PROVO — Jake Shoff returns to familiar territory as the BYU basketball team visits Weber State Wednesday.
Shoff, a junior forward for the Cougars, played two seasons in Ogden for the Wildcats — 1997-98 and 2000-01 — before announcing his plans to leave.
It wasn't for lack of playing time or success, since he started 19 of 28 games as a sophomore and averaged 7.4 points and 6.0 rebounds that season. In fact, he was third in the nation in average rebounds per minute played.
Factors included: playing for a new coach (Joe Craven) rather than the one who recruited him (Ron Abegglen) after returning from an LDS Church mission to Honduras as well as sensing a need to relocate to a new program as part of a personal overhaul.
Shoff said he felt he wasn't reaching goals in personal improvement and bigger contribution and made wholesale changes, including schools.
Jeff Judkins, the current BYU women's coach who was BYU coach Steve Cleveland's director of basketball operations at the time, quickly learned of Shoff's impending departure. Having recruited Shoff as a Utah assistant in the mid-1990s, Judkins used his previous connections to point the 6-foot-9 forward toward BYU.
Overlooked by former BYU coach Roger Reid when he was coming out of American Fork High School, Shoff welcomed the chance to consider BYU and was won over by Cleveland.
"I loved Weber State — I loved the university and the people there. I didn't leave because I hated Weber," he said, adding that while he anticipates some jeers from the Wildcat faithful in Wednesday night's game, "I still hold Weber close."
LOOKING BACK: Shoff's numbers as a Wildcat in BYU's 84-75 victory over Weber in Ogden two seasons ago: 23 minutes, 2-of-5 shooting from the field and 3-of-6 from the line for seven points, 10 rebounds, four fouls, two assists and one steal.
AWAY TO WIN: How bad do the Cougars need a road victory? BYU has lost three straight out-of-state games, including Saturday's "neutral-site" affair against Oklahoma State in Oklahoma City.
It's not so much that Cleveland fears his team's away-game psyche might be fragile on the heels of last season's road woes, where the Cougars won a season-opening away game and one neutral-site game.
Rather, he wants to begin Mountain West Conference next weekend on a roll with wins Wednesday night and then at home Saturday against Idaho State. "Going into conference, you want to feel like you're playing good basketball," he said.
SWAPPING STARTERS: As hinted following Saturday's loss, Cleveland said he'll likely move forward Jared Jensen out of the starting line. The Cougars have struggled with a lack of an inside punch when the two post starters — he and junior forward Rafael Araujo — are forced out of the game with foul trouble at the same time.
Cleveland doesn't anticipate a decline in Jensen's playing minutes. Rather, the intent is to always have at least one of the two — and sometimes both — on the court and producing in the paint, rather than having both sitting on the sidelines watching teammates forced to rely solely on a perimeter attack.
Who to move into the lineup vacancy will depend on opponent match-ups, but Shoff will likely get the nod when BYU needs to go bigger, rather than add another perimeter player like Rickey Bower. Cleveland points to Shoff's toughness, hands and craftiness around the basket as post pluses.
READY FOR ROBERTS: Cleveland is pronouncing one-time-redshirt Marc Roberts ready to play. Originally, the 6-foot-2 sophomore walk-on was expected to sit out after preseason arthroscopic knee surgery followed his return from an LDS Church mission to Argentina.
However, Cleveland has been impressed with Roberts' play in practice lately and hopes he will provide defensive stops, penetration and toughness on the Cougars' perimeter at the "2" or "3" positions.
MISCELLANEOUS: Six-foot-8 Garner Meads is to return from his LDS mission to Edmonton, Canada, in late February and will shortly thereafter begin classes . . . After taking over a program that went 1-25 in 1997, Cleveland is just five wins away from logging his 100th victory . . . BYU is 10-0 when holding its opponents under 70 points and 0-3 when Cougar foes reach or exceed 70 . . . Travis Hansen has scored in double figures in nine consecutive games.
E-mail: taylor@desnews.com