Young, Rose, Tavernari take home MWC top honors PDF Print E-mail
JaredLloyd  |  Tuesday, March 6, 2007, 6:55 pm
Jason Franchuk
DAILY HERALD

The chants at the Marriott Center the past few games may have been heard by voters, but perhaps there wasn’t any need to sell the virtues of Keena Young.

The last month or so, was there ever a doubt about him being the Mountain West Conference’s most valuable player? Young, a 6-foot-6 senior power forward, accepted the honor Monday in what teammates, fans and BYU coaches — though that last group’s been the most diplomatic group about the process — have expected since BYU started controlling the regular-season race a few weeks ago.

BYU won the MWC title outright Saturday, defeating Utah at home by 23 points. To the victor go the spoils. And in basketball, the MVP often comes in the form of the best player on the best team.

That would be Young, whose comforting consistency allowed BYU to achieve heights it hadn’t reached in more than a decade — namely, an outright league title for the first time since 1988 and a national ranking for the first time since 1993.

The Cougars were ranked a couple of weeks ago, and jumped back into the polls Monday at No. 23 in the Associated Press and coaches versions.

Young’s been a huge factor in just about everything this year, and his coach thought the selection was fitting.

“It’s a real tribute to his work ethic,” said BYU head coach Dave Rose, who was selected as the league’s top coach for the second consecutive year. “The players developed a lot of confidence in him.”

Young has scored in double figures in 26 of 30 games this season to rank fourth in the league with 17.1 points per game. He has registered five double-doubles and is seventh among MWC rebounders with a 6.2 average on the glass.

“When the season started, all I wanted was to be consistent,” Young said.

Forward Jonathan Tavernari was selected by a panel of selected media members and the nine MWC coaches as the top freshman. He became the second consecutive Cougar to win that award, following Trent Plaisted.

It was a bumpy start for Tavernari in college. He missed the first three games as BYU cleared up a snafu about his eligibility, stemming from his junior year of high school. The Brazilian lived with countryman and family friend Walter Roese, who was then BYU’s director of basketball operations, while playing at Timpview. Roese later became an assistant coach.

The 6-6 Tavernari led MWC freshmen in scoring (7.2 points per game) and rebounding (2.8 per game). It was a far cry from a player who struggled to find an identity in a veteran team. After struggling with his shot, Rose even sat him two consecutive games in December just to try and slow down the game for him. He hit his stride in conference play, including a 6-for-7 showing from behind the 3-point line Jan. 10 against TCU in BYU’s second MWC tilt.

“What I’m most proud of with Jonathan is he’s been able to find a role on this team where he could help us,” Rose said.

Said Tavernari: “I struggled a lot at the beginning with my role on the team, but my teammates helped me and were always talking to me about how I could get better, and cheering me up. So the most important thing about me following in Trent’s footsteps was just the motivation that he gave me every day in practice. Everyone helped me and pushed me to be better.”

The Plaisted-Tavernari connection was the first back-to-back freshman award winners at BYU since Shawn Bradley (1990-91) and Russell Larson (1991-92).

Plaisted was a second-team selection again. Lee Cummard made third team as a 6-6 sophomore wing, and senior point guard Austin Ainge was on an 11-player honorable-mention list.
On the first team, Young was joined by three other seniors — San Diego State guard Brandon Heath; Air Force forward Dan Nwaelele and UNLV forward Wendell White — along with Colorado State junior center Jason Smith. Heath and Smith were first-teamers last year, also.

UNLV’s Joel Anthony, a 6-9 senior center who leads the league with 58 blocked shots in conference play, was named the top defender.

Young, a third-team selection last year, shrugged off consideration for “best player” Saturday after tying for team-high scoring honors with 15 points in front of a sellout crowd that chanted “MVP” a few times for him.

“I don’t get into that type of stuff. If I am, I am. If I’m not, I’m not,” he said of the upcoming award announcement. “We have a conference championship and we still have a lot of playing to do, so that’s what I’m concerned about.”

But he smiled Monday, having won it. Young is finishing his third year at BYU after being a qualified junior-college transfer, who spent a year in Texas before Rose helped lure him to Provo as a solid, if undersized, rebounder.

“I didn’t think it would ever work out this good here,” he said.

Seven BYU players have been named conference MVP, the last being Rafael Araujo in 2004. Others were Mekeli Wesley (2001), Michael Smith (1988), Timo Saarelainen (1985), Devin Durrant (1983), Danny Ainge (1981) and John Fairchild (1965).

Rose is the first back-to-back coach winner at BYU. He is 43-16 in his first two years, including a 23-7 record this season (13-3 in league). Rose is 25-8 in MWC games heading into Thursday’s first round of the MWC tournament, where the top-seed Cougars will play either TCU or New Mexico in Las Vegas. Those teams, the Nos. 8 and 9 seeds, play today.
 
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