Cougars score one for the MWC with big upset

Victoria Sun

Monday, Dec. 24, 2001 | 8:51 a.m.

Eric Nielsen, Matt Montague, Daniel Bobik and Mark Bigelow.

Those were the only names Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson recognized when he scanned BYU's roster before the Cougars' game against 13th-ranked Stanford at the Thomas & Mack Center Saturday night in the second game of the Las Vegas Showdown.

By the end of the evening, he would learn them all.

A most unlikely BYU squad, picked no higher than sixth in the MWC preseason poll, pulled off a stunning 81-76 victory over the Cardinal. It was arguably the best nonconference win since the Mountain West was formed three years ago.

"This is an NCAA Tournament-caliber win," Thompson said. "It was a very impressive performance and I think they're only going to get better."

Credit BYU coach Steve Cleveland for having the Cougars poised and ready to challenge Stanford from the start.

The Cougars defended the basket as if they were guarding a money vault and edged the Cardinal in rebounding, 38-37.

Bigelow, back after a two-year Mormon mission, made several key jumpers and finished with 15 points while Bobik was explosive on the baseline, darting around defenders for easy baskets.

Cleveland rotated big men Jared Jensen and Jon Carlisle in the post to bait Stanford center Curtis Borchardt into foul trouble, a plan that worked perfectly.

It helped that Nielsen made 11 of 16 shots for a career-high 29 points, and that feisty Travis Hansen and Bigelow were able to force Stanford sharpshooter Casey Jacobsen to take plenty of off-balance and ill-advised shots.

But who could have predicted that this team, which lost four of its starters (only Nielsen, who averaged only 6.2 points last year, is back), would be 7-2 after Saturday night with wins against Creighton, Arizona State and Stanford?

Who knew that the team that won last year's regular-season conference championship and postseason conference tournament would not only survive, but thrive so early without Mekeli Wesley, last year's Mountain West player of the year, and guard Terrell Lyday, who joined Wesley on the all-conference first team?

"For what we're trying to do and where we're at, I'm really pleased with the young men," Cleveland said. "I know we've got a lot of new faces, but it's their turn to step up. Like I told them in the locker room, this is a really good win for our program, but the most important games are in the latter part of February and March.

"It's one game against a great coach and a good program that has a great deal of tradition and that's what we're trying to do, create a tradition at BYU."

Cleveland began coaching the Cougars in the 1997-98 season after seven years at Fresno City College. The Cougars have improved their record each year under Cleveland, highlighted by last year's 24-9 team that made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years.