BYU basketball notebook: Fredette frustrated by illness, fatigue

EL PASO, Texas — Jimmer Fredette, sitting on BYU's bench in street clothes during the Cougars' physical and foul-plagued win over UTEP on Saturday night, showed obvious frustration with the illness that has put him down the past two weeks, and possibly a few more to come.

Team doctors are now saying what they thought was strep throat is actually mononucleosis, and that's why Fredette has been drained of energy since scoring a BYU-record 49 points against Arizona on Dec. 28.

"We felt that this was the best thing to do, and he agreed," BYU coach Dave Rose said of the decision to keep Fredette out of Saturday's game.

How long Fredette will be sidelined is the mystery. Rose said Fredette is feeling better, no longer has a sore throat, and has a bigger appetite than he had a week ago, but he's just fatigued and gets tired quickly.

"Most people who get mono don't try to play three or four hours every day, so that's the challenge we face," Rose said.

The Cougars' coaches know, however, that mononucleosis affects people differently. Fredette could become stronger over the next few days, or it might be a few weeks.

"The spleen is not enlarged to where he can't play. What he needs to do is feel better. So if there's an official word on when he's going to feel better, I'd like to know," Rose said.

"The bottom line is I want him to play if he can play, but we want to make sure that we get him through this and get him back at full strength."

In Fredette's absence, guards Jackson Emery, Tyler Haws, Lamont Morgan Jr. and Michael Loyd Jr. are going to play more minutes and be expected to handle the ball a lot more. In the win over UTEP, the four combined to score 37 points with 13 assists, but they also turned the ball over 11 times.

"With or without him, we have to play the way we play. We're a good team because we are a team," senior Jonathan Tavernari said.

The experience the Cougar reserves are getting right now, however, could actually benefit BYU down the road when Fredette does return. But they all realize having Fredette out of the lineup is a big loss.

"We wish him the best and hope he recovers soon," Haws said.

A big challenge right now, Rose said, is keeping Fredette mentally strong and his spirits high.

"I think this will help, the fact that the team was able to rally around each other and get a big win here," Rose said.

COUGAR NOTES: The 20 points and 11 rebounds that Haws had on Saturday tied his career highs in both categories. ... Tavernari's 19 points were a season high for him, one game after his previous high of 17. ... Emery's nine steals tied a career high. ... Brandon Davies also tied a career high with 14 points. ...

The 12,000 seat Don Haskins Center is normally full for Miners basketball games, but with the Dallas Cowboys' playoff game taking place Saturday night, attendance for the BYU game was only 8,687.

e-mail: jimr@desnews.com