To the editor:
In Jon Brushke's March 15 Readers' forum letter, "BYU scored an offensive victory," he trashed BYU basketball players as having "no earthly idea how to perform that ritual" of basketball. Mr. Brushke assailed the Cougars for running up the score in the March 7 BYU-Utah game in the Huntsman Center and then claimed the Runnin' Utes were a "better collection of human beings."How does he know? Can the worth of a soul be determined from a sporting event? It seems that if there is more to life than basketball, as Mr. Brushke implies, then "who are better human beings" depends on a lot more than a basketball game.
Mr. Brushke complained about BYU's slam dunk with 30 seconds left and three-pointer with four seconds left. Obviously, he doesn't remember the 1990 BYU-Utah basketball game in Salt Lake City, when the Utes beat the Y. Utah's Jimmy Soto lofted a pass to Josh Grant with about four seconds left, which Grant slammed home for the final 16-point margin, discounting Mr. Brushke's argument that Utah "won't slam dunk in conceded time."
The Cougars had no business getting involved in trading insults with the anti-Mormon, anti-BYU contingent at the March 7 game, but when someone taunts you and throws beer on you, it's difficult to ignore.
Dale J. Neilson
Salt Lake City