BYU basketball notebook: Fredette feels like he's on the 'road to recovery'

COLORADO SPRINGS — Jimmer Fredette, clearly not himself since scoring a BYU-record 49 points against Arizona on Dec. 28, says he's officially on the "road to recovery."

Shortly after that game in Tucson, Fredette became seriously ill with strep throat and later became afflicted with mononucleosis, an illness that can sideline an athlete for several weeks.

He did not play against Eastern Washington, played sparingly and looked weak against UNLV, and sat out Saturday's win at UTEP. He practiced for the first time in a week on Tuesday and felt good enough on Wednesday to get back on the floor against Air Force.

"Obviously the most important thing for us is to win the game, but I wanted to get Jimmer somewhere between 15 or 20 minutes to see how he responds on (Thursday) and to see how he responds on Friday, and to see where we are in this process," BYU coach Dave Rose said.

Fredette, after coming into the game at the 13:25 mark, didn't take a shot for more than four minutes. His first attempt came with 9:03 left in the first half, and he drilled the 3-pointer from the left wing. From there, however, he made only one of his next six shots. He admits to being a little rusty with his timing. He even missed two of his first three free throws.

"It shouldn't matter. I should be able to make free throws no matter what ... but we can blame it on the rust, or something, but hopefully I won't miss any more," Fredette said.

After the game, in which he scored 8 points in 18 minutes, Fredette said he feels like he's about 80 percent of where he was before the illness. He's hoping to be back to 100 percent before the Cougar team travels to San Diego next weekend.

"I'm just trying to get back in the flow, and hopefully I'll get back in the flow at practice on Thursday and Friday and be ready for Saturday. I feel like I'm getting re-energized and am able to go through my daily routines a little bit better," he said.

How he recuperates from playing and practicing is the key, Rose said.

"He's got to be honest and listen to his body and tell us how he feels, and then we can move forward from there."

Fredette has gained back about half of the eight pounds he lost by drinking more fluids, taking vitamins and eating more.

"That's not a bad thing to try to do that, because I like to eat," he said.