In Defense of the Cougars.

I woke up this morning and to be honest, I was a little ticked off.
You see the Cougars lost last night to a New Mexico team that had obviously taken some peformance enhancing xango juice before the game because I've watched them a lot this year and I have never seen them play like that.
And I think that referees have honestly no idea how to call a game with Jimmer and so they have agreed to give up and not call anything at all. Unless the ref is shorter than Jimmer- because then he won't make calls 'cause he's straight up jealous.
But can I tell you who really makes me mad...do you really want to know? I am so tired of the "fans." The "fans" that are ready to throw in the towel after a loss like they had last night. I am tired of the "fans" who say, "There goes our chance to get to the Final Four." Are you freaking kidding me? Who do you guys think you are? The Final Four? You shouldn't even be allowed to GET to be a BYU fan. The Campus Police should come and confiscate your BYU gear and personalized license plate.
Let's try and put this into perspective.

• This year's team was picked to finish SECOND in the league because San Diego State is stacked- have you seen that team? They are an amazing team- They have lived up to the hype and beat everyone- EXCEPT US. Saturday we have a chance to clinch a share of the Conference Championship with a top ten SDSU- that is amazing.
• This team has won 27 games this year- TWENTY SEVEN. Do you know who else has won 27 games this year? Ohio St. Kansas SDSU and Duke. Enough freakin' said.
• We have the leading candidate for player of the year in The Jimmer. He is 6'2 and white and can absolutely ball it up. And he's a nice guy. And he was kind of a chubby kid- which I think makes him so much cooler.
• We have a team that is full of really great guys that are cool and that like each other. They want great things for the team. They work SO HARD and they deserve every great thing that has happened this year. 

So to the distraught "fans"- pull yourself together and get a grip. This BYU team deserves more respect than for you to whine and moan about "missed opportunities" and "number one seeds." That was never the point from the beginning. They have their own goals as a team. They know what they're after. They know what they want- and I'm sorry you weren't included in the discussion, but then again you are not on the team. So if you want to call yourself a fan then grab a tent and a sleeping bag and go line up for Saturday's game like all the other ACTUAL fans.

And one more thing, now that you've got me started, I would like to talk a little about Brandon Davies.  But first I have to tell a little story about myself when I was at BYU. 

I was in a communications class and I was with four other girls working on our Final group project. I had just got back from like a twelve game road trip that started in the state of Washington and ended in the state of Arkansas. A girl in my group saw that I had not finished my video worksheets and offered to give me the answers. I thought that she was so nice and what a team player in helping her teammate- pretty much I thought she was serving her fellow man. Apparently one of my other teammates thought it was cheating and told the professor who told the honor code office. The next day I was called into the professor's office and he explained the situation to me. I felt like an idiot because when he put it that way, apparently I WAS a dishonest cheater. I told him it was all my fault and not to punish the other girl that I shouldn't have done what I did... blah blah blah. He failed me on my final project which dropped my grade from like a B+ to a D+ and informed me that I was on Honor Code Warning Status or something super scary like that. And with the D+ I was also on Academic Probation. It was not my finest moment. (When I told Brock about this, he said something like "Wow, I really am the smart one in the relationship." Awesome.) But my coaches found out and talked to me about it, and then I had to tell my Dad. He was not that happy and told me that I couldn't do anything like that again- that I couldn't mess with the Honor Code Office or something like that. But let's just say I felt so embarrassed and so ashamed and so STUPID. I was not dishonest. I was not a cheater. I had never done anything like that before. But I just screwed up and made a stupid decision.

So back to Brandon- There may be those of you who attended BYU and never had a single run in with the honor code, you probably have lived your entire life without an honor code violation- and I commend you. (But I don't think you've been pregnant- 'cause I  think most pregnant women swear like sailors.) But for those of you like me that are not perfect and have not always made perfect choices, I think this is probably a good time for us all to say, "I've been there. And it's hard and sad and it sucks, but it can and WILL get better. But then understand that you don't actually know what this is like because I don't think there are too many of us who have had our bad decisions plastered in EVERY news media outlet known to man. I cannot imagine how hard and embarrassing and horrible that must be.

But what I will say is that Brandon deserves our respect. That he worked just as hard as every other guy on that team and earned a conference championship. It is so sad that he can't finish what he started, but consequences are consequences and there's nothing you can do about that. I deserved that D+ and all the probation that came with it. Brandon is such a good kid, such a nice kid and he wants to make this right and for that he has EARNED my RESPECT.

So for all of you who think Brandon "let you down" or our chances of "Final Fourdom" are out. I say you should get out. If you can't get excited for what this team has done and what it still can do- than take your Adult XL Jimmer Jerseys and drop them off at the Bookstore because you don't deserve them.

And I think that's all. 

Thanks. 

That was almost therapeutic. 

Go Cougars. :)