This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Three days after blowing out San Diego at the Marriott Center, the BYU basketball team practiced hard on Tuesday at the same building, its focus clearly on the Loyola Marymount Lions. The Cougars will take on LMU on Thursday at 7 p.m. MST in Los Angeles. "They have a lot of guys who have had really big games," said coach Dave Rose, noting that LMU is dangerous and has knocked off some pretty good teams already this season. —————————Freshman center Nate Austin did not practice today because he has the flu, Rose said. Austin wanted to practice, or at least come and watch film today (classes start tomorrow at BYU for winter semester), but coaches thought it was best to keep him away from the team to prevent the illness from spreading. Tuesday's big news was that junior wing Stephen Rogers is back practicing with the team after undergoing knee surgery (torn meniscus) three weeks ago. Rogers will make the trip to L.A., and is being called a "game-time decision" by BYU's medical staff. "I think so," Rogers said when asked if he will play Thursday. "I am hoping. I think it is going to be kind of a game-time decision as far as being cleared by the medical staff and things like that. So I am hoping, but can't guarantee anything." He said he's no longer in pain. "It is not painful, doesn't swell up at all or anything like that, so so far, so good. The signs are great. The knee has been progressing every day and so so far so good."———————————— Rose said the news regarding Chris Collinsworth, who had his knee scoped on Dec. 15, is better, but not great. "Chris is actually doing better. The swelling in his knee has gone down. I don't know if he is anywhere close to where he can practice with this. The first 10 days after surgery were kind of discouraging for him," Rose said. "The knee actually looks a lot better, and he's walking on it without crutches, and without a lot of pain. So he is progressing, but it is quite slowly."