Cougars glad Cummard stuck with commitment

Brigham Young outrecruited a long list of schools when it landed guard Lee Cummard. But the Cougars had to convince Cummard twice.

Cummard, the 2004 Arizona high school player of the year from Mesa, originally committed to BYU in 2003 when Steve Cleveland was coach and then sat out the 2004-05 season to serve an LDS church mission.

The prize of BYU's 2004 class honored his commitment to the Cougars after current coach Dave Rose took over prior to the 2005-06 season.

"He was very highly recruited and had multiple home visits from other schools, so we had our fingers crossed," Rose said Monday on the Mountain West Conference coaches' teleconference.

"He decided to come here, but then we had the issue of the coaching change, so we really had to recruit him twice. But we knew we wanted him, he was very loyal to us and it has paid off."

The list of school recruiting Cummard, a 6-foot-6-inch junior, included UCLA, Utah, Oregon, Gonzaga, Arizona State, Stanford, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Miami, New Mexico and San Diego State.

"I think he came in with a lot of unrealistic expectations for a young player," Rose said. "But we always had confidence this was the Lee Cummard we recruited."

"This" Cummard is averaging a team-leading 16.3 points and also 6.4 rebounds a game.

As a freshman he averaged 4.9 points and made 14 starts. Last season he started all 34 games and averaged 9.4 points and 5.6 rebounds.

Cummard has made significant strides this season and he shared MWC Player of the Week honors on Monday with UNLV guard Wink Adams. Cummard averaged 23 points, 8 rebounds and 3.5 assists last week in victories at Air Force (69-53) and Wyoming (73-63).

Cummard had a game-high 25 points against Wyoming to lead a balanced attack. Trent Plaisted had 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Bishop Gorman product Jonathan Tavernari added 10 points and a career-high 10 rebounds.

"We're getting really good balance and that's a good sign," Rose said.

Plaisted averages 15.1 points and 9.1 rebounds, and Tavernari averages 13.3 and 5.5.

• GAME OF THE WEEK -- The Cougars (17-5, 6-1 MWC) play only once this week, hosting Texas Christian (11-9, 3-4 MWC) at 6 p.m. Wednesday. BYU has won 42 straight at the Marriott Center, the nation's second-longest home winning streak.

"We don't ever talk about it, not as a team," Rose said of the streak. "Our players play with confidence here at home, but as a staff and as a team, we don't address it. We try not to put any pressure on anybody."

Contact Todd Dewey at tdewey@ reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0254.