This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A double-double against Pepperdine in an 80-74 loss and a triple-double against LMU in an 87-68 win has earned BYU point guard Kyle Collinsworth his third West Coast Conference Player of the Week award this season. The triple-double was Collinsworth's fifth this season, an NCAA record.
Collinsworth averaged 18 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and 1.5 steals last week. He scored 23 points against the Lions, tying a career-high. He's the first player in the WCC to be named PoW three times this year; Brad Waldow of Saint Mary's and Brandon Clark of Santa Clara have been honored twice each.
In the NBA, only two players this season have posted three triple-doubles: Michael Carter-Williams and Rajon Rondo.
BYU coach Dave Rose said Collinsworth showed right from the start Saturday that it was going to be a special day.
"There are a lot of games left to play, and when he has that look in his eye, like he did tonight — I mean, he was dialed in from that first possession — and it never left," Rose said. "We subbed him a couple times. It has been awhile since he asked me to sub him, but he was fatigued to the point where he needed a blow, and that's a good sign, because you get to that spot where you are playing that hard, that just helps our team."
Four of Collinsworth's five triple-doubles have come away from the Marriott Center; He will be gunning for the sixth on Thursday when BYU plays host to Saint Mary's (7 p.m., ESPN2). Shaquille O'Neal and Michael Anderson of Drexel are tied for the NCAA career triple-doubles record, with six.
"He is amazing, because there is a part of this where at times people get accused of padding their stats at home, and that's not the case here," Rose said. "He's out there … I think that Kyle understands a little about the situation we are in with this team, and that he needs to do more than maybe in a normal situation.
Tonight we were good. We shot the ball well, so he got those 10 assists, but he gets a lot of double doubles just from scoring and rebounding. Tonight he got the third part."