BYU basketball: Replacing Cummard tough

PROVO - With starters Jackson Emery, Jimmer Fredette, Chris Miles and Jonathan Tavernari back for the BYU Cougars this season, many fans believe all coach Dave Rose needs to do is find someone to play the three spot vacated by the departure of Lee Cummard and the Cougars will be every bit as good, if not better, as they were last season.

But as Rose has pointed out several times over the past few weeks, you don't replace someone like Cummard. Simply put, the Cougars who could likely fill that spot - freshman Tyler Haws and sophomore Charles Abouo - don't have the variety of skills yet that Cummard possessed.

So even though inserting one of those two at the three and leaving everyone else in their same positions and same roles would make his job easier, Rose said that would be ignoring BYU's main assets - depth and flexibility.

"Right now we're playing a lot of guys at a lot of different places trying to get a good feel for what we have," Rose said of BYU's first two weeks of practice.

The line-up options available to Rose, with the additions of Haws, fellow freshman post player Brandon Davies, juco transfer Logan Magnusson, and the development of guards Lamont Morgan and Michael Loyd, and the maturity of big men Noah Hartsock and James Anderson, are plentiful.

"If we want to go and play like we played last year, we'll just try to find a three man and play on. But I think there are a lot of things we want to do that are a little bit different from last year's team. We're trying to find our own personality with this group by trying different lineups," he said.

Most likely, Miles will hold down the five spot. But we might see Loyd or Morgan at the point, Fredette at the two at times, Emery at the two and three at times, and maybe even Tavernari at the three at times. The different line-ups will allow Rose to get Haws, Abouo, Morgan, Loyd, Anderson, Davies and Hartsock more time on the court and give the Cougars looks that can match up with most any team.

Still, the leading candidate to get that fifth starting spot appears to be Abouo.

"His physical presence, his strength, his speed and his quickness are a real advantage for him," Rose said.

Abouo, who gained valuable experience during the offseason playing for the Ivory Coast national team, would welcome that role, but is willing to do whatever Rose needs him to do.

"We have a lot of guys who are capable of filling that void, and we're all going to try and do our best to get there," Abouo said.