Tyler Haws is on the edge of history at BYU. (USATSI)
Tyler Haws is on the edge of history at BYU. (USATSI)

Passing a school icon is never easy. Especially when you consider that icon a friend, having played on the same team as him for a season.

However, that's exactly what Tyler Haws will likely do over the course of the next week for BYU. Haws is currently sitting on 2,565 career points, 34 points behind former national sensation and Wooden Award winner Jimmer Fredette for the all-time points record in school history.

So how is he coping with the idea that he will likely be the leading scorer in BYU history, a program has suited up players like Fredette, another Wooden Award winner in Danny Ainge, and even his father, Marty (the 20th-leading scorer in school history)? 

"You know, I haven't had the chance to really think too much about it, to be honest," Haws candidly told CBSSports.com. "You're so invested in what your team is doing the next game and what's going on. So I think it'll really hit me more when the season ends. You know, looking back, it'll be like 'Wow, that was an unbelievable ride and that was really cool with what I was able to do.'"

What he's been able to do is become one of the more efficient, consistent scorers in all of college basketball over the past three seasons. Averaging 22.4 points per game on a 59.2 true-shooting percentage, there has arguably not been a better scorer outside of Doug McDermott over that period. And crazier yet, Haws does all of this with a game that is centered around excelling as a shooting guard in the midrange, which is something of a lost art in this age of analytic analysis. Currently, 58 percent of Haws' shots are classified as "2-point jumpers" according to Hoop-Math.com. 

"It's something that I developed over time," Haws said. "The gym I grew up in is smaller on the sideline, coming probably three or four feet past the 3-point line on the sideline. So I just grew up shooting a lot of midrange shots, working off of down screens. I just feel really comfortable when I get in that area, and I feel really comfortable pulling up anywhere inside the 3."

That makes a lot of sense, given who some of his favorite players were growing up.

"One of my favorite players growing up was J.J. Redick," Haws said. Just watching him at Duke, watching him manuever off of two or three screens, I loved that. I loved watching guys chase him and try to catch up with him, and it seemed like he was in really good shape to do that. Then I liked guys like Rip Hamilton too, a midrange guy who loved running off of down screens. So I just grew up watching those guys and liked the way they played.

That midrange game is certainly working this season, as Haws is a Wooden Award Late Season Top 20 Finalist, scoring 22.2 points-per-game with a 60 true-shooting percentage. It's not just the points-per-game average that's impressive though, it's the consistency. Over the course of his 97 games in the past three seasons, Haws has scored less than 11 points just three times (only once this season), which is remarkable for a player that defenses sell out to stop every night. 

"He is an amazing example of consistency," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "Especially in this day and age of scouting and sophisticated defensive approaches and people always having him as their number one guy they need to try and stop, and that he can continue to find ways to score points night after night. To be one of the top-25 scorers in the history of the game, you have to be really consistent. You can't get 10 one night and 40 the next night, and that's what's been so amazing about him. You can count on somewhere between 18 and 30 points from this guy almost every single night throughout his entire career, and there's only a special few guys that have come through this that have done that before."

And the top-25 is exactly where Haws is headed after he passes Fredette. Assuming Haws plays six more games this season (a seemingly conservative estimate, given that the Cougars have three regular season games left, at least one WCC Tournament game and at least one postseason game), Haws will likely get up to approximately 2670 points, which would move him past Basketball Hall of Famers Joe Dumars and David Robinson, as well as past another past NCAA sensation and All-NBA player in Stephen Curry in to the top-25 all-time in NCAA scoring.

Some lofty company, to be sure.

And like many of those players, Haws certainly has an interesting story. One that involves being born in a foreign country as well as a two-year sabbatical from basketball. 

Haws was born in Belgium, where his father was playing professionally at the time after breaking BYU's all-times games played mark. The family stayed over there for a couple of years, but Haws doesn't really remember anything about the time before his family moved back to Utah (although he does like to joke that he's "European" with friends). After that, it was only a matter of time before Haws got involved in playing basketball. Two Utah Mr. Basketball Awards and two state championships in high school later, Haws became a highly sought-after recruit. You'd think that with his father being one of BYU's more decorated players that the Cougars were the obvious choice, but that wasn't actually the case.

"I never saw myself going to BYU," Haws said. "Even though my dad went here and I grew up going to games, I just didn't feel like BYU was the place until I really took a good hard look at lots of different places. I considered Utah, BYU's main rival. I looked at Stanford, and Davidson, where Steph Curry played, and Harvard with coach (Tommy) Amaker. Those were my five, but it really came down to Stanford and BYU. 

"I loved Stanford. I loved the campus and the school, and at the time it was coach (Johnny) Dawkins' first year and I grew up a big Duke fan so I really liked that whole situation. But I just came on a visit here to BYU and quickly realized that I could get comfortable here and get the education I wanted and play at a high level of basketball and be able to make an impact right away. And then, I liked the social part of it too. There are really good people here like my teammates and coaches." 

There was also another slight hitch in his recruitment: Haws' two-year LDS mission. He was planning on going on a mission after his freshman season of college, which Haws said made some schools stop recruiting him when he informed them of his plans. But that doesn't really bother him, as he still considers the mission the "greatest experience of his life." 

Applying for a mission itself is a whirlwind of uncertainty to begin with. Basically, you send a packet to church headquarters in Salt Lake City to apply for a mission. From there, they assign you to one of close to 400 missions throughout the entire world. We're talking anywhere, from America all the way to Philippines.

Which is exactly where Haws was assigned when the LDS church sent Haws' packet back to him.

"It's like the craziest 30 seconds of your life, reading that letter, because you have no idea where you're going," Haws said. "So yeah, I was really surprised when I got called to Southeast Asia and the Philippines."

Haws served his two years in Quezon City, which is adjacent to Manila. As a missionary, Haws had to wake up at 6:30 every morning, where he then had an hour and a half to himself to eat, shower, and occassionally work out on the side. He then had to spend three hours studying, then was out of the house from 12 until 9 every day spreading the gospel. Given those time frames, it's not like there is a lot of time for Haws to actually stay in shape, let alone improve his basketball skills. 

Also, then there's the problem of them just throwing you into the culture of the country, and expect you to assimilate. Haws learned that wasn't exactly easy, between just getting used to lesser living conditions and learning to speak Tagalog.

"It took me four or five months to see the light and realize I was going to be okay for the next couple of years," Haws said. "The language is really, really hard. It's so frustrating when you're out talking to people and you can't understand them. It took seven or eight months to where I was like 'Okay, I can get my point across to people.'"

Haws returned to BYU after two years in the Philippines to a totally different situation than when he had departed in 2010. Fredette went from a really good player to must-watch sensation in 2011. Then for the 2012 season, the Cougars had switched from the Mountain West Conference to the West Coast Conference, after having finished in or second in every season of Rose's tenure. From day one, Haws came in and led the charge for Cougars, using some of the things that Fredette had taught him in 2010.

"Jimmer is a really good friend, and he's just a competitor," Haws said. "That's the main thing I learned from him. He wasn't going to back down to anyone. He wasn't going to back down from the challenge, and just would compete every second. That's what I've tried to do, and to have my game up there with his is pretty cool."

Haws may not be the level of player that Fredette was, but his pure consistency over the course of his four seasons in Provo will likely result in accolades and a future date for a jersey retirement. But given how Fredette's career has stalled out in the NBA, it's fair to question what Haws' future holds for him. They're different players -- Fredette needs the ball more, Haws plays better off ball, which may fit more in the NBA -- but both have similar weaknesses in that they struggle to defend and don't really have NBA-type bodies. 

Still, Haws is confident that he can play at the highest level.

"I feel like I am an NBA player," Haws said. "I feel like I can play in that league. But I just want to keep playing basketball. The game has given me so much in my life, like a good education, and it's helped me meet so many amazing people. So before I have to sit down and get a real job, I want to keep playing ball as long as I can."

Whether or not that works out for him, who knows. But regardless of what happens there, the coming weeks will likely make him a icon at BYU in his own right. 

After all, passing a recent icon likely makes you one at the school yourself.