OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -Losing leading scorer Jimmer Fredette to a midseason bout with mononucleosis might just have provided the boost BYU needed to break a first-round jinx in the NCAA tournament.
It helped coach Dave Rose discover what reserve Michael Loyd Jr. could do, and the sophomore came up big for the seventh-seeded Cougars (30-5) in a double-overtime win against Florida in BYU’s tournament opener.
Loyd went off for a career-high 26 points – he had been averaging only 4.6 – and rallied his team back from a four-point deficit by scoring all of the Cougars’ points in overtime. He also hit the 3-pointer in the second overtime that put BYU ahead to stay.
His playing time had been tapering off when Fredette – having just scored a school record 49 points in a win at Arizona – was diagnosed with the virus that can sap a person’s energy for weeks, if not longer.
“I would say it helped me develop into a better player, just knowing what I can do.”
Loyd took on a bigger role as BYU beat Eastern New Mexico without Fredette and moved into the Top 25 for the first time this season. Then he started and played a career-high 33 minutes in a win against UTEP.
Before being forced into a bigger role, Loyd admitted he was “maybe a little gunshy.”
With his playing time increasing of late, Loyd has scored in double figures four times in BYU’s last six games.
“There are times when people game-plan for Jimmer, and you need a Michael Loyd with the skills that he has to dribble, to penetrate, to make little floaters, to hit shots, and you can use that option when they guard certain ways … to stop Jimmer,” Rose said.
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REYNOLDS THE ROLE MODEL: Villanova guard Scottie Reynolds was adopted as a baby and has an inspiration for other children who were adopted. He’s flooded with e-mails, calls and messages from others like him and from people who want Reynolds to talk to children of adopted parents, or just the parents, for tips and advice.
“He said, ‘I’d like to help everybody,”’ coach Jay Wright said. “He tries every time he can if someone meets him to always talk to people, he goes out of his way.”
not called her yet.
He was born in Alabama and was the first of three adopted children for Rick and Pam Reynolds (who also had three biological children). They raised him in Illinois and Virginia and have been supportive of his pursuit. His biological mother was 18 when she had Reynolds – a year younger than Reynolds was when he discovered her identity. Now 22, Reynolds is waiting for the perfect time to meet her.
Reynolds is 30 points away from becoming No. 2 seed Villanova’s career leading scoring. The Wildcats play Saint Mary’s on Saturday.
Reynolds said he feels no pressure living as a role model to kids or to his own teammates.
“I think that you want to be the best player you can be,” he said. “You want to be the best person you can be. That’s what coach Wright intends to do at Villanova, is to push you and to drive you to be the best player you can be.”
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LOSING WEIGHT: Saint Mary’s center Omar Samhan put his redshirt year to good use.
He lost weight.
Samhan said he weighed 310 pounds as a freshman and went to work on shedding pounds. The 6-foot-11 senior has lost 60 pounds and averaged a double-double this season with 21.2 points and 11 rebounds for the 10th-seed Gaels.
in front of me. With the weight and everything else, he thought it would be a good idea to redshirt, work hard and get in shape. He thought if I could do that, I could have a special career when all was said and done.”
Samhan had 29 points and 12 rebounds despite spending most of the game in foul trouble in the Gaels’ 80-71 win over Richmond in the first round.
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HOME SWEET HOME: With a win against No. 2 seed Kansas State, BYU would get the chance to play its regional games next weekend in Salt Lake City.
“It would be great for us to be able to go back to Salt Lake and be able to play in front of kind of a home crowd basically,” Fredette said. “That would be a great thing for our program, for our fans and everything but obviously, we can’t look ahead. We’ve got a huge game ahead and they’re a very, very, very talented team, so we have to be ready to go.”
The Cougars are only 2-6 all-time in NCAA tournament games in Utah. Their last chance came in Salt Lake City in 1991, when they won a first-round game against Virginia and lost to Arizona in the second round.
“That would be such a home-court advantage with the fans and we could feed off of that,” Loyd said. “I may be one of those people that feeds off of the crowd. If it’s positive or negative, I’ll feed off of it anywhere we go. We can go somewhere people don’t like us, and I’m still going to feed off of it.”
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HENRY HOMECOMING: At coach Bill Self’s urging, Kansas freshman Xavier Henry is ignoring calls, text messages and ticket requests from family and old friends while the top-seeded Jayhawks play in his hometown.
“No distractions for me,” Henry said. “I’ve got to stay focused on the game.”
Henry and his brother/teammate C.J. played at Putnam City High School, where the Jayhawks practiced after arriving in Oklahoma City this week.
“I always like coming home and I enjoy it. I love being home,” Henry said. “I’m a hometown kid and when I’m doing whatever I’m doing, I’m going to live in Oklahoma City. I have no plans to go nowhere else.”
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QUOTEABLE: “I feel like Medusa sometimes. They all look the other way. They don’t want to look me in the eye.” – Kansas State coach Frank Martin on how his players react to his disapproving glare.
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AP Basketball Writer Dan Gelston contributed to this report from Providence, R.I.
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