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PROVO — The new guys may have received most the off-season buzz, but it was the old vets who stole the show at BYU men's basketball's annual Cougar Tipoff Wednesday night at the Marriott Center.
Junior guards Matt Carlino and Tyler Haws lit up the scoreboard for 28 and 31 points respectively, showing potential for a high-scoring offense this upcoming season.
"I'm really pleased with the effort of the guys, and we saw a lot of good things in the scrimmage," said head coach Dave Rose during post-scrimmage interviews. "I think there's a lot of things to improve on, but all in all, I'm pretty pleased with the guys tonight for their effort."
The scrimmage consisted of two separate 20-minute games between "blue" and "white" teams. The first game showcased scholarship players with Matt Carlino's 14 points and two assists leading the "white" team to victory and Haws 14 points topping the "blue" squad.
The second game split players into a scholarship "white" team and mostly scout-team players "blue" team. The practice squad kept the score close early on until a late 14-2 run bust the game open for the "white" team. Carlino led the way once again with another 19 points on 7-13 shooting.
"I was actually really pleased with the blue team on how hard they played, how hard they executed, and how they hit open shots," said Rose when talking about the scout-team players. "You can see those guys play hard, they execute stuff well, and you've got to guard them."
The younger guys will need to learn and grow quickly as coaches expect them to contribute right away.
"I expect the younger guys to have good nights," said Rose. "Hopefully we can find three or four of them to be consistently good every night, and that will be our challenge."
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After months of off-season drills and practices, the team was excited to finally get out in front of a crowd and play a competitive game.
"They were really excited in shootaround today to play," said Rose about the team's pre-scrimmage mood. "There's no question that in the nine years I've been here, that was the most energetic and emotional shootaround today. These guys have been practicing a long time, and there were ready for something different."
One of the new players fans are most excited to see this season is freshman center Eric Mika. Mika helped lead Lone Peak to a state championship and No.1 national ranking last year, but playing under the Marriott Center lights for the first time was a whole new experience.
"It was fun and probably not what I expected," said Mika about his first time playing in front of a live BYU crowd. "I think I was a little more tired than what I thought I'd be just being my first time under the lights like that and playing on the biggest stage I ever have, and with the Marriott Center not even a quarter full, it was still loud and a lot of fun."
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A main point of emphasis during post-scrimmage interviews was versatility and the ability of multiple players to play multiple positions.
"On this team, a lot of the guys can play 1 through 3 or 1 through 4," said Haws when describing the team's lineup flexibility. "Frank [Bartley IV] was playing a little bit of 4. Kyle was guarding at 4 tonight too. So, there's some depth there, and guys are pretty versatile that way."
Coaches used the second half to test players at different positions and to mix and match lineups to see which combinations fit together best.
"I wanted to play that second half with our guys and be able to put different lineups together, juggle them around a bit, and get started just because there are so many new players," said Rose. "I think we will need to expand the roles of a couple guys and maybe get them to learn a couple of positions for us so we can be a little bit more flexible. That will really help us."
Overall, the scrimmage helped both the players and coaches to gel and to better understand their team identity.
"I felt that this would really help our guys the most," said Rose, "and I think that you saw in that second half that the guys got better and more comfortable with the more time they spent on the floor."
"I think there were parts where we brought a lot of energy and played well at a really fast pace," added Haws. "We were sharing the ball, and when we do those things, we've got chances to be very good."
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Jason Ludlow is a KSL Newsradio BYU intern
