Friday, April 30, 2010

BYU Loses Michael Loyd, Jr.

BYU had an extremely successful 2009-10 season. They were rated in the Top Ten in the nation by Sagarin and Pomeroy for much of the year, and I still believe that they would have made the Final Four out of the West Regional if Jacob Pullen didn't shoot out of his mind against them in the second round. And they looked to be primed to be right back next season without too much graduating (Jonathan Tavernari and Chris Miles are the only two from the nine man rotation who graduated).

But BYU is rapidly shedding players. Tyler Haws, who really impressed me as a true freshman, is going off on his mission and will miss the entire season. Jimmer Fredette is on the fence for the NBA. And now Michael Loyd, Jr. is transferring out. Loyd was a player who was fairly anonymous on the BYU bench until the big late regular season battle against New Mexico when, with Fredette severely ill and the Mountain West regular season title on the line, Loyd exploded for 19 points on 8-for-9 shooting in 24 minutes off the bench. He took his game to another level in the NCAA Tournament, scoring 26 points against Florida. If Fredette goes, and with Haws gone, the one player who could fill that scoring void was going to be Loyd. With Loyd gone, BYU absolutely has to keep Fredette, or they're going to have tremendous trouble scoring.

I'm a big Tyler Haws fan, and I believe he can be that go-to scorer for BYU when he gets back from his mission, but BYU has to have Fredette back for this coming season or they'll be in serious risk of missing the NCAA Tournament altogether.

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