BYU basketball: Where is former Cougar Michael Loyd Jr. now?

Where is Michael Loyd Jr. now?

Last year in BYU's NCAA Tournament win over Florida, the former Cougar guard showed great potential, scoring 26 points. But after the season was over, things just didn't work out for Loyd Jr. at BYU, and in April he was released from BYU. Cougar coach Dave Rose confirmed that Loyd was struggling with consistency in meeting obligations and in being accountable. Loyd Jr. was reportedly in good standing academically and with the school's honor code upon leaving.

"We would both like for this to be different, but we both knew this was the best thing to do," Rose said.

In July news came out that Loyd Jr. was joining his brother Kevin Loyd to attend and play basketball for Midwestern State University. Midwestern State is a Division II school located in Wichita Falls, Texas, which is about two hours Northwest of Dallas. Division II is the same athletic level as Dixie State College and BYU-Hawaii.

Loyd was reserved and stayed pretty quiet about the whole situation, but in October spoke out in an interview in the timesrecordnews.com.

"The Mormon thing wasn't for me," said Loyd, who calls himself a Christian, "The church was heavily involved with the school, and obviously, if you live anywhere for a long period of time, they are going to open your mind to what they believe. They had a problem with me not being LDS, but I couldn’t get my mind around their concepts."

So how is Loyd Jr. doing now?

The MSU Mustangs have a winning record of 16-4 and are in a three-way tie for third in the Lone Star Conference. Loyd Jr. is averaging 12 points a game in a little over 23 minutes per game. His brother Kevin, who transferred from Grambling State, is averaging around four points per game.

Last week in MSU's 72-57 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville, the Loyd brothers teamed up to score 34 combined points to lead the Mustangs to a win.

"The Kevin and Mike Loyd combination was awesome," said MSU coach Grant McCasland.

Mike Whitelock is an author and sports writer.