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BYU's basketball team is currently in the middle of the biggest gap between games that it will have all season. Having defeated Colorado 79-71 last Saturday, the Cougars don't play until this Saturday, when they will travel to Chicago and meet Illinois in the second game of the State Farm Legends Classic at United Center.

Of course, the Cougars have been taking final exams this week, and also doing some charity work.

The annual party for the Mac's Gift Children's Cancer Foundation is tonight (Wednesday) at the NuSkin Innovation Center in Provo.

Each year the foundation collects monetary donations and unwrapped toys that go directly towards the Christmas party for more than 60 families who have children with cancer. Players and coaches are on hand to present the gifts and interact with the families.

The foundation's founder was Mac Boyter, who passed away in October of 2013.

Head coach Dave Rose and his wife, Cheryl, have been involved with Mac's Gift and the annual party since Rose joined Steve Cleveland's staff as an assistant coach.

In other BYU basketball news, sophomore Eric Mika was named the WCC Men's Basketball Player of the Week on Monday. Mika led the Cougars to a 2-0 week with wins over Weber State (77-66) and Colorado. He averaged 21.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 2.0 blocks.

He scored 26 points against Weber State and 17 against Colorado, overcoming a three-day illness to post a career-best six assists against the Buffaloes. Mika was also the WCC Player of the Week on Nov. 21.

"Eric has had a tough week. He played on Wednesday night and then he played again tonight. The days in between, he's had a tough week," Rose said after the Colorado win.

Regarding Mika's six assists, Rose said:

"He commands a lot of attention in the post, and that helps so many other guys. Tonight he had a hard time playing through all the contact and finishing. But when he got to the free throw line he scored for us. But just his presence on the floor, when he made a catch, he drew the attention of all the other defenders. Everyone would turn their head and it gave us some opportunities to do some things."

Freshman Yoeli Childs had his best game as a Cougar, posting a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds.

"We thought that this season that [Kyle Davis] would play the majority of the minutes, and Yo would learn as he went. But we had to throw him in there with KD's injury situation, and now he's played two great back to back games with 11 points and 12 rebounds, 5 of 7 from the field. He is active, you can put him on different offensive guys and mix up your defense because he's learning to become a much better perimeter defender, a great rebounder because he can go get balls. Those are two young guys tonight, TJ [Haws]and Yoeli, in their 10th college game, and to have a line like that, it is a good sign."

Childs entered the CU game as a 40 percent free-throw shooter (6 of 15) and went 1 of 5 from the stripe against the Buffaloes, who were trying the "Hack-a-Yoeli" strategy at the end of the game.

Rose said he's not worried about Childs' free-throw shooting because he was a good FT shooter in high school.

"Yeah, he's a good free throw shooter," Rose said. "He was just having some confidence issues right now. We will get him in there and spend a lot of time. Those are the things we are talking about with young guys. They just need more time, and it is tough right now, especially with the end of the semester and finals and stuff like that. But we will get in a rhythm and that's not a concern."