BYU Basketball gave fans their first glimpse of the roster via its annual showcase. Its name hearkens back to one of the greatest sports games of all time.
In the early-to-mid-90’s, it was still the age of arcades. People crowded to their local malls and shopping centers, fists full of quarters or tokens, plunking them into cabinets plastered with decals to take their buddies on in Mortal Kombat, or TMNT 4, or Final Fight.
But for the sports gaming fans, there was only one title to play: NBA Jam.
Gloriously simplistic, super-unrealistic 2-on-2 basketball. Pick a pair of players from an NBA team, and duke it out as a Shaq or Bird (but, unfortunately due to licencing, never MJ) with dunks, dunks, three pointers, and more dunks. Three baskets in a row, and you were on fire – literally scorching ball and net with an infinite turbo boost.
To top it all off, they hired a man named Tim Kitzrow to do the announcing for this over-the-top game. His sometimes random blurts and exclamations became a permanent part of pop culture, the most famous of which is where BYU basketball’s annual showcase gets its name:
The relation the showcase had to this game (and its focus on three and dunks) was a little more tenuous this year.
Typically there’s a skills competition and a dunk contest, then a short scrummage. But this year, it was different.
They broke the men’s team into three squads and had them play up to three five-minute games.
No one was on fire (literally), but to be fair, Eric Mika still did his best to throw down at every opportunity.
Rose divided into a teams into a group with D1 experience (Mika, Nick Emery, Kyle Davis, and Davin Guinn plus newcomer Colby Leifson) a team with great freshman talent (Yoeli Childs, Payton Dastrup, TJ Haws, Zach Frampton and Steven Beo) and a team that, with LJ Rose and Elijah Bryant still recovering from injury and Corbin Kaufusi still focused on the gridiron, consisted of oft-injured Jamal Aytes, spot-timer Braiden Shaw, and a trio of walk-ons.
The team with experience dominated. Haws did lead all scorers (by a point over Emery) and had a couple of magical drive-and-dish moves to Childs. But there was a clear difference overall in the confidence and efficiency during the three games.
Plus, for most of the night, things went according to plan. Emery hit threes, Mika slammed home a reverse dunk and got offensive rebounds, and Davis got a tough bucket in the paint.
All in all, Boomshakalaka (despite its awesome name pedigree) was really just a glorified preview to this year’s Cougar Tipoff. It didn’t tell us as much as real game, or even the full Blue-White game tonight at 9PM ET will tell. How this team plays as a team, and what kind of lineup they will start with, are still a mystery.
But there is plenty of reason to be excited. According to CougarStats and kenpom.com, the Y is favored to win in all but three of its 30 regular season games this year. That the same prediction estimates five losses in conference is a reflection of the youth of the team.
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After another dip in football fortunes, getting this appetizer was a nice reprieve for local fans. It felt refreshing to see Emery hit a three. There was an inherent rightness to seeing Davis bang down low. And there was undeniable excitement in the arena when Haws leprechauned his way down the lane for a dizzying layup.
This is the first season of something special for BYU basketball. Mark it down. Dave Rose has worked long and hard through the years to bring this team together. He’s said on multiple occasions that no one is more excited than him. That should tell you something.
It all starts this week. And for those partaking in the magic of the Marriott Center for some BYU basketball, could I ask a favor?
Should a BYU player make three baskets in a row, if you would all shout “He’s on fire!” I would be very much obliged.