From: "CougarFan.com" Subject: News Recap (2/8/2001) - FB Recruits, Schedule Date: 08 Feb 2001 12:41:15 -0700

News Recap (2/8/2001)

Selected articles included here. See all the latest news at: http://CougarFan.com

Cougars Announce 2001 Recruiting Class (Press Release)
See: http://cougarfan.com/interactive/board/b.asp?m=860

The complete list of 2001 BYU football signees was released yesterday by head coach Gary Crowton. The article at the URL above includes bios on each of the 12 high school players and six junior college transfers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Looking for old high school friends on the Net?
Go to ClassMates!
Your 24-Hour Online High School Class Reunion.
Keep the promises you made at graduation to stay in touch.
ClassMates!!! Finding Old Friends!
http://by.advertising.com/1/c/22559/9728//16564
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cougar Recruits Already Measure Up in Integrity (Provo Daily Herald)
See: http://www.harktheherald.com/article.php?sid=3328&mode=thread&order=0

Knowing that recruits are serious about living up to the commitments they make to the honor code is a good thing for the Cougar staff, and several of the kids have already shown that they are a cut above the run-of-the-mill teenager. Over half of yesterday's BYU signees are putting their football careers on hold to serve LDS missions, and others have demonstrated their integrity in various ways.

Aaron Francisco, an all-state defensive back from Hawai'i, was turned off of going to the University of Hawai'i when he was taken to a party that involved alcohol while on a recruiting trip to the school. Running back Dustin Gabriel, a speedster from Allen, TX, opted out of running a leg on his high school's sprint relay team when he found out that the state championship would be held on Sunday.

BYU Announces 2001 Football Schedule (Press Release)
See: http://cougarfan.com/interactive/board/b.asp?m=853

A five-game home schedule, including important Mountain West Conference games against Air Force, Colorado State and Utah, as well as seven road games, featuring SEC powerhouse Mississippi State, PAC-10 foe Cal and long-time rival Hawai'i highlight the BYU 2001 Football schedule, which was released yesterday by the Mountain West Conference and BYU athletic director Val Hale.

2001 Football Schedule
------------------------------
9/1    vs. Nevada
9/8    @ California
9/15   @ Mississippi State
9/29   @ UNLV
10/5   vs. Utah State
10/13 @ New Mexico
10/20 vs. Air Force
10/27 @ San Diego St
11/1   vs. Colorado St (ESPN2)
11/10 @ Wyoming
11/17 vs. Utah
12/1   @ Hawaii

Miller Park Opens Gates to Media (BYU NewsNet)
See: http://newsnet.byu.edu/show_story.cfm?number=13360&year=current

On Wednesday, Feb. 7, the university opened the doors of its in-progress Miller Park baseball/softball complex to members of the media, giving them a tour of its concrete innards. Tour guide Gary Pullins, a former BYU baseball coach, used words like "incredible" and "outstanding" to describe the facility while leading the group through its labyrinth of unfinished rooms.

Architect Valentiner/Crane of Salt Lake City thought of everything to make sure the players, fans and media are comfortable at Miller Park. The players are provided with spacious clubhouses shaped like home plate, a large equipment storage area and even indoor batting cages where they can warm up before games. The interior will also house the baseball and softball offices. Outside, fans will enjoy games from theater-style seats instead of bleachers and a large, glass press box will protect reporters from bad weather. Even the umpires are provided for, their locker rooms coming "complete with Braille plates, so they can find their way," Pullins joked.

Perfect Record Vaults Volleyball to #4 Ranking (Press Release)
See: http://cougarfan.com/interactive/board/b.asp?m=848

After traveling to Southern California and knocking off sixth-ranked USC and 11th-ranked Cal State Northridge in a pair of three-game matches last week, the BYU men's volleyball team climbed from its eight-place ranking to No. 4 in this week's USAToday/AVCA Coaches Top-15 poll. BYU, now a perfect 5-0, remains just one of two undefeated teams in the top-15. Top-ranked Stanford is 6-0, while No. 2 UCLA is 5-3 on the season and third-ranked Long Beach State has posted a 5-1 mark.

Wesley Reaching Cougar Summit (Provo Daily Herald)
See: http://www.harktheherald.com/article.php?sid=3190&mode=thread&order=0

It was late November, 1996 on the team bus in the Marriott Center parking lot when Roger Reid answered a question about the Cougar recruiting class he just signed and a guy named Mekeli Wesley. "He's tough," said Reid. "He's a competitor, he plays hard and he's got a great outside shot for a big guy." Reid never got to coach the Provo High all-stater.

Steve Cleveland did. Four years and a re-tooled program later, Cleveland mixes few words when talking about Wesley, the only BYU player to be at every Cleveland turn since his arrival from Fresno. "He's the founding father of this basketball program or at least for the Steve Cleveland era," said Cleveland.

Young Deals with Life following Glory Days (Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
See: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/column/cohn/03cohn_c1.html

On Friday, Steve Young experienced a moment of glory. It had been a while since the last one. He sank a par putt on the 18th hole at Pebble Beach in the AT&T Pro-Am, as Jerry Rice, a member of his foursome, looked on. Then Young reached into the cup, grabbed that ball, gave it a big kiss and waved it to the crowd. The weekend was one of the most public for him in a while, and even included some talk by Rice of the possibility of the duo making a joint return to the NFL in San Diego or Seattle.

The article talks about his life out of football, and his new role as a husband and father. "It's the only miracle allowed us," he said. He wasn't referring to throwing the bomb. He was talking about bringing life into the world. "Hey, you know what," he said, "it's good to be alive."

Other Articles featured at CougarFan.com
See: http://CougarFan.com

Crowton and Staff Get an "A" for Recruiting (Deseret News)
BYU Goes a Year without New QB (Salt Lake Tribune)
Men's Basketball Travels to UNLV Saturday (BYUCougars.com)
Swimmer's Influence Reaches far beyond Pool (Press Release)
BYU's New Miller Park Has It All (Deseret News)

Tell your friends to sign up!
To subscribe to or unsubscribe from CougarFan Insider, go to http://CougarFan.com/insider, or send an email to: majordomo@xmission.com with "subscribe byuinsider" OR "unsubscribe byuinsider" in the body of the message.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "CougarFan.com" Subject: Call's Court - Utah Game Questions/Answers Date: 23 Feb 2001 09:16:06 -0700

Call's Court

Coach Nathan Call Answers Subscribers Questions

Assistant BYU basketball coach Nathan Call answers subscriber questions in a weekly feature called "Call's Court". The subscriber that asks Coach Call the best question will win a BYU basketball T-shirt. This week's winner is marked with asterik (*).

Send your questions to callscourt@cougarfan.com .

====================================

*From Matt Williams: "While Nate Altoff was being guarded by Mekeli Wesley, Utah consistently went to Altoff to get Mekeli in foul trouble. Altoff's own foul trouble blunted this strategy, but it appeared to be very effective while he was in the game. What do the Cougars need to do defensively to counter this move and beat the Utes in Salt Lake? What do you see is the biggest key to pulling out a win vs. Utah at the Huntsman Center?"

Coach Call: The biggest key to the game will be keeping our main players out of foul trouble. In every game that we have lost this season we seem to be in foul trouble. We know that they will try to go at Mekeli in the low post with Altoff and Burgess. We have a couple of different things we are going to do to keep the pressure off Mekeli. I don't want to talk about them before the game. It would be nice to get Altoff in foul trouble again but, Burgess is back so it isn't going to affect them that much.

We need our younger players (Dawes, Chrisman, Bobik, Montague, and Howard) to play solid games. We can substitute when the veteran players need a break or if they pick up a couple of early fouls. We can't have Mekeli, Terrell, and Trent playing the entire game with fouls and expect to win. The game will be decided by our bench play.

====================================

From Kyle Jones: "It is obvious we have had a difficult time playing from ahead against a number of teams this season. It appears that we stop playing in the manner that helped us get the lead in the first place. Is this true and, if so, is it intentional? Near the end of the Utah game, I found myself trying to figure out what would happen if we just held the ball for 35 seconds and allowed them to score every time if we would still have a big enough cushion. I'll bet I wasn't alone in this respect. Also, how do we avoid having this become a large mental obstacle for the team every time somebody starts to come back? By the way, I hope the coaching staff had a chance or will have a chance to hear the all the compliments the ESPN crew was giving during the game about your game preparation strategies."

Coach Call: I believe it is easier to play when you are ahead than when you are behind. It has been difficult to figure out this team. I know our team is thinking about it too much. Everyone, including the coaches, has talked about it to the players. The USC game still lingers in our heads because we shouldn't have let that get away, but that game is over. The best thing to do is to not think about it any more and just play the game one possession at a time. We can't stop playing or play differently once we get a lead.

====================================

From Thad Litz: "Would you rather the conference rotate the site for the MWC tournament, or do you like it being in Vegas every year?"

Coach Call: I don't mind that the MWC Tournament is in Las Vegas every year, but I'm a little biased because my parents live in Vegas. It doesn't brother me until we have to play UNLV in the tournament. It should be a great location for us because we have a lot of fans in Vegas. I think we are going to have a great turnout this year. A lot of the BYU students are going down to the Tournament. Spring Break, BYU style, warm weather and great basketball. There is nothing more exciting than a college basketball conference tournament. Just think about all the great games you see in March on TV. Most of them are in the Conference tournaments. I think we should keep it in Las Vegas because it will continue to grow. It will be something that MWC fans will start planning to attend every year.

====================================