Sophomore has BYU cruising

Steve Addy

Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2002 | 9:25 a.m.

PROVO, Utah -- It's amazing enough that BYU has rushed to an 11-3 record after losing its nucleus from last year's Mountain West champions.

But it's even more incredible that the Cougars are being led by a sophomore who barely picked up a basketball the last two years.

Having returned from an LDS Church mission to South Florida, 6-foot-7 small forward Mark Bigelow wasted no time regaining the form that made him the 1999 WAC Pacific Division freshman of the year.

With Bigelow averaging a team-best 17.4 points and leading the conference in free-throw shooting (.877), the Cougars have made a mockery of dire preseason predictions. They were picked sixth in the MWC poll, but entered the week tied for the league's best record.

BYU will try to bump its MWC start to 2-0 tonight against UNLV (8-6, 1-2) and is seeking its 30th straight home win, the second-longest streak in the nation.

The Cougars have good offensive balance, with five players averaging at least 8.5 points, but Bigelow is the one the Rebels can't lose track of. He's in a bit of a slump over the last three games, shooting 12-of-36 while weak from the flu, but his scoring average has hardly dipped.

Bigelow has scored in double figures in 13 of 14 games, topped by a 31-point effort against Arizona State, two under his career high from 1998. He leads the team with 43.6 percent 3-point shooting and has a triple in a school record-tying 21 straight games since 1999.

Coach Steve Cleveland is surprised Bigelow regained his shooting touch so quickly, and he speaks from experience. Cleveland went on a mission to England from 1971-73 and needed months to get his legs in shape at Fresno City College.

"I got home in August and it was December before I could start making jump shots," Cleveland said. "It was difficult to get my legs back. Mark has gotten his legs in shape to where he can shoot the ball. He had three or four months to do it."

But that doesn't mean it was easy. After returning from his mission in June, Bigelow quickly felt the effects of his spotty training habits over the last two years.

"My skills were sloppy, and I had trouble catching my wind," he told the Salt Lake Tribune. "I didn't know if it would ever come back. My physical capabilities were half of what they were. Your body just withers away. You have to put it through hell until it responds."

Finally, Bigelow began finding his groove, employing a mind-over-matter approach.

"A switch flipped in my head," he said. "Some people say you can't come back this quick. But I fooled myself into believing I could."

As good as Bigelow has been, Cleveland believes his best is yet to come.

"Mark isn't in the kind of condition or have the strength that he will have a year from now," he said. "But he's playing with a lot of confidence. He wants to take big shots. Certainly, his experiences as a freshman helped him develop that confidence."

In 1998-99, Bigelow led the Cougars with 15.0 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. They went 12-16 that season, but while Bigelow was away, BYU won 22 in 2000 and 24 last season when it captured the MWC tournament to get to the NCAA Tournament.

After graduating the top producers from that squad -- forward Mekeli Wesley (17.2 points per game) and guards Terrell Lyday (16.4) and Trent Whiting (14.2) -- the Cougars seemed destined for a fall after four years of climbing from one win to 9, 12, 22 and 24.

But the tumble hasn't occurred, evidence of the program Cleveland has put in place. The Cougars upset Stanford in the Las Vegas Showdown on Dec. 22 and have lost only once in their last 10 games (at Pepperdine in overtime).

Junior guard Travis Hansen is averaging 15.9 points, senior forward Eric Nielsen 10.4 and freshman center Jared Jensen 9.0. The latter scored a career-high 17 in Saturday's 75-64 win over San Diego State.