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Gettin’ Jimmer with it: Haws drops 42 on Virginia Tech

Tyler Haws, Robert Brown

Brigham Young guard Tyler Haws (3) goes to the basket as Virginia Tech guard Robert Brown (1) defends in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012, in Salt Lake City. BYU defeated Virginia Tech 97-71. Haws scored 42 points. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

AP

Obviously, there will never be another Jimmer Fredette. The BYU guard of legend dropped 47 on Utah as a senior, and finished his final season with a 28.9 points per game average even though everybody in the building knew he was getting the ball as often as possible.

So, there will never be another Jimmer, but we’d settle for more nights like this from Tyler Haws.

Haws fired his way to 42 points in Brigham Young’s 97-71 shellacking of visiting Virginia Tech last night, hitting 6 of 8 three-pointers as part of his 14 of 25 overall, and tacked on 8 of 9 free throws for anyone who thought fouling him might slow him down. The big outing was all the sweeter, as it played out in front of Tech’s Erick Green, the nation’s current leading scorer.

As our own Rob Dauster pointed out a while back, Haws actually began his career with BYU when Fredette was plying his trade there as well. But he left on a Mormon mission, as so often happens with Cougar players, and missed out on a great deal of Jimmer-mania.

You want an idea of how long it has been since Haws last played for the Cougars? When he was a freshman, Haws teamed up with Jimmer Fredette, who had yet to become a national sensation and whose name hadn’t become verbiage meaning sinking 32-foot threes.

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Haws averaged 11.3 points and 4.2 boards as a freshman, but after one year on campus, he made the decision to serve his mission, putting a very promising basketball career on hold. Haws expected to be sent to Europe — he was born in Belgium and still has family on that side of the pond — but was instead shipped off to the Philippines.


Haws served the dictates of his conscience, and came back a more mature man who can still ball like mad. Even if this 42-point explosion is his only nod in Jimmer’s direction, it will be a great memory of a big game. But I don’t think Hawes is anywhere near done ripping nets. He’s technically a sophomore, and he’s got a full slate of unpredictable WCC games to go nuts on in the New Year.

Name-wise, Tyler doesn’t have quite the same cachet as Jimmer, but surely we can figure something out if the occasion arises.

Eric Angevine is the editor of Storming the Floor. He tweets @stfhoops.