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Tyler Haws churned down the court, coming off a pick and splashing a jumper from 17 feet. He's done the same thing a thousand times before in a hundred venues, and he'd like to go on doing it another thousand and another thousand after that, specifically in a setting like this - EnergySolutions Arena, a floor where the pros play.

"I want to play in the NBA," he said. "I believe I can play at that level."

Although BYU has had games at ESA at least once a year for a decade or so now, and the Cougars have an all-time record here of 14-4, it's still a little weird to see them on the Jazz's home floor.

Everything about the experience is off a notch, in both directions. The Jazz logo on the court, the green seats, the huge video boards instead of the typical surroundings at the Marriott Center. And the other way, blue everywhere, Cosmo instead of Bear, the Cougarettes instead of the Jazz Dancers, a handful of LDS Church apostles in the seats instead of Greg Miller, Dr. Rick Anderson, Jon Sudbury, and the Jazz usuals.

The biggest difference, of course, is the level of play. In this case, a bunch of schoolboys, most of whom can only dream of playing professionally, taking the big stage.

But dream, they do. It's not weird to them. Like Haws, it's sort of what they envision in their minds from the time they first pick up a basketball and start dribbling and shooting it. They don't see themselves ultimately playing at Loyola Marymount's Gersten Pavilion or Pacific's Alex Spanos Center. They see playing some day right where they were on Saturday.

The opponent wasn't the Bulls or the Lakers or the Spurs or the Clippers.

It was the Rainbow Warriors.

They weren't going up against LeBron or Kobe or Carmelo or KD.

They were facing guys named Garrett Nevels, Roderick Bobbitt and Niko Filipovich.

And Haws and his teammates went ahead and dusted them, beating Hawaii 90-70, with the Cougar swingman playing a significant role, as always.

He got 30 points, closing ever nearer to BYU's all-time scoring record of 2,599 points. Haws now trails Jimmer Fredette by 435, a deficit well within his reach. To bump Fredette, Haws has to average some 21 points over the rest of the season. No problem.

Watching him move up and down the floor, working his offensive wonders, it's not such a stretch to imagine Haws filling some role for some team that will pay him to do so. It could be in Europe. It could be elsewhere. The NBA? Not the way to bet, but … stranger things have happened. If he were only a bit more athletic, he might have a real shot. Haws is one of the most prolific scorers in college basketball and has been for a couple of years. He has his limitations, but he can straight fill it up, especially with his midrange game, an uncommon, almost forgotten art in modern basketball.

The Rainbows saw plenty of that on Saturday.

Haws' teammates, none of whom will sniff the NBA, despite their dreams, make great sacrifices for him, as they should, setting screens and more screens and getting him the ball again and again. It's an effective plan. His energy, his movements are relentless. And when he's fouled, he makes opponents pay, converting nearly 90 percent of his free throws, the best percentage in school history.

Saturday wasn't Haws' best game, but it was plenty enough to lead the Cougars to another win, their seventh in nine tries this season. He got some offensive help from Chase Fischer, who scored 20 points, and particularly from the versatile-and-skilled Kyle Collinsworth, who added a triple-double: 19 points, 10 assists, 12 rebounds.

"I look forward to getting more," Collinsworth said.

BYU is sort of what it always is, a solid team, not a great one. Dave Rose said this iteration's ceiling depends on the development of the front line. The shooters are already established: "We've got a really good group of scorers," he said.

The Cougars likely will compete for second place in the West Coast Conference, behind Gonzaga, and they will go on playing some entertaining ball. Just like Haws, the rest of his team can run the floor and put points on the board. It's a borderline NCAA Tournament team, a fun group to watch.

This week's BYU-Utah game at the Marriott should be a competitive treat for anyone who watches, played in confines a bit more familiar and a whole lot more fitting. Less weird, for everyone involved.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson.