Cougars’ Fredette takes no prisoners

OKLAHOMA CITY

I like the fact his brother is an aspiring rapper, that he spent time while growing up in New York playing pickup basketball against inmates at a state correctional facility, that he learned how to attack off the dribble with prison guards holding rifles on one side of the court and those incarcerated betting cigarettes that he wouldn't last another minute on the other.

I like the fact Jimmer Fredette is in many ways nothing as most probably view him.

Except for the part about being a great player.

You either know it or are too stubborn to admit it.

Kansas State players didn't know much about Fredette before arriving here, much about his game or his past or how he got the funky nickname. They probably still don't know much about the nickname, which his mother, Kay, came up with because she thought James -- his given name -- sounded too formal.

Fredette and Brigham Young today will attempt to advance to an NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in Salt Lake City, but before such a home-state advantage can be achieved, they must first defeat a Kansas State team that will be quicker, stronger, more physical and favored to end the Cougars' run in the second round of the West Regional at the Ford Center.

"I'm sure most people think Kansas State is going to win and rightfully so," Fredette said. "They have been in the top 10 basically the whole season. ... You're playing for your life, you know? Hopefully, we give them a fight."

He can make sure of it.

He can be the difference yet again.

BYU would not have beaten Florida in double overtime here Thursday without the inspiring play of Michael Loyd Jr., but it wouldn't have come close to enjoying the first 30-win season in school history without a junior point guard who makes scoring seem an almost effortless task.

Cerebral. I hear the word and think of a photographer, of a person who is thoughtful and meticulous in approach. You don't often get it in basketball, a game of speed and flow and instant shifts of momentum.

Fredette is a cerebral player, someone whose movements don't inspire defensive alarm but whose execution is like few in college.

He is a scorer with three ways to make a 3-pointer, who can drive and finish with both hands, who can shoot off the dribble and catch, who can read defenses and react successfully, who has that drive-and-step-back move for a 3 that is nearly as difficult to execute as it is to defend.

He averages 22.1 points and has scored 30 or more eight times this season, including 37 against Florida here.

That would win a lot of prison games.

"It makes our job as offensive coaches a lot better to have Jimmer involved with most of our stuff," BYU associate head coach Dave Rice said. "I'd say 60 percent of our sets directly involve him. He's also really involved in the (other 40 percent).

"I don't think you ever really know how good a guy can be, but we were optimistic he would be very good."

His brother the rapper, T.J., had a friend who ran the recreational program at a prison in upstate New York where Jimmer as a high school player was invited to compete against the murderers and drug dealers and other harmful sorts.

He learned to dribble in a long, dark hallway at his family's LDS ward near Glens Falls, N.Y., where there was a small light at one end and Fredette was made to maneuver through the darkness toward it, head up, shifting the ball from one hand to the next, with older brother shoving him and jumping at him the whole time. The idea was never to lose his dribble.

"It doesn't take too many people to see a tape or film or a game live to understand he is really versatile," BYU coach Dave Rose said. "He's good. You never really expect him to miss."

I have no idea how or if his game eventually might translate to the NBA. Fredette doesn't expend a lot of energy defensively, and you would think he would struggle keeping much faster guards at the pro level in front of him.

But you also have to think he could run off screens and make shots, that NBA benches have far worse options than him.

For now, Kansas State awaits.

Somewhere, they are betting cigarettes on how many points Jimmer Fredette might score today.

After all, the first time he played at the prison, he went for 40.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618.