After Brandon Davies Honor Code violation, BYU Cougars suddenly face extinction

Would it have been too much to ask Brandon Davies to keep it ‘clean’ for just five more weeks?

Although, if reports that the suspended BYU center had impregnated his girlfriend are indeed true, I guess that would had been a pretty tough secret to keep for another month around the 8-0-1.

Actually, maybe BYU isn’t even going far enough banishing Davies from the team. Perhaps the school should vacate all of its basketball wins for the entire season, or from whatever date it could be determined that Davies first broke the Honor Code.

I can’t help but recall what former BYU hoops coach Roger Reid once said to a one-time prep All-American named Chris Burgess, who also happened to be a Mormon, when he had the gall to choose another school that wears blue and white – the one coached by Mike Krzyzewski called the Duke Blue Devils. At the time the coach supposedly told Burgess that he had ‘let down nine million people’ – the global membership of the LDS church.

You can argue that Davies has wound up doing the same, or at least whatever percentage of Mormons actually follow BYU hoops.

You have to give the institution credit: it holds up to its beliefs and is not afraid to muck its hand athletics-wise for a larger purpose when painfully necessary.

However, the truth is that in one fell swoop the Cougars have gone from Final Four contenders to being on the verge of extinction – with the cherry on top being last night’s home rout at the hands of New Mexico in an atmosphere in Provo that wound up so stunned and silent that BYU radio voice Greg Wrubell at one point described the Marriott Center as being ‘church quiet’.

Fitting. And I’m not dancing on their grave.

I was an active member of the church back in the day. LaVell Edwards Stadium remains on my bucket list. The Provo Daily Herald gave me a nice link when I previewed the first San Diego St./BYU contest earlier this season. Steve Young is one of my favorite all-time NFL players (him defying the church and staying single his entire career an added plus). I turn on the BYU Channel in the middle of the night to hear Chapter 78 of the Doctrine and Covenants dissected, word by word. I even partially forgave Coleby Clawson for taking out my man Sam Bradford.

And, non-BYU related, at least Provo can still claim The Used, which is almost as big as Jimmer Fredette and his rapper brother.

But I wanted badly for this to be the year for BYU basketball to play deep into March, and perhaps even April, and those chances were looking pretty good.

Just five days ago the program had seemingly at long last gained complete national respect and perhaps a #1 NCAA seed in San Diego while getting CBS/Clark Kellogg run in a rare national network telecast. Three-pointers were falling for virtually everyone, not just Fredette. The rowdy SDSU student section known as ‘The Show’ wound up being muted.

* – By the way, my take on SDSU: Steve Fisher, classy man, same for the team. It’s a shame that too much of his student body ignored his plea to do likewise, with some students cutting in line in front of others who had camped out for days in hopes of scoring tickets. Not to mention the faux-missionary outfits that didn’t offend too many in BYU-land, but nonetheless got old in a hurry. Well, at least it wasn’t like the old days at the San Diego Sports Aroma when BYU fans took over the place.

What worked at Montezuma Mesa on Saturday obviously did not work at home v. New Mexico. And it wasn’t just that one player that was missing. Charles Abouo and Rogaine Hartsock and even Jimmer Fredette may have physically suited up, but definitely not mentally.

I don’t know much about Brandon Davies except that he was adopted and grew up practically across the street from the BYU campus – so obviously he knew the rules at that school as much as anyone.

If Davies’ banishment was indeed a ‘pre-marital’ issue, it’s obviously a case that would not be an issue at almost any other university. But BYU plays by its own directives and morals, and it’s a double-edged sword. There was a lady from out my way a few years back, her folks own a custard stand. She answered a casting call (which had come on campus in Provo) to be in MTV’s Real World. Her modest participation in that series got her booted out of the university.

Point is: everyone, athletes and otherwise, has to follow the same drill. The school is not for those who wish to do otherwise.

Still, the Davies debacle does not bode well for BYU in the always uphill battle for diversity involving African-American athletes at the school. Michael Loyd was a non-Mormon black player who made a significant contribution last year but then decided to transfer, citing the school wasn’t for him. Loyd and Davies both being on the squad this March would have been absolutely huge.

The dearth of African-American players in the school’s athletic programs, or even just among the student body itself, is not coincidental. Google up ‘Blacks and the LDS Priesthood‘ (1849-1978, the church citing the ‘Mark of Cain’/'Curse of Cain’) or ‘Wyoming Black 14′ (a protest by Wyoming’s football team in 1969 the year after a Sugar Bowl appearance), and one quickly gains perspective on the subject. And now the Davies episode will make recruiting black athletes and non-Mormon athletes period just that much more difficult.

And there have been several other instances over the years where the Athletic Department has shot itself in the foot PR-wise. The ‘Chinaman’ comment directed towards the football staff with Norm Chow in attendance comes to mind. Way to treat someone who had been a loyal soldier under LaVell Edwards and could have easily followed predecessor Mike Holmgren to bigger and better things outside of Provo.

And then there was the rogue student who somehow got access to the video board and rubbed it in on Utah State earlier in the season. That doesn’t happen at Kansas or Michigan State…

Basketball-wise, BYU has one last regular season game and the conference tournament to right the ship. But that #1 seed has sailed, and maybe even #2 and #3 as well. The selection committee tends to dock teams that lose significant players before the tournament, and the committee also traditionally shoves the Cougars down 1-2 more seeds for the convenience of being able to participate in a regional that’s played Thursday/Saturday. (I can only imagine what happens if BYU women’s hoops somehow made the Final Four – which is played on a Sunday).

Suddenly this has all the looks of a team that entered March like a lion and will go out in the second round like a lamb.

Or maybe they went in like Cougars but are about to go out like kittens. Whatever the case, it’s up to Jimmer and Coach Dave Rose and what’s left of the rest of that squad to Rise and Shout and prove the doubters wrong again.

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