The big man is avoiding breaking China shop porcelain. That is huge for BYU's 6-foot-11, 285-pound center, Rafael Araujo, who will put his newfound non-disqualification streak on the line when the Cougars host the University of Southern California tonight in the Marriott Center.
Since fouling out in 18 minutes of play in BYU's only loss in six games at Cal-Berkeley, the big Brazilian's foul count reads like this: Zero (UVSC), two (Boise State), three (Oklahoma State) and one (Western Oregon). Results? BYU is on a four-game win streak in which Araujo earned national honors for his dominance.
It's not easy being a guy that big with guys who come up below your chin guarding you and vice versa. All Araujo has to do with his quickness is bump somebody, and they easily crash to the floor.
But it's the dumb stuff that his coach, Steve Cleveland, is most pleased to get rid of. That includes Araujo committing fouls 40 feet from the basket and getting whistled for clearing out defenders with elbows and shoves, many of which he's called for without the ball.
Araujo is working himself into a first-round NBA draft possibility, if he stays the course. National mentions are starting to flow in like melted butter.
Writes San Antonio Express basketball expert Mike Fingers: "In an era of undersized power forwards masquerading as centers, this 6-foot-11 Brazilian may be the closest thing the game has to a true pivot . . . he is emerging as one of the nation's best interior pivots."
Now, a new feature: The Harmon Question Queue. You create 'em, I'll try to find what's up. The following questions have trickled in the past week.
"What's the latest on Lenny Gomes?"
You may remember the famous quote by this BYU lineman after a loss to Utah in the early 1990s that someday Utes would pump his gas. Gomes e-mailed an update after his post-college story appeared in this space more than a week ago. Infamous quote aside, Gomes did have two interceptions against the Utes as a sophomore. He sold his business in Tennessee two years ago and now owns his own lumber company close to his home in Alpharetta, Ga. He has a 10-year-old daughter, who is one of the top junior golfers in Georgia, and two sons, 8 and 5.
"What is the record of opponents played on the schedules by 9-2 MWC champs Utah and struggling 4-8 BYU this past football season?"
Well, let's figure this out. Utah's opponents in its 11-game schedule were 64-69 for a .481 winning percentage. The best marks were by New Mexico and Oregon at 8-4. For the Cougars, opponents in 12 games were 85-58 for a .594 win percentage and the best records were by USC (11-1) and Boise State (12-1).
"Why didn't you put in your column the inflammatory comments by Oklahoma State guard Daniel Bobik on KSL Radio's Bill Riley show before last Saturday's game? He said BYU's staff was lousy and the program wasn't going to improve."
Here's a portion of the Riley-Bobik interview courtesy of KSL SportsFinal archives:
Riley on transferring from BYU: What was it, playing time thing or personality thing or both?
Bobik: "A little bit of both. I don't think our personalities matched a lot of the time. It didn't allow me to relax. I didn't feel the coaching staff had confidence in me . . . we kind of clashed. It appeared it wasn't ever going to change. Instead of telling me the things I could do they were negative with the things I couldn't do, so that was something that was very hard for me to deal with."
Inflammatory? You be the judge.
Label correspondence for this weekly feature as "Question Queue" and drop me a note or e-mail and I'll tackle a mixture of the easy and tough with full rights to edit inquiries for brevity.
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com