the team in time for the 2011-12 season. 2) BYU coaches will run off a player currently on scholarship if White commits. Coach Dave Rose has reminded reporters several times that scholarship agreements are year-to-year.
Both of those scenarios could be true. I hope for and will make the case for scenario number 2 by refuting scenario number 1.
AD Tom Holmoe made the following comment 10 days ago, just after the news about Brandon's suspension came down.
Our desire is to try to get him back in full academic standing and full team capacity. That's a year from now, but right now that's where our focus of attention is on our priority to do everything we can to bring him back and help him be part of our team.
Holmoe says "a year from now" but it is unclear weather weather he means a 12 month year or "a year" as in the next academic year. Putting that aside lets look at next years potential roster sans Davies.
In the post we will have Noah Hartsock, Chris Collingsworth, Stephen Rogers, James Anderson and two centers returning from their missions, whose names I can't remember and I've looked for the past 20 mins on google with no success. So you see two solid down-low contributors in Hartsock & Collingsworth, along with Anderson, a back up and Rogers, who is more of a natural 3 with the ability to play the stretch 4 like Noah does sometimes. As evidenced by C. Collingsworth's knee injury this year, the team will likely want to red shirt one or both of the incoming centers. It is a lot to ask of someone coming off of a mission to be in game shape and ready to go. That scenario could lead to more season-ending injuries. So if you are running down low, for all intents & purposes with Collingsworth at the 5, Hartsock at the 4, Anderson off the bench at the 5, Rogers off the bench at the 4 (sometimes) and potentially a back up 5 just coming off his mission that doesn't look very deep to me.
Now looking at our back court and wings next year. Anson Winder (Red-shirt Freshman) and Demarcus Harrison (in coming Freshman) will likely start at the 1 and the 2, with Matt Carlino joining them in December. Charles Abouo has grow by leaps and bounds this year and will continue to start next year as a key part of this team on both sides of the ball. Stephen will likely spell him off of the bench at the 3 when he isn't playing the 4. That is a pretty solid 5 man rotation for the wing.
So now what to do with Brock Zylstra and Nick Martineau? Both are coming off missions but give their contributions in practice and blow outs. Niether is great at ball-handling or outside shooting. Both seem to be great people but don't bring skills that can help move the team forward in the post-Jimmer world.
If indeed the coaching staff is looking at adding a point guard, assuming that White would come and play for a year before leaving on his mission, I would think that they are operating under the opinion/information that he will be back next year. In the end, if White chooses BYU, I think we me be saying farewell to either Martineau or Zylstra.