Brandon Davies finally speaks out

Brandon Davies made headlines last March when he was suspended from BYU for breaking the school's honor code.

The rule Davies broke was, reportedly, sleeping with his girlfriend before they were married. The suspension created a bit of a media conflagration -- the story was a perfect storm of racial injustice, religious intolerance, sex and a nationally relevant basketball team and superstar in Jimmer Fredette.

Now reinstated at the school and with the program, Davies spoke for the first time publicly about the suspension:



Davies is pretty impressive throughout the interview, handling himself with grace and dignity and what was assuredly a trying situation. He admitted that he considered leaving school -- which, I assume, means he considered turning pro because he said later in the interview that he wasn't in contact with other schools about transferring -- saying "there were a lot of thoughts that went through my head just trying to deal with it all."

He played off a tough question of whether or not he thought BYU handled is situation correctly. "It doesn't matter what I had to go through to get here," he said, "I'm just glad to be here, back with my teammates and here where I'm supported and loved by so many."

"I was definitely treated more than fair. Just being able to make it back here and be a part of this team again is a blessing."
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Brandon Davies will be Cougar once more

Andre Drummond wasn't the only big man making national headlines on Friday night.

BYU finally announced that center Brandon Davies will be re-admitted into school and allowed back onto the team this season.

Davies created a national stir back in early March when he was suspended for the rest of the year by BYU for violating the honor code -- reportedly by sleeping with his girlfriend. It may have cost the Jimmer a shot at making the Final Four, a sacrifice that had many saluting BYU for making while also creating just as strong a voice of opposition -- what's so bad about a college kid having sex?


But that's neither here nor there. The bottom-line is that, as expected, Davies will be a Cougar for BYU's inaugural run through the WCC. The importance of Davies to that team cannot be understated. Let's ignore, for a second, the fact that they are losing Jimmer Fredette, a once in a generation talent and lottery pick. Jackson Emery, Fredette's back court side kick, graduated while Kyle Collinsworth, a promising freshman small forward, is going on his Mormon mission next year. Meanwhile Kyle's older brother Chris is coming off of season-ending knee surgery while reserve big men Logan Magnusson and James Anderson have left the program. All told, the Cougars lose three of their top six players and have a key post presence dealing with knee problems.

Without Davies, BYU may have been the fourth best team in the WCC, behind St. Mary's, Gonzaga and Santa Clara.

That's not exactly the way that the Cougars envisioned introducing themselves to their new conference rivals.
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Brandon Davies sighting?

BYU's basketball will be in rebuilding mode next season.

Let's ignore, for a second, the fact that they are losing Jimmer Fredette, a once in a generation talent and lottery pick. Jackson Emery, Fredette's back court side kick, graduated while Kyle Collinsworth, a promising freshman small forward, is going on his Mormon mission next year. Meanwhile Kyle's older brother Chris is coming off of season-ending knee surgery while reserve big men Logan Magnusson and James Anderson have left the program. All told, the Cougars stand to lose at least three of their top six players with a key post presence dealing with knee problems.

I say "at least three" because the key to the Cougar's season in 2011-2012 comes in the 6'9" form of Brandon Davies.

Davies, if you remember, was suspended in early March last season for violating BYU's Honor Code by having premarital sex with his girlfriend. Its no secret that the Cougars will be in trouble without Davies, but BYU beat writer Jay Drew made a promising observation yesterday:

Davies practiced "against" the team today in the Marriott Center, wearing a green jersey along with former players Lee Cummard, Trent Plaisted, Lamont Morgan and Logan Magnusson and going hard against BYU regulars in an early-practice 5 on 5 scrimmage.

BYU is going to play in Greece and Davies won't be going on the trip. There is also no new information yet as to whether or not Davies will be allowed back into school next year.

But the fact that he is scrimmaging with and against the current Cougars is a good sign.
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The Separation Between Church and Sports

To many, sports, the act of participating or viewing, is a religion. It is a sanctum, a place where you retreat to find everlasting peace and divinity.

You don't have to look far to find religious references in sports (i.e "Touchdown Jesus", "The Hail Mary"), yet discussing the role of religion in sports is often thought of being taboo.

The rise of political correctness in America has caused sensitive subjects, like personal religious beliefs and political affiliation, to be stricken from the record. We live in a country where retail employees are no longer allowed to bid customers farewell with "Have a Merry Christmas". It would be more likely to learn the salary of a co-worker (Once thought to be taboo) than their opinion on stem-cell research.

In the late Spring of 2011, college basketball met religion head-on.

Brandon Davies, a power forward for Brigham Young University (A school affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), was suspended from the team for violating rules that adhere with the school's religious beliefs, despite not being a Mormon believer himself. This issue turned into a topic of public agenda, with people like Amare Stoudamire weighing in with his opinion.

Now, why do I bring up the topic of religion, seemingly out of left-field?

I will tell you why, after the jump

Dick Vitale, the voice of college basketball on ESPN, has been vacationing in Europe over the past couple of days, and recently had a chance to visit with Pope Benedict XVII in Italy. Vitale, a devout Catholic, tweeted about the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity he was given, and shared pictures with his followers.

In the age of social media we live in, where news broadcasts are headlined by twitpics of what athletes had for dinner, it would be somewhat reasonable to think that "Dickie-V meeting the Pope" would get get some face-time on SportsCenter (Or at a minimum, a reference on the bottom line).

But according to Deadspin, ESPN executives released a inter-office memo notifying employees not to air any audio, video or text involving Vitale's visit with the Pope.

Clearly, there is a reasonable explanation to this. the World Wide Leader does not want to to appear as though they, or any public figure associated with them, has a certain religious beliefs. After all, most fans don't care who a player worships, as long as that player limits turnovers, cleans up the glass and can convert his foul shots.

But ESPN's decision to not allow any news to circulate on their Family of Networks represents one of the many problems with the media today.

Didn't ESPN invest some quality airtime into the somewhat-religious remarks made by the Steelers' Rashard Mendenhall?

We enabled people to provide updates on their everyday lives, then our news outlets started to report about these updates. Now, our news updaters have become news updates themselves.

Dick Vitale isn't just an ESPN employee. He's a college basketball fixture. You can love his passion, you can hate his questionable allegiance to traditional powerhouses, but he has become more than just an employee. He has become a story. 


Yet the largest sports media outlet in the world doesn't want to cover it.

Religion will always be a sticky subject, and even college hoops cannot avoid debating it's presence from time-to-time. 


Before the Brandon Davies situation, there was Tamir Goodman, aka "Jewish Jordan". Back in 1999, Goodman, a devote follower of Orthodox Judaism, averaged 38-ppg as a junior at Talmudical Academy in Rockville, Maryland. He became an overnight celebrity, and was recruited to play at Maryland. But Goodman never suited up for the Terps, because his religious beliefs restricted him from participating in athletic events on Saturday, the most important day of the week on the college basketball schedule.

But like every front-page news story, it came and went.

The problem is that at least the story was there. Even for a couple months, people talked about Goodman. For weeks, people referenced Stoudemire's quote and Mendenhall's tweets. Yes it's true, their shelf-life was no more than a week long, but at least they were given time on the shelf.

Is ESPN afraid of having to answer questions about religion? Hard to say, but in the world we live in, the anchors and talking heads don't just give us the news. They are the news.

And technically, doesn't "Dickie-V meeting the Pope" qualify as news?


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BYU will be in trouble in Brandon Davies can't return to school

Late last week, news broke that Brandon Davies had finished up his winter course work and had withdrawn from BYU. The plan, it appears, is for Davies to work with the dean of students in an effort to become eligible to return for next season.

If you remember, Davies was dismissed from the basketball team in the middle of BYU's run to a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament due to a breach of the school's honor code, which most believe was the result of premarital sex with his girlfriend.

Cougar fans better hope that Davies is allowed to return to school.

Because without their junior center in the lineup, it could be a long season in Provo.


Both Jimmer Fredette and Jackson Emery have graduated. Promising freshman Kyle Collinsworth will be spending the next two years in Russia on his Mormon mission. Logan Magnusson and James Anderson also won't be back next season. Losing Davies could be devastating. You see, the 6'9" power forward really began to show the depth of his talents this season. He became a legitimate scoring threat on the block as well as an improving rebounder and shot blocker. As the leading returning scorer on the roster, Davies has a chance to break out as the focal point of Dave Rose's offensive attack.

Without Davies, however, BYU could be in some trouble in their new conference.

In 2011-2012, BYU will be a member of the now-nine-team WCC. And while that league was dominated by Gonzaga in years past, it is one of the most-improved leagues over the past few years, the CAA's west coast counterpart. St. Mary's is consistently in the conversation for an at-large bid, Santa Clara is a dangerous team, and San Francisco, Loyola Marymount, and Portland have all had quite a bit of talent pass through their program in recent seasons.

Both Noah Hartsock and Charles Abouo return for their senior seasons, and former-UCLA recruit Matt Carlino should be eligible to play in December, but without Davies, BYU may have trouble competing at the top of the WCC.
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Don't give up on BYU just yet

BYU lost 82-64 to New Mexico.

At home.

And they will be without arguably their most important non-Jimmer for the rest of the season.

Time to panic, right?

Wrong. Let's all take a deep breath.


Over the past two seasons, BYU has been one of the better basketball teams in the country. They have arguably been the best team in the MWC, amassing a 26-5 record in that time. And they are 26-1 against every team in the conference not named New Mexico.

Face it. Steve Alford owns BYU. Whatever the trick is to beating the Cougars, Alford knows it. BYU is 0-4 against New Mexico the last two years and 57-5 against the rest of the country.

On top of that, the Cougars are just one day -- one freakin' day -- removed from learning that Brandon Davies is done for the season. They are 24 hours removed from learning that one of their teammates may be forced to finish his collegiate career at a different school. (Ed. Note: Apparently, the BYU team found out Monday Davies would be done. My point still stands.)

And we are saying this team is finished because of one loss to a team that has dominated them the past two seasons?

All is not lost, folks.

Give the Cougars a chance to recuperate. Give Dave Rose a chance to figure out how to play without his starting center. Give this group of college kids a chance to deal with the loss of a teammate and a friend.

We are all quick to overreact to the outcome of one game. I may be the worst at it. But BYU was dominated in all facets of the game tonight, not just on the interior.

If the Cougars lose to Wyoming on Saturday, I'll be singing a much different tune.

But until then, can we all layoff the doomsday scenarios?

Please?
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REPORT: BYU's Brandon Davies done for the year for an honor code violation

BYU's starting center Brandon Davies has been suspended for the rest of the season due to an Honor Code violation, the school said in a release it sent out.

"Due to a violation of the BYU Honor Code, Brandon Davies will not represent the university on the men’s basketball team throughout the remainder of the 2010-11 season," the release said.


This is a huge loss for the Cougars. Davies started 26 of BYU's 29 games, averaging 11.1 ppg and providing the Cougars with their only interior scoring threat.

Davies' suspension couldn't have come at a worse time, either. After knocking of San Diego State on the road on Saturday, BYU had the inside track for a No. 1 seed. Already without Chris Collinsworth, the Cougar's bench is now incredibly thin.

BYU's Honor Code is pretty intense. The standards are listed here. It forbids things such as coffee, cursing, and facial hair.
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