BYU post players make genuine contributions

They're pretty good window dressing.

Usually when a team leads the nation in field-goal shooting, it's because that team has mammoth post players simply dumping in short-range shots. You know, the garden variety dunks, put-backs, layups and close bankers and tip-ins.

Not so with BYU, which tops the NCAA in accuracy from the field at 50.9 percent, a hair better than UCLA and Utah State at 50.3 percent.

BYU's post players work by committee, with three card-carrying members. They're unsung players on the Mountain West's top-scoring offense, a team just one season removed from focusing everything around post player Trent Plaisted. And before that, forward Keena Young, who played a lot at center.

They are Chris Miles, Gavin MacGregor and James Anderson. Occasionally freshman Noah Hartsock is thrown some minutes. MacGregor has missed the last three games and played just two minutes in a loss at Utah due to a foot injury.

They are decent centers playing in the shadow of run-and-gun shooters neatly featured in a fast-break offense. Like chocolates on Valentine's Day, they're accessories often forgotten but clearly beneficial to the purpose at hand.

For the Cougars, the bulk of BYU's scoring comes from guards and wing players who score often in transition.

The Cougars list three of the MWC's top five scorers in Lee Cummard, Jonathan Tavernari and Jimmer Fredette.

Anderson, a 6-10 freshman from Page, Ariz., had a career-high 16 points in BYU's win over Colorado State this past week. He's a guy who redshirted last year after going on a mission to Guatemala City a week out of high school.

Miles, a 6-11, 235, sophomore, leads the MWC in shooting percentage (.645) and has logged the most playing time at center.

MacGregor, 6-10, 240, is restless and anxious to play after returning to practice this week from a foot injury.

In the past few weeks, they've all carried stitches and black eyes. MacGregor split his head open in practice warfare before the New Mexico game and the spurting blood fountain was sewn up with six stitches. Miles lost his balance after a dunk in practice and crashed to the floor, requiring stitches. Anderson appeared in the CSU game with half a raccoon eye after taking an elbow from a guard.