By Rob Miech
CBS SportsLine Staff Writer
Dec. 9, 1998
Brigham Young has a long journey back to national respectability, but the program took its first step in that direction when it hired Steve Cleveland away from Fresno City College before the 1997-98 season.
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It ended its first year well under Cleveland, and it played Arizona tight before falling 78-74 in overtime on Nov. 28. But there are many more corners to turn for Cleveland and his staff to resuscitate the Cougars. BYU has a staircase of baby steps to take before it can play with anyone in the country.
The program last enjoyed that status in 1981, when coach Fred Arnold and guard Danny Ainge smashed UCLA by 23 points in a second-round NCAA game before upending Notre Dame, 51-50. Ainge's full-court, one-on-five dash in the waning seconds is perhaps the finest moment in BYU hoops history.
Then Ralph Sampson had 22 points and 12 rebounds to power Virginia over BYU 74-60 in the East Regional final. The Cougars were a game away from making the Final Four in 1950 and '51, then made five appearances in the NCAAs until Arnold took them there in '79.
AFTER THAT, BYU FAILED TO GO three consecutive seasons without gaining an NCAA Tournament berth. Until last season. In '95, it lost to Tulane in a first-round game. It hasn't been back since, winning 15 games, one and nine in ensuing seasons.
Yes, you read that middle figure correctly. The '96-97 Cougars will go down as one of the worst teams in major college basketball history, and the tumult cost Roger Reid his job when he failed to land prospect Chris Burgess and BYU won only one of its first seven games. The Cougars became the first team in the Western Athletic Conference to go winless in the league.
Then assistant Lynn Archibald lost his battle with prostate cancer after the season.
The moribund program could not have been in worse shape, but Cleveland rebuilt the foundation with an up-tempo game plan. The Cougars responded by zapping New Mexico's 40-game winning streak on its home court and beating Texas-El Paso at the end of last season to squeeze into the WAC tournament.
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Freshman guard Mark Bigelow has been right in the middle of most of the action for BYU.
(AP)
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This past summer, Cleveland installed a motion offense to take advantage of BYU's shooters and highlight movement without the ball. What the Cougars lack in athleticism, he figures, they can make up with efficiency. They're learning.
There is much work to be done, and BYU needs to succeed in the WAC before it can set any sights on doing some damage in the NCAAs. That starts with the rival Pac-10, which is undoing the Cougars. In addition to the home defeat to Arizona, BYU lost to Oregon (Saturday) and Washington State (Tuesday) in the last week.
THE COUGARS ALSO LOST MORE THAN a game to the Wildcats, when Arizona forward Eugene Edgerson tagged 6-foot-11 junior Bret Jepsen with a flagrant elbow. Jepsen lay unconscious for about a minute, and the concussion kept him woozy for more than a week.
Jepsen practiced with his teammates for the first time since that incident on Wednesday, and he will probably be cleared to play Friday night against Louisiana Tech in the Cougar Classic.
On the bright side, 6-7 freshman guard Mark Bigelow has emerged. Considered a prototypical role player, Bigelow has exceeded expectations by averaging a team-best 14.2 points. He also leads the Cougars with 36 rebounds, 17 steals and 13 assists, and he's shooting 82.4 percent from the free-throw line.
Four others are averaging double figures in scoring for Cleveland, led by 6-7 junior Silester Rivers (10.8) and 6-5 sophomore Nathan Cooper (10.7). Both are also sterling shooters, as Rivers is hitting 55.1 percent of his attempts and Cooper 52.5. That's where Bigelow (41.7 percent) needs to be more selective.
BYU had been sluggish at the start of games, trailing by a combined 34-4 in defeats at Auburn, Weber State and Oregon. It kept with Washington State at the start and throughout the first half, and Bigelow scored 18 of his team's 20 points in one stretch. But the road-weary Cougars sputtered at the end.
THEIR WEEKEND ITINERARY DIDN'T HELP them, as they left Portland on Friday, drove 100 miles to Eugene, stayed in Portland on Sunday, flew to Spokane on Monday, drove 80 miles to Pullman, played Washington State on Tuesday and drove back to Spokane, where the flew back to Provo.
Cleveland, of course, did not schedule the trip, and he will never authorize one of that nature again. But it will toughen his team, which will be challenged by yet another Pac-10 team, California, at home on Dec. 19. Games like those will help BYU in the WAC Mountain Division.
Mekeli Wesley, a 6-9 junior who averaged 13.5 points last season but received a first-semester suspension for violating the school's strict honor code, will make his season debut against the Golden Bears.
Next season, BYU joins seven other WAC castoffs to form the Mountain West Conference. With Fresno State and Hawaii out of that picture, the Cougars will battle Utah and New Mexico for the upper echelon of that new league.
Cleveland battles Utah off the court in recruiting. But while up to half a dozen Cougars are regularly traipsing the world on Mormon missions, Cleveland has a strong advantage with BYU's excellent Mormon pipeline to recruits.
IN FACT, THAT'S THE PIPELINE that followed Cleveland, a Mormon, at Fresno City. Two years before his dismissal, Reid first contacted Cleveland about becoming a BYU assistant.
Cleveland has already landed a fine in-state recruit, too, in Salt Lake City Brighton High forward Jesse Pinegar. He's a 6-9 junior who is pondering a two-year Mormon mission before he even bounces a ball for Cleveland in practice.
Bigelow, too, could head straight to the polar region of Finland or the Outback of Australia, or wherever The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints sends him, after this season. And next season, Cleveland will address the most unique problem in college basketball when 10 players return from mission.
"He'll have to do a real juggling act," said one school official.
The act will be considered successful if BYU gets back to the NCAA Tournament in the next three seasons. If not, it will match its biggest NCAA dry spell since 1965. And if that happens, Cleveland will probably be ready for a long mission of his own.
Rob Miech is a sportswriter on CBS SportsLine's staff.
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