Dick Harmon: With Nate Austin, Cougars suddenly have a triumvirate in the front court

PROVO —

Nate Austin has turned into an unexpected tower of power for Dave Rose.

Austin, the 6-11, 215-pound freshman from Lone Peak, had a major hand in the dismantling of Weber State 94-66 Tuesday night in the Marriott Center.

The kid scored 15 points, hauled down nine rebounds and had a block. He was 7 of 8 from the field and hit 1 of 2 from three-point land in 21 minutes.

This was his follow up from a "starter" kind of performance in a win over Oregon last Saturday in the Energy Solutions Arena. In that game and the Northern Arizona game, Austin hit a pair of 3-pointers and scored 11 and 9 respectively.

Rose already welcomed back 6-9 junior postman Brandon Davies this season to give the Cougars a veteran one-two punch inside with senior Noah Hartsock.

But Austin?

Really?

A 6-11 rookie guy popping out on the wing for a taste?

Is it too early to give the guy a little ink?

Nope.

"He's played awesome," said senior guard Brock Zylstra. "Great job off the bench," said Hartsock. "Really gives us a lift. That's what we were missing last year."

It isn't out of the realm to say Austin is officially pushing Davies for playing time. He takes smart shots, and he works the system. He makes plays on both ends of the court. He looks like a defender, albeit a pretty good fouler. Thing is, with foul-prone Davies, Rose can get a decent 10 arm-whack fouls out of the two.

Austin was wearing a white shirt and tie as an LDS missionary last August in McAllen, Texas.

That's about four months ago.

He's supposed to look geeky, slow, underpowered and fawn-legged after two years off. He's supposed to have stress fractures, tendonitis, sprained ankles and a sore back the first year off a mission.

Instead, he's looking every bit the part of a future star, and he's killing the softy myth given to guys off missions.

"In the summer, we played with Nate and thought, here's a guy who'd be a good candidate to redshirt this year," said Hartsock.

Then Austin started looking like a sophomore after Thanksgiving.

For the third-straight game, Austin has impressed with 3-point shots from the wing. He rebounds with Dennis Rodman ferocity. He's got the balance of a veteran, hands like a third baseman and goes after loose balls like they're ping pong balls dumped out of a state lottery box.

Back in the day, Clearfield's 6-11 Russell Larson did something similar for Roger Reid and the Cougars off the bench as a big man. Fresh off a mission to Argentina, he dropped 20-something on Utah State in Logan right out of the chute. He was legit, scrambling for minutes behind veteran Gary Trost as a freshman.

I asked Larson Saturday night if it was too early for folks to get excited about Austin after this three-game stretch making numbers.

"No, but with these young guys, it takes a while to see if they're legit because so many other great scorers and players on the court is getting so much attention that they leave him open," said Larson.

But Austin might be turning the corner after BYU's ninth game of the season, said Larson.

"It seemed like an anomaly when he scored those jumpers and 3-pointer against Northern Arizona and then he did it again against Oregon and now he seems to be a major contributor.