Cougars have plenty on the line at Stadium Shootout

Many feel that Lee Cummard’s return to the Phoenix area on Saturday, his home town and the area where he starred as a prep player in Mesa, is a treat for the Cougar star. But as BYU coach Dave Rose pointed out, it’s more a treat for Cummard’s family and friends who get to see him play in person. For the players who return to their hometown, the distraction, hype and pressure of performing well often take away from the enjoyment of the experience. This past week Cummard was swamped with interview requests from Phoenix newspaper, television and radio reporters.
“A lot of times it’s not as fun for the player as it is for the player’s support system . . . there’s so many people who play a role in a player getting to where they are that it’s good for them,” Rose said.
Still, Cummard looks at the game as a huge challenge, where the Cougars will face a top PAC-10 team, a nationally ranked team and he’ll get to face one of the nation’s top players in James Hardin.
“You can kind of gauge where your team’s at and where you’re at as an individual and how you stack up,” Cummard said.
Rose said it could be a challenge for the Cougars not to get caught up in the Cummard-homecoming feel and to remain focused on what the game means for the team. The Sun Devils present another style of basketball that the Cougars must be able to handle.
“It’s an opportunity for us to play a good team that’s outside of our league and get us ready for our league,” Rose said.
As for Hardin, Rose doesn’t expect the ASU star to have another game like the 8-point game he had against IUPUI earlier this week.
“Those are the kind of games that you don’t plan for. The 40-point games are the ones you prepare for.”
Rose probably won’t have Cummard guarding Hardin exclusively, which will hopefully keep the Cougars’ top scorer out of foul trouble and on the floor.
“We have multiple players that we can use (to guard Hardin) depending on how the flow of the game goes,” Rose said.
Prepping for the game was especially difficult for the Cougars with it being finals week. The team practiced early Monday, took Tuesday off, practiced again Wednesday morning, had a light practice Thursday afternoon before flying out to Phoenix. This morning the Cougars had their only chance to practice at the spacious University of Phoenix Stadium. With BYU’s game Saturday being the second on the Stadium Shootout slate, the Cougars won’t get much of a pre-game shoot-around on Saturday.