Greetings from somewhere along I-80 in Wyoming.

Dick and I are traveling in a rental car through Wyoming for tomorrow's game in Laramie with a Gator from China.

Let me explain. Chen Wang, a Deseret News photographer who is doing an internship with the paper, is a native of China and is currently a student at the University of Florida (Gators). He's living in Utah for four months for his internship. Dick and I had never met him until today, but he's a great guy. In fact, he's serving as the driver for this stretch of I-80 while Dick and I get some work done. Much appreciated.

While filing some stories for tomorrow's paper, I had some quotes from coach Bronco Mendenhall that I'll pass along. He made these comments after practice on Wednesday and I understand that the sports talk radio stations have been talking about them.

Mendenhall was asked if he can sense how his team will play before a game.

"I am wrong most of the time. I never know. I sit in the locker room and I look, and I have no idea," Mendenhall said. "I can usually tell from practice, if they are prepared or not, and really, interesting enough the games I have been the most confident in, really haven't gone the way I thought. So to say that I know what is going to happen, I never know. I don't know if we are going to win big, or lose big, or anything in between. I don't know."

Mendenhall said he usually is optimistic about the outcome because of his team's preparation. But he's been wrong before. After the TCU game, he said he thought his team had one of its best weeks of practice since he's been at BYU.

Mendenhall was also asked about motivating his team during a game.

"I think that once the game starts that we can make schematic changes, but I don't think I can change the motivation, I don't think I can change how hard they play. Nor do I think I can inspire them to be something they are not prepared to be. They prepare well, and all I try to do, and what my goal is that I don't have to say anything and can just watch the game because they are prepared in that manner. I don't think I can change the players' motivation or desire level on that day."

What do you think about Mendenhall's motivational tactics, or lack thereof?

Even though freshmen Tyler Haws and Brandon Davies scored only six points each in their unofficial college debut Thursday night, it should have been obvious to anyone watching that both have a bright future playing for BYU. Both were confident, taking a combined 19 shots in 41 minutes, and both were aggressive, with three offensive rebounds each.

Haws, who missed a week of practice with a knee issue, was strong around the basket and I even liked how he defended. His 24 minutes were the fourth, only behind Jimmer Fredette, Jonathan Tavernari and Jackson Emery.

"It's fun to get out there and actually play a game. I haven't played a game in like eight months . . .I was kind of nervous before the game, didn't really know what to expect. But by the time I got out on the court and started going up and down I felt pretty good," Haws said.

Davies, after the game, acted like he just had the time of his life. On that hammer dunk after picked up an errant pass? "I'm sure there will be a lot more this year, a lot more from where that came from," he said.

Fredette liked what he saw. "They're used to it. They're big-time guys. They did a great job in high school and now they're here and they're going to help us a lot this year."

I think everyone expected Haws to be right there fighting for a starting spot and major minutes, but there was some doubt about Davies. Maybe not now.

"I was pleased with how active he was," coach Dave Rose said. "I think he was probably a little bit surprised at how physical it was and there was no call, because that's the step that you take. And he'll get used to getting knocked around and making those. But he's pretty smooth, he's long and he can get those shots at the basket. He'll do better as he gets more experienced."

Can Davies become a starter? "If Brandon picks it up, he absolutely has a chance to be a starter and play major minutes," Rose said.

Here's a smorgasbord of other post-game quotes from Thursday's exhibition:
From Fredette:
"We want to get the ball up as fast as we can without turning the ball over and I think we're doing a better job at that."
"We need to come out stronger and play a little bit better in the beginning."
From Rose, complimenting Trinity Western:
"We actually had to execute defensively and change some of our game plan and watch guys actually adjust to those things."
"Our offensive numbers were not as good as they need to be, but a lot of that has to do with how they guarded us and how physical they were."
"I thought they were good. They did a nice job of controlling the pace of the game."
"You bring a team in here that runs good stuff, they screen hard, they make you actually have to execute defensively on every possession. I mean possession after possession."
Rose on the post play:
"Those are numbers that need to be better for us, but they will be . . . again, that's all ways we learn."
"The thing that really concerns me defensively from tonight's film is how deep they got the ball. No. 6 caught that thing down there way too deep and was able to get too many easy baskets. And then we fouled too much."
Rose on BYU making only 11-of-20 free throws:
"It was a problem tonight, but this is a good free-throw shooting team."
Rose on the status of Noah Hartsock's ankle sprain:
"He's like all of us. He's day-to-day."
Rose's overall assessment:
"I'm please that we won the game and found ways to make plays during the game."
"There are some (line-up) combinations that we didn't get to look at that maybe we wanted to."
"I don' t think we're set on anything yet (line-up wise)."
"I want this team to develop its personality, and you do it game after game after game, and this is the start."
"I wasn't pleased with how we started the game, but I was pleased with how we recovered from a slow start."