Tavernari — BYU's mouth that roars

Jonathan Tavernari is a popular media backstop. He talks. He's quotable. He's got stories, offers angles and opinions. He's not shy to expound, and for reporters this season, he's an all-you-can eat buffet.

The native of Brazil, by way of Timpview High and Las Vegas' Bishop Gorman High, is a bundle of energy. He talks like he plays, with unbridled passion. His enthusiasm for basketball is like a politician on the stump. He's got drop lines, talking points, anecdotes, testimonies and sound bites.

TV reporters, who only get seconds to air their stories, puzzle their tape editors with what sound bite to cut to from a maze of expressions Tavernari spits out like machine gun shells.

After scoring 20 points and hitting key shots in a home win over Utah, Tavernari showed up in the interview room faster than Superman out of a phone booth, completely changed from game gear to a dapper black turtleneck and sports jacket with a beanie on top. It brought smiles from the media, who knew they were in store for Tavernari spilling his heart like the lead on the "General Hospital" set.

Tavernari's interviews are like a compressed minisoftware program that expands when it runs. Topics run from one to another, often from country to country and time zones, from societal notes to Xs and Os.

Here's a running CliffsNotes on takes from a series of spot interviews with the young sophomore the past two weeks ...

He's trying hard to be an all-around player ... 300 shots every morning ... working on his defense and rebounding ... his teammates have been his greatest supporters when he's struggling ... his on-the-move elbow shot against Utah was practice makes perfect ... his mother always taught him to practice hard to be perfect ... in practice, many times he's made 20 to 25 3-pointers before missing ... when practicing free throws and counting them in the summer, he's hit 97 of 100 ... 96 on many occasions ... he doesn't doubt every shot will go in, he expects them to do so ... his father is Italian and his grandfather is from the old country ... his roots go back to Sicily but most of his Italian cousins have settled in Rome ...

Take a deep breath.