BYU By far THE team to beat in the MWC in 09'

WEAK squad? what? did you really say that. weak........how? dude, we lost sam burgess, who occasionally did good things but is easily replacable. we have depth. ben murdock, who wasn't that great, and yeah trent plaisted who was good but not spectacular. and big man chris miles who was more physical will be starting and will do great if not better than plaisted. with team leader lee cummard returning, jonathan tavernari as well, we will be just fine. plus we have this great player jackson emery returning from a mission. we have depth. we'll just be more talented and more experienced. byu is going to be solid next season.

The Cougs will definetely be good next year.  Miles is a much better rebounder and a much better post defender than Plaisted.  Even with the drop off offensively at Center, the development of Fredette, along with the improvement of Cummard and Tavernari will allow this team to score.  Noah Hardtsock will be the most versatile big man we've had since Mikeli Wesley, but will certainly need some time after returning from the mission.

With all this said, it surprises me a great deal that a Rebel fan thinks BYU is clearly better than his team, because I think UNLV will be the favorites.  4 of 5 leading scorers returning combined with the addition of a true center who is talented and a BCS transfer at guard will make them very, very tough.

Losing Plaisted definitely hurts, but BYU should easily finish in the top 2.  Lon Kruger and Dave Rose are the 2 best coaches in the MWC and both teams have great depth.  SDSU should compete for second, but I expect the Aztecs to once again fail to live up to expectations under Steve Fisher.

First of all as a Mountain  West basketball fan I am very very disapointed in the lack of activity here on the defending MWC reg. season champs mesage board.  UNLV's board has at least twenty new posts per day and this board has pretty much nothing.  While I am disapointed in the BYU fans activity level, i somewhat understand it.  Imagine if you were coming off of back to back regular season championships and two straight NCAA tourney berths.  Sounds like some positives to take into next season right????  well maybe not....  BYU loses old man sam burgess(guy had to be at least 37; what did he go on 5 missions before enrolling?), super scrub ben murdock, and all-overrated trent plaisted.  Losing the scrubs in the backcourt wont hurt BYU because u replace their ineptitude with some dude named Jimmer (who despite his down-syndrome sounding name, can play some ball) and mike lloyd(token black guy)  you will also be able to replace plaisted with miles and collinsworth so you wont be losing too much there besides experience.  So that leaves the following players who got decent PT last year:  cummard, tavernari, jimmer, miles, collinsworth, and lloyd.  Normally that 6 would be able to compete in the MWC but this isnt your mom's MWC anymore(or your other mom's MWC, or your OTHER mom's MWC).  UNLV is the king of the conference.  UNLV's returning core completely outclasses BYU's.  While UNLV was filling the rest of the roster with transfers from Memphis/Kentucky/UCLA and signing 5 star freshman centers, BYU was filling their roster with guys returning from missions who hadnt played a game in 2 years.   Cummard, while a good player, is still perpetually overrated.  He has what i call the "david eckstein" factor.  A limited player who doesnt do anything flashy but works hard and gets the most out of his abilities.  Wink will continue to improve and win player of year in conference over lee "my wife fights my battles for me" cummard.  UNLV will win the conference, make the tourney and win at least two games.  BYU will coast to a solid out of conference record and lengthen their home winning streak by continuing to only play cupcakes at the marriott center and mediocre teams on the road and then beat up on the middling MWC teams to pad their record even more and sneak into another undeserving NCAA bid.  OH and the best thing to happen in provo this year will definitely be the shellacking the Rebels give the mormons at the marriott center this year.  thats right my little brainwashed friends your winning streak will end this year

WAR DeShawn Mitchell MWC POY 2010-11