Cougs progress, Jimmer rests

During the first half of BYU’s victory over Air Force last night the television announcers commented that they could hardly tell Jimmer Fredette was sick, after which Fredette promptly (and uncharacteristically) missed two free throws. To me, Jimmer looked like he had heavy legs and wore down quickly. Fredette looked better at practice today, prompting BYU coach Dave Rose to predict his star point guard (my words, not his) will probably be in the starting lineup come Saturday (his words, not mine). Still, Jimmer is not playing at 100 percent and likely won’t be for a while. While BYU is obviously better with Fredette in the lineup, the team has played well and notched four wins while he’s working himself back into shape.

“We obviously miss Jimmer — he’s an excellent player — but I don’t think we’ve missed a beat as far as what we do, and that’s pushing the ball and playing together,” team captain Jackson Emery told me. “I think Lamont [Morgan, Jr.] and Mike [Loyd, Jr.] have done a great job of stepping up and filling in, and we’ve all been more assertive when it comes to scoring while our number one scorer is out. We all understand what we need to do to win, and I think we’ve been doing a good job.”