Schooling opponents? What else is new?

As far as BYU sports go, Christmas break hasn't let me down once! It's been full of a Las Vegas Bowl, 5 basketball games, one MVP, two all-tourney team members, a school record, an NBA-like score, and one last look at those beautiful royal blues.

The Las Vegas Bowl vs. Oregon State was considered one of the top non-BCS bowls, as both teams were ranked in the top 20. The Vegas Bowl got a steal when it comes to this matchup. Oregon State barely missed out on going to the Rose Bowl after barely losing in their "Civil War" against their rival Oregon. Many people were expecting a close game, and they might have gotten that...for about less than the first quarter. The wind was blowing insanely hard, and the first couple of possessions went nowhere. Oregon St. hit first with a touchdown, but that would be as far as they got for a long time. BYU tore to up, scoring 30 unanswered points. The Cougars ended up with an impressive victory, 44-20. One of my favorite parts were two 6-yard punts by the Oregon St. kicker, thanks to the wind. Those kicks went up and blew straight back. I've never seen anything like it. What a great game to end a great season!

Now to basketball, who kicked butt and took names in pretty much every game as of late. They played the Las Vegas Classic, with two game at home and two at the Orleans in Vegas. Here are a few highlights:
-Going on a 33-0 run vs. Eastern Washington at the Marriott Center
-Beating Nevada in Vegas with a score of 110-104 (Is this an NBA game?!)
-Getting an Eastern Washington-like lead against Nebraska before beating them by 22 for the Championship
-Jackson Emery and Tyler Haws making the all-tournament team
-Jimmer Fredette named tournament MVP

So the tournament was a complete success, but would the trip to face Pac-10 opponent Arizona be the same? Yes. Yes. And then some. Not only did they score 99 points against Arizona's 66, but Jimmer Fredette had one point short of having half of those points. Nearly half of 99 points? It was unreal. With his 49 points, he became the new school record holder, beating Bob Skousen's 47 from all the way back in 1961. It's not like he got his points by being a ball hog or shooting Kobe-style, either. To go along with his points, he had 9 assists and shot 16-23, including 9-13 from 3. He also set a record fro threes made in a game. Props to the coaching staff for leaving him in until he broke the record, thanks in major part to Greg Wrubell for letting them know. He really wanted him to break the record as well. Any other blowout he would have been taken out much sooner. Major props as well goes to the Arizona fans, who showed major class by cheering on Jimmer when he came out, appreciating talent when they saw it. I had to listen to this game on the radio since we don't have Fox College Sports (who does?), but I've seen plenty of highlights on Sportscenter as well as many other places. I'm glad I had Wrubell, but it sucked to not be able to watch it.

Here's the Jimmer Fredette highlight reel--definitely worth watching!

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4778189