Finding a rotation getting more difficult for Rose

When BYU basketball practices first began, the difference between those who were close to game-ready and those who were not was wide. It wasn’t hard for coach Dave Rose, at that time, to see who was ahead in the battle to get playing time alongside returning starters Chris Miles, Jimmer Fredette, Jonathan Tavernari and Jackson Emery. Now, three weeks into workouts, the gap has closed. Even the new guys – Tyler Haws, Brandon Davies, Logan Magnusson and Brock Zylstra – are impressing the coach.
“The main personality trait of this group is they play really, really hard because they know the amount of depth that we have,” Rose said.
With so much depth, Rose is anxious for the two exhibition games coming up this week and next to see how the players perform in competition outside of each other, and how effective the different line-up looks he plans to use will be.
“The most important thing right now is to get the opportunity to coach just one team,” he said.
In last week’s blue/white scrimmage, Rose was most impressed with the scoring the Cougars got from the post players.
“Hopefully that’s indicative of our post guys becoming better and more confident, and not a sign of our post defense is not very good,” he said.
Injury update: Haws, who missed more than a week of practice with IT band tendonitis in his left knee, has been practicing lightly the past few workouts but went full steam on Monday. He is expected to play in Thursday’s exhibition against Trinity Western. Forward Noah Hartsock, however, might be a different matter. Hartsock sprained an ankle in practice Monday in a collision under the hoop with Fredette and missed the final hour of practice.
“That’s what happens when you’re going after each other and going as hard as we’re going,” Rose said.
Redshirt, anyone? The only real redshirt options the Cougars have this season are freshmen Tyler Haws, Brandon Davies, and transfer junior Logan Magnusson. It’s unlikely, unless Haws doesn’t get back to full speed from his injury, that the coaches would redshirt the two-time Utah Mr. Basketball. With only four real front line players, I don’t see them redshirting Davies either. Magnusson, on the other hand, is competing for time at two positions, the three and four, where there are a lot of guys fighting for only so much time on the court. I really think if anyone is asked to redshirt, it would be Magnusson. He told me Monday that he’d be open to the idea if that’s what he’s asked to do.
“Right now I’m trying to learn a couple of different spots on the team, I’m trying to learn the three and the four spot and that’s a lot because they’re two completely different positions, so that would give me time to learn the offense and see how things go and figure some things out,” he said.

Cummard a Flash: I ran into former Cougar Lee Cummard at the Marriott Center on Monday morning, where he stopped in to shoot around for awhile. Cummard says he’s signed a contract with the NBA development league and is expecting to play for the Flash this season. He had a workout with the team scheduled for later in the afternoon.