So Jesse Wade, another Mr Basketball from Utah (What does that make for the BYU squad, 5 or 6, I lose count)
transfers to BYU after riding pine for Gonzaga. I find this very interesting and not a peep on this board.
Several things I can think of:
RMs often are very different from the person they were before the mission. Jesse most likely felt that BYU would be more in line with who he is as a RM. I have heard that Gonzaga was very welcoming to him but I have also witnessed how the student body treats BYU and the Church.
Gonzaga recruits the world. BYU…not so much. Jesse was competing against some big strong dudes up there in Spokane, could see that he was not going to get play time.
Mission rust takes a least a year to wear off…Jesse will have 2 years to get into playing shape.
I guess it is time to face the facts, face the music or face whatever it is… that BYU will be the third place team in the wcc most of the time and earn a NIT berth. They will occasionalely rise to second and get a ncaa berth or fall to fourth/fifth and get no berths. This is where the program is and likely where it will remain for the forseeable future.
BYU will get many of the best players in the state of Utah/Idaho or “Udaho” (in many ways one state) and at the same time will shun and neglect the best players from outside the state, whether those players decide to come to BYU or not. Nine of the 14 roster spots on last years team were from Udaho and 2 of the non-udaho players are now gone (Bryant and Dastrup). I have stated many times that there is a cultural divide and attitude that is so pervasive that it makes it impossible for any different result. Bringing in, and then chasing off, the Chatman, Bartley, Dastrups of basketball is the biggest problem facing BYU basketball.
Now they are bringing in another “Mr. Basketball” from the state of Utah and everyone within the greater SLC/Provo area of “Udaho” believes that this will get BYU to the top of the wcc. The fact that he comes from the very team that IS the top of the wcc is lost in the hype.
Here we go again, business as usual in Cougarland.
footnote - from the article, his younger sister is a freshman on the BYU soccer team. Thank you for confirming my belief regarding nepotism, alive and well at BYU.
The problem is not the Utah players. Both of the best teams in Utah history had large numbers of Utah players. Including the 2011 Sweet 16 team that was favored by some to go to the final four until one of the utah players decided his gonads were more important than the team.
This last year the team had a normal number of utah players.
The growth was in Idaho players.
And Idaho so far as I know does not produce great bball players…
replace the idaho kids with Pac 10 basketball footprint players and the team would certainly have improved.
Yes that leaves out Utah and Colorado of the PAC-12.
Colorado is like Idaho as far as bball goes.
I think it is promising that Cummard is building his career by getting permission to recruit Europe…It is like wow duh-oh who’d a thunk it…BYU can recruit, maybe should recruit, Europlayers better than most schools.
Back in the mid to late 60s they got a guy from Finland named Kari Limo who was all conference as a sophomore and a very good player for 3 years. Then there was Cosic from Yugoslavia, Phil Tollestrup form Canada, and Moni Sarkalati from Finland in the early 70s… Later on there was Timo Saarelainen from Finland who was outstanding.playing for Ladell Anderson in the mid eighties. He also played for Frank Arnold but was a backup to Fred Roberts and Steve Trumbo.
Steve Cleveland had Rafael Araujo from Brazil and he was a number 1 NBA draft pick and he also had Luis Lemes who was also from Brazil and a starting point guard. I don’t think Rose has had any foreigners that have made an impact other than Jimmy Balderson who was from Canada.
There have been other foreigners play at BYU but the ones named above are the only ones I remember who made an impact. Cosic was the best but others made an impact. I am not sure why Rose hasn’t had any foreign recruits other than Jimmy Balderson who was pretty good and was from Canada. Cleveland may had recruited Tavernari, who played for Rose, and who was from Brazi but I don’t count him because he played HS in the US.
I am counting nine foreign recruits of note since 1967 (Limo was a sophomore in 67 and freshman couldn’t play then). I didn’t include bench warmers who made little or no contribution. Misho Ostarcivic (from Yugoslavia) started a few games on a bad BYU team in the mid seventies when Mark Handy got injured. If you count Misho there are 10 foreigners who made contributions since 1967. If you want to count Fernando Malaman who started a little in 2006 that makes 11. That isn’t a whole lot but every now and then BYU should get a real good foreigner. There were about 3 Finnish players and another Yugoslavian player who made no impact and I didn’t mention them.
The last foreign player Rose had who contributed anything of note was Balderson back in 2007. If you take away the last 10 years you have a 30 year history with an average of one good foreign recruit about every 3 years. I thinks Gonzaga beats that average hands down.
I have a tough time understanding why a player should be excluded because he can’t pass an english test. It isn’t his native language, why should it matter? That is why you have them come over here to LEARN english and help your basketball team to be successful. Oh wait, BYU is successful… at doing the same thing year after year and never winning anything.
BYU let a foreign exchange teacher from Taiwan come and teach statistics without knowing much English. Every student would have failed except we found some good tutors. And, we had to still pay for that class! So, I see no reason not to let him come and play.
) , he has to sit one year and will have three year of eligibility.
Thank you for confirming my belief regarding nepotism, alive and well at BYU.
