BYU Basketball: Childs’ return gives the Cougars a strong core

Yoeli Childs announced that he’ll return to BYU Basketball for his junior season. This gives the Cougars a good core, but the role players will decide next year’s success.

The big man is coming back.

On Tuesday evening, Yoeli Childs announced on Twitter that he’ll be returning to BYU for his junior year:

This is the second piece of good news regarding the Cougar roster recently, following Nick Emery’s decision to return to BYU.

After Elijah Bryant announced that he’d turn pro, their were plenty of questions about how the Cougars would be able cope next year, especially if Childs decided to keep his hat in the NBA Draft ring.

But with the return of both Emery and Childs, BYU has a strong core to build on going into next season. Those two, along with TJ Haws, will be relied upon to produce at a high level for the Cougars.

Fortunately, all three have proven that they can produce. As a Sophomore this last season, Childs averaged 17.8 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. That production would have been hard to replace had he turned pro.

Both Emery and Haws had struggles in their sophomore seasons, but both still managed double-digit scoring in down years.

Haws works best with the ball in his hands, and with Bryant leaving he’ll be able to do that a lot more. With that change and an offseason of improvement, expect a much more productive and consistent TJ Haws.

Emery’s departure from the team before the 2017-18 season is well-documented. He’ll be expected to make up a lot of the production lost with Bryant’s departure. He’s had a year to focus on refining his game, and all signs point to a bounceback year from him as well.

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• BYU Basketball: How will scheduling change in the Big 12?
• Which BYU Sports are ready to compete in the Big 12?

A Team Effort

The core may be good, but it won’t be the deciding factor for the Cougars in 2018-19.

That’ll be up to the role players.

Too many losses last year came because no one outside of Bryant, Childs, and Haws could score consistently.

It’s on the rest of the team to improve their game in the offseason, becoming consistently able to produce when needed.

If players like Dalton Nixon, Jashire Hardnett, Payton Dastrup, and Zac Seljaas can improve their consistency, this can be a dangerous Cougar team.

And don’t forget the three major newcomers who may play themselves into the rotation as well. Kolby Lee, Gavin Baxter, and Connor Harding all have potential to fill in gaps that were present last year.

The core for the Cougars is there, but it will take a team effort for BYU to return to the Big Dance next season.