For the past six years the BYU basketball team has spent the second week of March preparing for a postseason tournament - usually the NCAA's 64-team bash.
But the string of consecutive tournament appearances was broken Sunday when the Cougs failed to get a call from the NCAA or NIT.Seventh-year coach Roger Reid and his staff plan on racking up some frequent flier miles over the next few weeks, but it won't be because they are taking vacations after the premature end to the season. Reid said he'll spend most of his time in the near future doing three things: "Recruiting, recruiting and recruiting."
The Cougars, after losing seven contributors from 1994-95's 22-10 NCAA tourney team, were projected to be in a rebuilding mode this season - and the projections were right. BYU finished 15-13 overall and fifth in the 10-team WAC at 9-9.
"You always want to win all your games, but I feel like we played at or above our potential," said Reid. "The only real game that was discouraging was the last one (the 100-84 WAC Tournament loss) against Colorado State. That was the first game all year that we were really out of in the last few minutes. If we would have had two or three more wins with this group of players, it would have been a fantastic year."
The Cougars played six games against NCAA Tournament bound teams - including four on the road. BYU lost all six contests, but each one was close. For instance, the Cougs lost at Mississippi State by five, at Utah by six, at New Mexico by six and at Texas Tech by 10.
The Cougars were led by two of the WAC's top six scorers - one whose impressive career at BYU is over and one who will return to the team next season.
Undersized center Kenneth Roberts finished up as the seventh leading scorer in school history (1,652 points). Roberts, a two-time all-WAC player, averaged 19.1 points and 6.9 rebounds this season. Swingman Bryon Ruffner, in his first season as a Cougar following stints at Utah State and Utah Valley State College, averaged 19 points and six rebounds and was named all-WAC honorable mention.
Joining Ruffner on next year's team will be both starting forwards. Jeff Campbell (9.5 ppg and 3.8 rpg) will be a senior, while Justin Weidauer (8.3 ppg, team-high 7.3 rpg) will be a junior.
Perhaps the toughest spot to fill before the '96-97 campaign will be at point guard. Senior Randy Reid, a four-year starter who was third in the WAC in assists (5.1 per game) and third on the team in scoring (11.3 ppg), is gone and freshman backup Todd Christensen is expected to go on an LDS Church mission.
Nathan Cooper, BYU's top reserve (6.7 ppg, 4.4 rpg), has yet to announce whether he intends to leave on a mission right away or if he will instead return for his sophomore season next year.
While Reid and Company will be heading on the recruiting trail shortly, the Cougs actually don't have many scholarships to offer after signing a bumper crop of six high school players last November. Reid says he will have just one scholarship left for next year if Cooper decides to stay and two open if Cooper heads out on a mission. The Cougs appear to be looking for a junior college or foreign post player or two that will be able to step in and help out the inside attack immediately.
Reid is excited about the group of freshmen he has entering the program - three of which are local products. Michael Vranes, a 6-3 guard from Taylorsville, scored 38 points in a 5A state tournament game against Weber last month. David Nielsen, a 6-4 guard from Brighton, led the Bengals to the 5A state title despite missing most of the regular season with a back injury and Robbie Yates, a 6-1 guard, was the leading scorer in class 4A (when 4A included the largest schools in the state) as a senior at Brighton before his two-year church mission to Mexico.
The four freshmen from outside the state include 6-2 point guard Matt Montague (Louisville, Ky.), 6-8 forward Eric Nielsen (Fremont, Calif.), 7-footer David Anderson (Lamar, Colo.) and walk-on point guard Scott Sonnenberg (Chicago).