Fredette is fighting a difficult foe: mono

So, BYU's mad bomber is grounded.

Arizona couldn't do it, neither could most of the other teams the Cougars have faced this season.

It now appears a case of mononucleosis has driven a lot of the energy out of the Mountain West's preseason player of the year. It couldn't have come at a worse time — the beginning of league play for 2010 — as the Cougars made a visit to El Paso on Saturday night for a reunion with an old WAC enemy.

This illness came almost instantaneously after Fredette busted BYU's single-game scoring record by dropping 49 points on Arizona in Tucson right after earning MVP honors at the Las Vegas Classic.

In that 10-day span, you could have put a cape on Fredette and asked him to jump over tall buildings. He earned back-to-back the MWC player of the week honors and national player of the week.

Then his luck ran out.

Fredette missed the Eastern New Mexico game a week ago and then looked like a shell of his former self in scoring seven points last Wednesday against UNLV. He looked awful, and his patented moves were nowhere to be found. He couldn't jump and his shot was way off. He wore a white long-sleeve undershirt to hide an outbreak of hives, caused by a reaction to medicine.

What does this feel like? What impact does it have on a body, an athlete? What does all this mean? It's too early to tell. But it could have a huge impact on how the Cougars jump back into league play with a road trip to Air Force looming Wednesday. It might even impact how the MWC race breaks early. It might give BYU a chance to let another star rise. It definitely had a lot to do with how shaky the Cougars looked against the Rebels last week.

Fredette is the MWC's dominant scorer and it isn't close.

This mono thing is something you don't mess with. It can flare up and be gone in a few days. Or, it can linger for a month or longer, often knocking a person flat indefinitely. In some cases, mono causes an enlarged spleen, which could be a definite hindrance to an athlete.

Baltimore Ravens quarterback John Beck can relate. When Beck came off his mission to Portugal and started his freshman year at BYU in 2003, he drove himself to get in shape and prepare to compete for a place on Gary Crowton's team. Six months later, he had mono and his doctor said it was because he hadn't given his body enough time to rest.