BYU basketball players recently completed their final exams in the classroom, but their most difficult hoops test of the young season comes tonight in Las Vegas.

Sporting a 6-2 record after last week's oh-so-easy home victories over Fort Lewis and Idaho, the Cougars face No. 13 Stanford at the Thomas & Mack Center in the nightcap of the Las Vegas Showdown (10 p.m., ESPN).

"It's a huge challenge," said BYU coach Steve Cleveland. "We will have to play at our best to beat them. They've been one of the top seven or eight programs in the country the last few years."

Under coach Mike Montgomery, the Cardinal (6-1) have claimed three consecutive Pac-10 titles, posted seven straight 20-win seasons and earned seven NCAA Tournament berths in a row. In 1998, they made a Final Four appearance, along with Utah.

Stanford poses a number of problems for BYU, beginning with All-America guard Casey Jacobsen, who averages 21 points per game and is a leading candidate for national player of the year honors. "You're not going to stop Casey Jacobsen," Cleveland said, "but we're going to do our best to contain him."

"He's a good athlete," said Cougar junior Travis Hansen, who will draw the defensive assignment against Jacobsen. "He's a smart player and he'll be hard to guard."

Meanwhile, Stanford's 7-foot center, Curtis Borchardt, averages a double-double per game — 15 points and 11 rebounds.

"We haven't had to go up against a real dominant post player yet," Cleveland said. "We're going to play Utah and Wyoming and San Diego State, and they have outstanding post players, so I think it's a great experience for us to play against one . . . We've got to make our jump shots because it's going to be tough to get to the basket with their size."

Cleveland is familiar with Jacobsen, junior guard Julius Barnes and redshirt freshman forward Nick Robinson because all three Cardinal players were among a group of LDS high school stars Cleveland tried to recruit not long after he became BYU's head coach. Trouble was, the Cougars were coming off a miserable 1-25 campaign.

"We had a pretty difficult time convincing them to come," Cleveland recalled. "There wasn't much interest from them. I completely understand why."

While Cleveland didn't land Jacobsen, Barnes or Robinson (who has served a mission to Brazil), he did sign LDS prep standouts Mark Bigelow and Daniel Bobik, who have helped BYU to a surprisingly strong start this season.

Outside the program, expectations were low for the 2001-02 Cougars, considering they lost starters Mekeli Wesley, Terrell Lyday and Trent Whiting. The defending Mountain West Conference Tournament champions were picked to finish sixth in the MWC. At this point, the Cougars are playing about as well as any team in the league.

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"If you would have told me two or three months ago that we'd be 6-2 on Dec. 22 going into the Stanford game, I would have been happy with that," Cleveland said. "But that doesn't mean I'm satisfied . . . Can we become what we were last year? We'll wait and see."

Tonight's test should give the Cougars an idea of how they stack up. "It will be a great measuring stick for us," Hansen said.

NOTES: UNLV hosts Texas in the first game of the Las Vegas Showdown . . . Former Judge Memorial High star Tony Giovacchini is Stanford's starting point guard. The senior averages five points per game . . . BYU leads the all-time series against Stanford, 3-1, though the two schools have not met since 1970 . . . In November, the Cardinal won at New Mexico, 81-66, and downed Southern Utah at home, 81-63 . . . Last March, both BYU and Stanford were assigned to the West Regional of the NCAA Tournament in San Diego. The Cougars lost to Cincinnati in the opening round while the Cardinal defeated UNC Greensboro, St. Joseph's and Cincinnati before falling to Maryland in the West Regional finals. Stanford finished the season with a 31-3 record.


E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com

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