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The Cougar Tipoff on Wednesday night — BYU's annual intrasquad scrimmage featuring the Blue-clad team vs. the White-clad team — was supposed to be a feel-good event to give the Cougars a chance to show an appreciative crowd what they could do in a competitive setting.
Then a couple guys went and got hurt.
It was still a fun, entertaining night at the Marriott Center, but injuries suffered by senior guard Chase Fischer and freshman guard Jordan Chatman threw a bit of a damper on things.
Fischer suffered a thigh contusion after taking a knee to the thigh from freshman Braiden Shaw and left the game early in the second half with seven points and two assists. Chatman sprained an ankle and also left early with three points, two rebounds and an assist.
Coach Dave Rose said Fischer's injury was "really painful" and could keep him out of Friday's exhibition game against Arizona Christian.
"The thigh bruise with Chase will probably set him back awhile," Rose said. "Whenever he gets back to where he can play, I am sure he will have a big pad on there. I mean, he took a really direct collision from Braiden's knee on that drive."
Prior to the injury, Fischer was showing off what he worked hard on this summer — his ball-handling and driving ability.
Kyle Collinsworth was held out of the game with tendinitis in his left knee (the non-surgically repaired knee), while center Corbin Kaufusi didn't play due to a pulled hamstring.
"I expect everybody to be ready for the season. We will see," Rose said.
Asked when Collinsworth can play — he's been listed as "week to week" by BYU — Rose said it is too early to say.
"I think we will wait as long as we can on Kyle. I mean, he really wants to jump back in there and get going again. And we want him in there, but we want to make sure that we give [him time]. Tendinitis is an interesting issue. And we will just consult all the doctors and our trainers and Kyle and his group, and find out when is the best time to get him back."
As for Kaufusi, it sounds like a new injury.
"Corbin has got a slight hamstring [pull]," Rose said. "That's another thing that we will know probably a lot more tomorrow or the next day, how that is responding for him. He played really hard yesterday in practice, and I love the energy and the enthusiasm and the urgency he plays with. Big guy, we want to be careful with this and get it right before he gets back out there. He's a guy that I don't think you can put out there and tell him to play half-speed, or play [easy]. He's going to go all the way, so hopefully we can get it right before he goes back out."
As for the game, the Blue team featuring veterans and expected starters won 66-60 after falling behind 23-4 early and 37-19 at halftime. The Blue team was comprised of Fischer, Nick Emery, Jake Toolson, Kyle Davis, Jamal Aytes, Cooper Ainge and Nate Austin. Alan Hamson was on the Blue bench but didn't play as he works on getting back into shape after recently returning from a church mission.
The White team consisted of Zac Seljaas, Cory Calvert, Davin Guinn (a walk-on), Chatman, Elon transfer Elijah Bryant (sitting out this season due to NCAA transfer rules), Shaw and Jakob Hartscok.
The freshmen — Seljaas and Emery — scored 19 points apiece to lead all scorers.
"I think you see in freshmen, especially these two kids tonight, they have flashes of really good play. Some days they are awesome, and the next couple of days they struggle a little bit. It will be key for us to find the consistent young guys that can actually help us," Rose said. "The Blue team got off to a terrible start, but you start looking out there and trying to break it down, and you got one guy that didn't play last year, one guy that didn't play the last two years, and I think they were a little nervous. We were really stale offensively, and didn't play on attack, that blue team.
The White team came out and buried shots and Blue got behind.
The second half, I thought both teams actually competed better. The White team turned it over quite a bit, but I like those young guys. I think we are going to have to find a whole group of them that are going to play consistent minutes for us."
Rose said the teams were divided the way they were to get Shaw and Hartsock a lot of minutes. Technically, both fouled out.
"I thought that it was fun to just watch the guys compete in a different setting than what we've been doing the last five or six weeks.
And it will be interesting when I start watching the film, and kinda evaluate each guy, and the groups. But I like the way both teams competed, especially in the second half. The game was close and it was tight," Rose said. "A lot of things to work on, a lot of possessions, that were just empty on both ends. Defensively, we did a decent job on some ball screens. The other ball screens we were late and weren't as aggressive as we need to be.
We will try and learn from it. Probably won't get to it until Saturday. I imagine we will spend a little time tomorrow trying to figure out who this team is coming in to play us on Friday. I like what I saw."
Toolson added 16 points for the Blue team, while Kyle Davis had 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
Bryant chipped in 14 points for the White in what will be his only appearance of the season. The transfer guard at times looked like the best player on the four, adding four assists to his stat line while going 5 for 11 from the field.
Returned missionary Cory Calvert chipped in 10 points on 3 for 9 shooting, including 3 for 5 from 3-point range.
Aside from the injuries, the only other downer was free-throw shooting. The Blue team was 15 for 27 from the stripe, while the White team was 12 for 19. That's a combined 27 for 45.