BYU basketball: Freshman quintet looks forward to postseason action after playing key roles

LAS VEGAS — BYU has relied heavily this season on five freshmen, and now that the regular season is over, the next phase of their development — the postseason — has arrived.

How well the freshmen play from here will play a big factor in how far the Cougars go this postseason.

It all begins Friday night (9 p.m. MST, ESPNU), when No. 3 seeded BYU takes the court at the Orleans Arena in the West Coast Conference Tournament quarterfinals.

"I'm really excited," said freshman guard Matt Carlino. "I'm ecstatic."

Carlino, a UCLA transfer, sat on the bench last season during the Cougars' memorable run to the Sweet 16.

"That was awesome," he recalled. "It was fun to watch. I've been watching March Madness my whole life. So now it's coming down to crunch time on our season, this is the most exciting time in all of basketball. I'm excited to be a part of it now. It's going to be an amazing experience."

Of the 12 players on BYU's roster, only three — Noah Hartsock, Charles Abouo and Stephen Rogers — played significant minutes last year in the postseason. Right now, both Hartsock and Rogers are dealing with knee injuries, and it's uncertain how much they will be able to play this weekend.

BYU's five freshmen have been counted on more and more as the season has progressed. With Hartsock sidelined in the regular-season finale last Saturday against Portland, coach Dave Rose started three freshmen — Carlino, guard Anson Winder and forward Nate Austin. It marked Austin's first career start.

Freshmen Josh Sharp and Damarcus Harrison have also made an impact this season.

"It's a good thing they've made a positive impact," Rose said of the freshmen class, "because they've played a lot."

This is a diverse group of freshmen, Rose noted.

"It's interesting to me because I go through that group of guys and they're freshmen from all different places," he said.

The coach explained that there's a freshman right out of high school (Harrison); two freshmen that sat out last season while they practiced with the team (Carlino and Winder); a freshman that redshirted elsewhere, at Utah, before serving a mission and transferring to BYU (Sharp); and a freshman that served a mission before joining the program (Austin).

Although guard Craig Cusick is a junior, this is his first season playing college basketball.