During this weekend's marquee, unofficial Mountain West regular season championship game between then 12th ranked New Mexico and 11th ranked BYU - won by New Mexico 83-81 - it seems things got a bit chippy. After BYU forward Jonathan Tavernari got into a bit of a tiff with New Mexico's Darington Hobson, everyone was a bit on edge, and when Hobson came up with a late block to seal the win, it seems Tavernari decided to leave his copy of the BYU Honor Code on the bench, jawing with New Mexico Coach Steve Alford on the sidelines which culminated in Alford tossing out some sort of expletive in Tavernari's direction. I've got dibs on the AH word!
There was apparently a lot more made of this than it needed to be and both sides have since resolved the issue, but still - a coach calling a player for another team a bad word, and not just any team but BYU where you can't even drink a soda, let alone use four letter words? I'm surprised they didn't feed him to Uncle Rulon on the spot. The best part though? Tavernari, who by all the accounts was far less out of line than Alford, actually went to the UNM locker room and apologized! I mean, yeah, I understand that he probably would've been excommunicated from the church had he not done this, but come on! I think the biggest reason I don't like BYU - other than the fact that they're a major conference rival - is that they're just a little too honorable.
For instance - when we took our spitblood field trip to Provo for the game this past fall, a small contingency of Cougar faithful took some exception with one of bucknasty's signs and promptly removed it from his person and rendered it unusable. Honestly, I was a bit frightened for my safety in said instance because this kid had the most incredible look of rage in his eyes that I've ever seen. I figured we'd be in for an uneasy morning and surely wouldn't ever realize our destiny of unabashedly hitting on waitresses at TGI Fridays. Except what did the kid do not five minutes later? He apologized for it.
I mean, if you're going to commit an act of aggression that goes against all you stand for, at least mean it. Am I wrong? Sportsmanship is great and all, but everyone needs a bit of an edge, and BYU athletes just don't have it. If you need any evidence, just look at how they allowed Zilla to run roughshod over them for two solid years. Where's the pride? Where's the aggression? This mentality is why I think BYU will never be truly elite in any athletic field.
As for Alford, well, I suppose when your school already employs one of the better known jackasses in the coaching world, some of that stank will rub off. At least Alford is actually good at his job.
