BYU Cougars men's basketball

BYU Cougars
2016–17 BYU Cougars men's basketball team
University Brigham Young University
Conference West Coast Conference
Location Provo, UT
Head coach Dave Rose (12th year)
Arena Marriott Center
(Capacity: 19,000)
Nickname Cougars
Colors Blue and White[1]
         
Uniforms
Home
Away
NCAA Tournament Elite Eight
1950, 1951, 1981
NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen
1950, 1951, 1957, 1965, 1971, 1981, 2011
NCAA Tournament appearances
1950, 1951, 1957, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015
Conference tournament champions
1991, 1992, 2001
Conference regular season champions
1924, 1925, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1948, 1950, 1951, 1957, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011

The BYU Cougars men's basketball team represents Brigham Young University in NCAA Division I basketball play. Established in 1902, the team has won 27 conference championships, 3 conference tournament championships and 2 NIT Tournaments (1951 & 1966), and competed in 29 NCAA Tournaments. It currently competes in the West Coast Conference. From 1999-2011, it competed in the Mountain West Conference.

History

BYU fielded its first basketball team in 1903. In 1906 the Cougars played their first game against Utah State University. In 1909 the team first played against the University of Utah. These two rivalries continue to this day. In its 108-year history, BYU's basketball program has won 1,666 games, ranking 14th among all Division I programs. 83 of the school's 104 basketball teams have had winning records. The Cougars won the first of their 27 conference championships in 1922 as a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

The Cougars would make the first of their 29 NCAA Tournament appearances in 1950 under legendary head coach Stan Watts. That Cougars came within one point of reaching the national semifinals. BYU's 1951 team was even more successful, winning 28 games and once again qualifying for the NCAA Tournament. In addition, the 1951 team won the first of two NIT championships for the school. The Cougars defeated AP #9 AP St. John's, AP #10 St. Louis and AP #13 Dayton to win the title. Notable players on that team include: Mel Hutchins, who was taken #2 in the 1951 NBA draft, was named the 1951-52 NBA co-rookie of the year and became a 5-time NBA All-Star with the Pistons and the Knicks; Roland Minson, who was drafted #16 overall in the 1951 NBA draft; and Loren C. Dunn, a future general authority in the LDS Church. The Cougars would go on to make five more appearances in the NCAA Tournament under Watts, and win their second NIT championship in 1966, although by that time the overall prestige of the NIT had fallen considerably. BYU has the most NCAA appearances of any men's team not to make the Final Four.

Under Watts, BYU also became the first U.S. college basketball program to include an international player on its roster, as Finland native Timo Lampen debuted in the 1958-59 season. Later, BYU's Kresimir Cosic, born in Yugoslavia (modern-day Croatia), became the first international player to be named an All-American. His jersey was retired in the Marriott Center in March 2006 in the last home game of the season against the New Mexico Lobos.[2] Watts retired as the winningest coach in BYU history.

After Watts's retirement following the 1972 season, the program experienced five consecutive losing seasons from 1974 through 1978 before returning to the NCAA Tournament in 1979 behind Danny Ainge and coach Frank Arnold. The Cougars reached the Elite Eight, one game short of the Final Four, in 1981, Ainge's senior season. That season, Ainge won the Wooden Award as the nation's most outstanding player.

Arnold left following the 1983 season and was replaced by LaDell Andersen, who had several successful seasons in the 1980s, including the 1987-88 season when the Cougars rose as high as #2 in the national rankings on their way to a 26-6 season. Andersen then resigned following a 14-15 season in 1989.[3] He was replaced by Roger Reid, who guided the Cougars to 20-win seasons in each of his first six years and five NCAA Tournament appearances.

Reid was fired in the middle of the 1996-97 season after a 1-6 start. Part of his firing had to do with a private comment Reid made to Chris Burgess, then considered the top high school player in the nation and a Mormon whose father had attended BYU; Reid suggested that Burgess had let down the entire LDS Church by choosing to attend Duke rather than BYU.[4] Assistant coach Tony Ingle coached the team on an interim basis for the rest of the season and did not win a game; the Cougars' 1-25 record was easily the worst in school history.

Following the season, Steve Cleveland was hired as the new head coach and returned the Cougars to prominence. In 2001, the Cougars won the MWC regular season and tournament championships, making their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1995. After the 2004-05 season, Cleveland resigned to become the head coach at Fresno State; he was replaced by Dave Rose.

Dave Rose, co-captain of the University of Houston's 1983 "Phi Slama Jama" college basketball team, began the first of six straight 20-win seasons in 2005-06. Rose and assistant Dave Rice continued BYU's successful recruiting with the addition of All-American Jimmer Fredette in 2007 and DeMarcus Harrison in 2011. In June 2009 he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and returned to coaching later that year.[5] In 2010, Rose coached BYU to their first NCAA tournament victory in 17 years in a double-overtime win against the University of Florida.[6] The following year, BYU made further inroads as a #3 seed when they advanced to the Sweet 16. On March 13, 2012, BYU set a record for the largest comeback in a NCAA tournament game, as they were down by 25 points at one point in their first match of the 2012 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament and came back to beat the Iona Gaels 78-72.[7] Following the Cougars appearance in 2012's NCAA tournament the Cougars look to improve upon that success with the return of Tyler Haws, from a 2-year LDS mission, and Brandon Davies in his senior year.[8]

Coaches

The Cougars play home games at the Marriott Center.
Name Seasons Record Win. Pctg.
C.T. Teetzel 1905-08 22-6 .786
Fred Bennion 1908-10 16-6 .727
Henry Rose 1910-11 8-0 1.000
E.L. Roberts 1911-20, 1925–27 87-49 .640
Alvin Twitchell 1920-25 50-20 .714
G. Ott Romney 1927-35 139-71 .662
Edwin R. Kimball 1935-36, 1938–41 59-38 .608
Fred "Buck" Dixon 1936-38 25-23 .521
Floyd Millet 1941-49 104-77 .575
Stan Watts 1949-72 371-254 .594
Glenn Potter 1972-75 42-36 .538
Frank Arnold 1975-83 137-94 .593
LaDell Andersen 1983-89 114-71 .616
Roger Reid 1989-96 152-77 .664
Tony Ingle (Interim) 1996-97 0-19 .000
Steve Cleveland 1997–2005 138-108 .561
Dave Rose 2005–present 276-98 .745

Season-by-season results

Individual honors

National Players of the Year

All-Americans

Conference Players of the Year

Individual records

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/25/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.