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Provo • Shortly after 6 a.m., morning after morning, year after year, the sounds of a basketball thumping against the hardwoods, and then clanging off the rim or swishing through the net, could be heard at a church gymnasium in a quiet residential section of Alpine, about 20 miles north of Brigham Young University's cavernous, 20,900-seat Marriott Center.
Just a father and son, grunting and sweating while almost everyone else in town slept. They were honing the craft of shooting a basketball, hundreds of times from the free-throw line alone. Or they would work on dribbling around chairs and shooting over portable chalkboards or a broom secured from the janitor's closet.
How has Tyler Haws gone from riding the bench the first time he tried organized basketball as a third-grader to being on the verge of breaking Jimmer Fredette's all-time scoring record at BYU? Look no further than those early morning sessions far from the spotlight.
"He's a worker, simple as that," says Marty Haws, the former BYU basketball great, and the father who woke up at 5:50 a.m. five or six days a week to work out with Tyler at the church down the street. "Tyler has put in the time — not just in the gym, but in [watching] film, in talking to coaches, in trying to figure out anything that might help him improve on the court. That has proved to be to his benefit."
The 6-foot-5 Haws is 35 points from passing Fredette's mark of 2,599 points heading into Senior Night on Thursday as the Cougars play host to San Diego at the Marriott Center.
Tortoise and Hare • Certainly, Fredette worked hard to become a prolific scorer, and Haws is not without plenty of natural ability. But the ways in which they arrived atop scoring at BYU are far more different than they are alike.
Fredette was the flashy, deep-shooting, ball-in-his-hands point guard who got his points off the dribble from 3-point range, or by driving to the hoop and displaying an uncanny ability to get his shot off amid the trees inside. Big-scoring nights were his calling card: He had 30 or more points in 24 games, and 40 or more points in six games to spawn the nationwide phenomenon known as Jimmermania.
Haws has gone about his record-setting career more quietly, and arguably on less-talented teams. He's been Mr. Consistent, a master at moving without the ball and hitting midrange jump shots after coming off screens, a skill developed in those early morning sessions with his father, who, ironically, was more Jimmer-like when he played in the late 1980s.
"It just kind of slowly, slowly happened," Haws said of nearing Fredette's standard. "My focus at BYU has always been helping the team win games, doing whatever. Just little by little, it happened."
Fredette, now playing in the NBA with the New Orleans Pelicans, has noticed from afar, and said he is excited to have Haws break his record.
"I told him at the beginning of the year that I figured it would probably happen if he had a good year," said Fredette, who plans to reach out to Haws soon to offer congratulations. "So I told him to go get it."
Fredette became so popular on campus, some professors asked him to not attend classes and do his coursework online because his presence was so disruptive. Haws said he doesn't have that problem, noting he's recognized occasionally but rarely stopped for autographs. He's happy with the way the BYU fan base has embraced him, but asserts, "I am not at Jimmer's popularity level at all."
And both players acknowledge their different routes in passing the likes of BYU scoring legends Danny Ainge, Michael Smith and Devin Durrant.
"He plays more off the ball and is a little bit bigger," Fredette said before the Pelicans hosted the Jazz last week. "He does a lot; they post [him up], coming off screens, catch-and-shoot type things. I was more on-ball, coming off ball screens, either shooting the 3 or getting to the basket. But he's got a great midrange game. So we're a little bit different, but ultimately we could both score. … I am excited for him to break the record."
Ultimate teammate • Haws' journey to the top of the BYU scoring list — he's had a school-record 70 20-point games — has been overshadowed a bit this season by teammate Kyle Collinsworth's five triple-doubles, an NCAA single-season record. But Collinsworth has repeatedly said he couldn't have done what he's doing, assist-wise, without Haws' ability to roll off screens, take passes and hit jumpers.
"Their games are just so completely different. It is pretty crazy," Collinsworth said. "Ty will come off a screen and hit a shot. Jimmer will dribble around for 10 seconds, cross someone over. Ty doesn't need the ball. He just needs a screen to get open."
Fellow BYU senior Josh Sharp grew up with Haws, watching the blossoming phenom go from seldom-used player on grade-school teams to a two-time Mr. Basketball at Lone Peak High.
"He continues to amaze me. I mean, there is nothing that kid can't do. He helps everybody get scoring opportunities. I am just glad I am on his team and not having to guard him," Sharp said. "Growing up, I knew he was going to be special because of his work ethic. But that he would be the all-time leading scorer at BYU? No, I didn't know that."
BYU coach Dave Rose, who lured Haws away from the likes of Stanford, Davidson and Utah, said the senior's legacy at BYU will not only be as a prolific scorer despite drawing super-size attention from opposing defenses, but as the ultimate teammate and a fine representative of the school.
"He has just been really consistent," Rose said. "He's had the same approach on the court for the last three years, since his mission. … He's just an example of what I would consider to be true BYU greatness. He embraces the culture here at BYU. He is in the community, in the state and in the region sharing stories of success and influencing people in a positive way."
Taking care of today • Fredette famously wrote a "contract" with his brother, T.J. Fredette, promising that he would work hard enough to play in the NBA, and stuck it above his bed as a reminder. Haws didn't do that growing up. He idolized players such as Duke's J.J. Redick and UConn's Rip Hamilton, but he did do a lot of writing, mostly focusing on what he needed to do to get better.
"He has journal upon journal in his bedroom. He's a writer. He's a note-taker," Marty Haws said. "He is constantly trying to learn. He writes things down, and he will review and review them and then write more down."
Marty Haws said his son's genius is in his one-day-at-a-time approach. His first goal was to get playing time in youth basketball after he wasn't invited back to a team in fourth grade. Then the goal was to make the high school team as a ninth-grader, which he did, opening a four-year career as a starter at Lone Peak, a career that produced two 5A state titles.
He didn't set out to be the all-time scoring leader at BYU as a freshman in 2009-10, before an LDS Church mission to the Philippines. He wanted to stay out of the way of Fredette and company, perhaps to give coaches enough positives to remember before he departed for two years. He ended up averaging 11.3 points and 4.2 assists per game on a team that won its first NCAA tournament game since 1993.
"Our experience has been that any time you get ahead of yourself, any time you start looking too far out there, bad things happen," Marty Haws said. "So, that has served us well. We try to look at taking care of today, and Tyler is as good at taking care of today as anybody I have ever seen."
Twitter: @drewjay
Tribune reporter Aaron Falk contributed to this report. —
BYU career scoring leaders
2,599 • Jimmer Fredette (2007-11)
2,565 • Tyler Haws (2009-10, 2012-present)
2,467 • Danny Ainge (1977-81)
2,319 • Michael Smith (1986-89)
2,285 • Devin Durrant (1978-80, 1982-84)
1,885 • Russell Larson (1992-95) —
San Diego at BYU
Tipoff • 8 p.m.
TV • ESPNU
Radio •1160 AM/102.7 FM
Records • BYU 20-8, 10-5 WCC; San Diego 14-13, 7-8 WCC
Series History • BYU leads, 8-3
Last Meeting • USD 77, BYU 74 (Jan. 24, 2015)
About the Toreros • They have won five of their past seven games, but are coming off a 69-62 double-overtime loss to Saint Mary's last Saturday. … Senior F Jacob Thomas had career highs of 19 points and 13 rebounds in their win over BYU in San Diego.
About the Cougars • They have won three straight games by a total of 66 points and have moved into sole possession of third place in the WCC. … They are 3-0 since F Josh Sharp was inserted into the starting lineup. —
Tyler vs. Jimmer
Player GP Points Avg. 20-pt. + 30-pt. + 40-pt. +
Fredette 139 2,599 18.7 63 24 6
Haws 132 2,565 19.4 70 13 2