He may see only limited minutes off the bench, but an off-season of hard work and his electric play has firmly established Charles Abouo as a fan favorite and key contributor for the Cougars this season.

"Everybody wants to play, but we have a lot of great players on the team and only five of us can be out there at a time," Abouo said. "One reason we've been successful this season is that we all understand our role and support each other. It's my job to come off the bench and give us a boost when we need it, and I feel like I've done better at that this year."

As a guy who can play at shooting guard as well as both forward spots, Abouo supplies BYU with plenty of versatility, but after his freshman year he realized he needed to harness his raw ability in order to play a larger role in BYU's rotation. In addition to extra time in the gym, Abouo spent the summer playing for the Cote d'Ivoire national team, which finished second at FIBA Afrobasket and earned a spot in the 2010 FIBA World Championship.

"That whole experience last summer was great because I got to play in some big games and high-pressure situations" Abouo said. "I needed to get better on both ends of the court, so I worked a lot on my shooting, especially my mid-range game. And with my defense I watched what others were doing with their positioning off the ball and tried to improve in that area."