Despite his talent and the quality of his own teams, former BYU star Lee Cummard never played this deep into March. But here he is, a first-year head coach, prepping his women’s team to face Stanford on Thursday in the quarterfinals of the WBIT (7 p.m. MDT, ESPN+).
It wasn’t the season Cummard wanted (9-9 in the Big 12) or the tournament he preferred (BYU was the first team left out of the NCAA Tournament), but the new coach is still coaching, his young squad is still playing — and both are getting better while they do it.
A graduate of the Jeff Judkins school of winning that produced a program-best 456 wins, Cummard had a choice to make when Judkins left BYU after a 26-4 season and first-round loss in the NCAA Tournament.
The 2008 Mountain West Conference Player of the Year and loyal assistant decided to throw his name into the hat to succeed his mentor as head coach, but BYU turned him down.
In a surprise move, the Cougars hired Amber Whiting instead. Whiting was a bright young coach whose résumé came dressed in success — but all of it from the high school level in Idaho.
Wisely, Whiting convinced Cummard to stick around as an assistant and he agreed.
The timing was tough for the new coach. Whiting marched BYU into the Big 12 overmatched in every way. After three consecutive losing seasons, the once-proud program that had held its own for decades in the Mountain West and WCC had an identity crisis. No longer a contender, BYU appeared more like a stalled car on a fast freeway in need of roadside assistance.
In another administrative move, Whiting was out and Cummard was in.
Whether he needed those three additional years of preparation to be ready is debatable, but when finally given the keys to the fixer-upper, he went to work like a hungry mechanic. Almost overnight, Cummard rebuilt the engine, aligned the tires and installed a new navigation system.
The engine
For whatever reason, the highly-touted tandem of Delaney Gibb and Amari Whiting didn’t take. After Whiting’s transfer, Cummard empowered Gibb, a sophomore, with more freedom on the guard line. He also signed Utah’s top prep scorer, Olivia Hamlin from Snow Canyon High, and New Mexico’s two-time Gatorade Player of the Year, Sydney Benally.
Needing size, Cummard added 6-foot-3 senior Lara Rohkol from the transfer portal and 6-3 freshman Bolanle Yussef after a sensational senior season in Japan. Along with the returning roster, including a revived and healthy Gibb, and the newcomers, Cummard got the pistons firing again and restored life to the engine.
Alignment
With the motor up and running, the mechanic’s next job was to get the wheels aligned. Injuries and Big 12 defeats beleaguered the process, but in time, the team started moving in the same direction.
On Feb. 21, Gibb scored a career-high 37 points as BYU stunned Utah in Salt Lake City 86-74. Rohkol delivered a double-double — 11 points and 10 rebounds as the Cougars upset Arizona State in Tempe, 66-61. Gibb scored another 26 in BYU’s 75-62 win against Colorado in the regular-season finale.
Hamlin fired up Big 12 tournament play with 16 points to lead BYU past Houston, 76-66. The next day, Gibb scored 19 as the Cougars beat the Utes for the third time, 70-52. A hard-fought quarterfinal loss to top-seed TCU sent BYU to the WBIT.
Disappointed, but determined, Benally scored a career-high 18 points as BYU disposed of Alabama A&M in the first round, 72-47. On Tuesday, Gibb scored 29, Hamlin had 23 and sophomore Kambree Barber finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds as the Cougars routed Missouri, 93-75.
Along the way, Gibb surpassed 1,000 career points and earned All-Big 12 First Team honors for the second consecutive season. Hamlin was named to the Big 12 All-Freshmen Team and Benally set the BYU freshman record for assists.
Navigation system
Getting the program moving forward in such a short time is a credit to Cummard’s way of doing things. Unlike some of the coaching sideshows that attract camera time in the NCAA Tournament, Cummard doesn’t rant and rave, he doesn’t stomp his feet like a spoiled child or blister the air with obscenities.
Instead, he works in a stealthy kind of way. He is calm, but stern. He is peaceful, even when his emotions are raging inside. He teaches more than he criticizes. Like Judkins, he was a dominant player in the men’s game who has found his niche coaching women.
During games, Cummard wants the officials to call it both ways. He wants his team to take care of the ball, fight like crazy on defense, rebound, and most of all, he wants to win — and win with class and dignity.
This is one of the youngest BYU teams in program history, but it has matured down the stretch to win seven of eight games heading into Thursday night’s clash against Stanford. Its 24 wins are 10 more than last season and the most for the Cougars since Judkins’ last hurrah.
With the engine roaring, the wheels aligned and a navigation system steering them in the right direction, Cummard’s work is commendable. But as he will be the first to say, they are just getting started on this journey and there is much more to come.
Just as a good mechanic can be tough to find, so can hiring the right coach. BYU has both in Lee Cummard. In 12 months, he’s turned a fixer-upper into a roadster that is going places.
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.