Catching up on BYU hoops

Here are a few updates on some BYU basketball happenings. The coaches and players just finished a month of basketball camps, and the coaches will now hit the road for July’s evaluation period to develop the team’s future recruiting plan.
Five players – Kyle Collinsworth, Chris Collinsworth, Stephen Rogers, Anson Winder and Nick Martineau – began summer classes last week. They’ll also participate in offseason conditioning and weight training.
Jimmer Fredette has been invited to help with a prestigious Nike camp in Indianapolis, and then he’ll return home to Glens Falls, N.Y. to spend a few weeks with his family and to work with skills trainer Lee Taft. Most of BYU’s other players will stick around Provo, except for Charles Abouo, who will play for the Ivory Coast in the World Basketball Championships. Brock Zylstra, Logan Magnusson and Noah Hartsock each got married this summer, so they’re busy settling into their new lifestyles.
Sometime soon I expect coach Dave Rose to announce his hire for director of basketball operations. The job became open when assistant John Wardenburg left the program and Tim LaComb was bumped up from director of basketball operations to assistant coach. I’ve heard that BYU was swamped with applications for the opening, which closed on June 17. I know of at least one local high school coach who is interested in the job. As for Wardenburg, we still don’t know why he left, but it doesn’t appear that he was just seeking greener pastures.
Rose doesn’t normally release his schedule until the Mountain West Conference has finalized its schedule, which should also happen any day. We do know, however, that the Cougars will play at the South Padre Island Invitational on Thanksgiving weekend, will play Creighton in Omaha on Dec. 1, will play Hawaii at EnergySolutions Arena on Dec. 4, then travel to Fredette’s home town for a game against Vermont on Dec. 8, before returning for a game Dec. 11 against Arizona at EnergySolutions arena. The Cougars will also have reciprocal home games against UTEP and Fresno State, and an exhibition game at the Marriott Center against BYU-Hawaii. Rumors have it that Memphis is trying to set up a neutral-site game with the Cougars, reportedly at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve, to be televised by ESPN, so that might be a surprise in the waiting.