Tar Heels blitz BYU early as Cougars stumble in opener

Jason Franchuk
DAILY HERALD

LAHAINA, Hawaii

BLOW TAPS ON THE BASKETBALL SEASON RIGHT NOW; NOT WORTH WATCHING. ITS OVER BEFORE IT BEGINS. MAYBE SOME DAY BYU CAN
GET SOME YOUNG INEXPERIENCED PLAYERS WITH TALENT. ALL WE ARE
GOING TO HEAR IS EXCUSE AFTER EXCUSE JUST LIKE IN FOOTBALL.
AFTER THAT WE GET ALL THE NONSENSE ABOUT LACK OF LOYALITY ETC.
FOR PEOPLE BEING CRITICAL OF THE PROGRAM. BYU IS RUNNING A SECOND RATE PROGRAM IN BOTH BASKETBALL AND FOOTBALL. MAYBE THE TICKET PRICES SHOULD COME DOWN EVERYTHING ELSE HAS.
OK, TIME FOR ALL THE FLAG WAVERS IN SUPPORT OF WHATEVER IT IS
BYU IS PUTTING ON THE COURT. BOTTOM LINE: POOR RECURITING
AND MINIMAL TALENT. I AM SURE A. KING WITH BLAST THIS LITTLE
NOTE WITH MORE RAH RAH STUFF AND HOW CRUEL TO MAKE LIGHT
OF SUCH A FINE PROGRAM WITH GREAT POTENTIAL.

BARNEY

BLOW TAPS ON THE BASKETBALL SEASON RIGHT NOW; NOT WORTH WATCHING. ITS OVER BEFORE IT BEGINS. MAYBE SOME DAY BYU CAN
GET SOME YOUNG INEXPERIENCED PLAYERS WITH TALENT. ALL WE ARE
GOING TO HEAR IS EXCUSE AFTER EXCUSE JUST LIKE IN FOOTBALL.
AFTER THAT WE GET ALL THE NONSENSE ABOUT LACK OF LOYALITY ETC.
FOR PEOPLE BEING CRITICAL OF THE PROGRAM. BYU IS RUNNING A SECOND RATE PROGRAM IN BOTH BASKETBALL AND FOOTBALL. MAYBE THE TICKET PRICES SHOULD COME DOWN EVERYTHING ELSE HAS.
OK, TIME FOR ALL THE FLAG WAVERS IN SUPPORT OF WHATEVER IT IS
BYU IS PUTTING ON THE COURT. BOTTOM LINE: POOR RECURITING
AND MINIMAL TALENT. I AM SURE A. KING WITH BLAST THIS LITTLE
NOTE WITH MORE RAH RAH STUFF AND HOW CRUEL TO MAKE LIGHT
OF SUCH A FINE PROGRAM WITH GREAT POTENTIAL.

Please tell me you are not that ignorant. BYU just landed a top 20 recruiting class, does that not count as getting some young inexperienced players with talent. As far as the program goes, no it doesn't compare to UNC but it is a hell of alot better than it was a few years ago.

BULL.........WHO SAID TOP 20 THE PR DEPARTMENT. WE KEEP HEARING
ABOUT ALL THIS SO CALLED GREAT YOUNG TALENT. FOR BYU ITS ALWAYS THE SAME STORY; WAIT UNTIL OUR YOUNG PLAYERS COME AROUND. THE LAST TIME BYU MADE A NCAA SPLASH WAS WITH DANNY AINGE BACK IN ABOUT 1981. LETS SEE THATS ABOUT 23 YEARS AGO.
WHAT HAVE THEY DONE SINCE? NOT MUCH. OH, I KNOW THEY MADE
THE NCAA TOURNMENT SEVERAL TIMES IS THE ON GOING STORY.
I GET THE IMPRESSION THAT BYU BASKETBALL HAS THE GOAL OF REMAING COMPETITIVE IN THE MWC AND THATS IT, BECAUSE THAT IS IT.

I'm sorry Barney, but your ignorance on this topic is maddening. Both Rivals and Insiders ranked BYU's recruiting class in the Top 20 nationally. David Burgess was one of the top 100 recruits in the country in every single ranking service you can find. Lee Cummard (he'll be playing for BYU next year) was ranked the No. 1 shooting guard recruit on the West Coast. Trent Plaisted was one of the top players from Texas. Chris Miles was ranked as the fourth-best center in the West. Need I go on? BYU has plenty of young talent. But they are all very young. Most of these kids hadn't played any Division I basketball until last night. And sure, BYU could have opened with Stony Brook like Utah and won their first game. But they went to Maui to play one of the top teams in the country in North Carolina to open their season. A lot of good teams are going to lose to North Carolina by a lot of points this year. They have three players in contention for player of the year honors! And if you watched the whole game, you'll see that once BYU's youngsters wiped the stars out of their eyes after the first half, they actually played fairly well in the second half. BYU's not going to be a Top 25 powerhouse this season, but if you're throwing in the towel right now, you have a lot to learn about college basketball and sports in general. Give this very young (and talented) team a chance to get its feet wet. There are going to some growing pains this season, but when it comes down to it, this will be a pretty decent team.

I gotta agree with Barney on this one. I was okay with the basketball program until last year. Last season we had the most talent on that team that we've had since the early '80s and easily the best big man we've ever had. And how did we do? Well, we didn't win the conference, we lost 2 out of 3 to the Yooots, we backed into the tournament as a 12 seed and got bounced out in the first round. Pretty disappointing. I can't help but think that Cleveland is an average head coach, at best, with that kind of talent and those results. Last night was an embarassment. I didn't expect to beat North Carolina, but I DID expect us to compete at least a LITTLE BIT. We competed against North Carolina about as well as an average ward ball team would--maybe because we have about the same talent level. Hope I see some improvement in both competitiveness and results soon. Otherwise, I'll be asking for another head coach to lose his job.