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It's no secret that BYU basketball coach Dave Rose faces a scholarship crunch next year, and it will only get worse if injured forward Nate Austin (hamstring) is granted his year back by the NCAA.

That squeeze was alleviated a bit on Monday morning when sophomore forward Luke Worthington announced via Twitter that he will go on an LDS Church mission when the season is over.

"I will be serving a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," Worthington wrote on the social media website.

The first teammate, ironically, to congratulate Worthington was Austin.

"Proud of you, bro! Great decision!" Austin wrote.

Ryan Andrus, a 6-foot-11 freshman who has seen some of Worthington's minutes the past few games, is also expected to go on a church mission when the season concludes. Dalton Nixon is also expected to serve a mission.

The Cougars should be OK inside, though. They will have rapidly improving freshman Corbin Kaufusi along with Austin (possibly) and two players who are sitting out this season: USU transfer Kyle Davis and UNLV transfer Jamal Aytes.

Also, a pair of 6-8 players who were part of the 2013 signing class — Jakob Hartsock and Braiden Shaw — will return from missions, along with guards Cory Calvert and Nick Emery.

Worthington started in every game but one (Eastern Kentucky) through the San Diego game on Jan. 24. He has come off the bench in six of the last seven games — getting a DNP in the loss at Pepperdine on Feb. 5 — but has not played more than nine minutes in any of those six games.

In BYU's 75-62 win over San Diego last Thursday, Worthington played just eight minutes and had one rebound.

He is averaging 2.1 points and 1.8 rebounds.

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Despite their four-game winning streak and having won six of their last seven games, the Cougars (21-8) are still clearly outside the NCAA Tournament bubble.

ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi has BYU among the "Next Four Out" in his latest installment on Monday.

In his feature for ESPN Insiders, Lunardi gives BYU a 30 percent chance of making the field and puts BYU at No. 75 on his true seed list.

"We will talk about these teams (because we have to), but if your favorite is here, chances are they just aren't good enough," Lunardi says, listing BYU with Miami, Pittsburgh and Rhode Island.