I don’t know if I’ve ever written a post about College Basketball, but I can’t let this season pass without paying a little online homage to BYU and Jimmer Fredette. It wasn’t long into the College Basketball season before I started hearing this name around my house: Jimmer. Jimmer? What kind of name is that, anyway? Well it only took a couple episodes of SportsCenter on ESPN for me to find out… he’s BYU’s Golden Boy. And arguably, the best College player this year. And he’s a Mormon kid from upstate New York.
With one of their best seasons ever and just a couple games left to play before the NCAA tournament, the second best player, Brandon Davies, got kicked off the team for a very serious Honor Code Violation. I was amazed at how quickly this became national news. But honestly, I was (mostly) pleased with the response from the general public. I remember being in my car in the drive-up line for In-n-Out that day and listening to the local AZ talk radio guys talking about this on the radio. They asked BYU Alumni to call into the show and weigh in on the situation and shed a bit more light on the Honor Code and why it’s important at BYU.
The first caller to respond to the invitation was a women from the next town over. She was a BYU Alumni and did a fabulous job explaining how the Honor Code works and why it’s so important to us. The radio host asked her if she was upset that BYU had pulled the offender from the team, when the end of the season was so near. Other colleges have Honor Codes, but don’t enforce them, especially if a Final Four appearance is all but guaranteed. What did BYU have to gain by shooting itself in the foot? Her response brought tears to my eyes. Tears of Pride. Is there such a thing?
I can’t recall her exact words, but it went something like this… she said: “I’ve been following BYU’s basketball season very closely this year and it’s been super exciting. Of course, I want the Cougars to go to the Final Four. But I’ve never been more proud of my school than I am right now. The school has put Honor above all else, and that means more to me than a basketball trophy ever could.”
I feel exactly the same way. And I’m not even a BYU Alum. I did apply for admittance, twice, and got accepted both times, but ended up getting my degree from Ricks College which has since been upgraded to BYU-Idaho. But I spent 3 years working full-time in Orem so Eric could finish his degree at BYU faster, and my income paid for his tuition, so I feel like it’s my school… even if it’s not. And our children are all BYU fans. We didn’t plan on brainwashing them to favor BYU, but it has inadvertently happened, anyway. And that’s fine. I will be proud to send my children to one of the only schools in America that upholds Honor and promotes Integrity, Chastity and Virtue.
BYU did not make it to the Final Four this year. They did get as far as the Sweet Sixteen and lost that game in OT. ESPN still LOVES Jimmer Fredette…. as does my son, Taylor, who is a die-hard Jimmer fan. (While we were at Disneyland and California Adventure ee sported his BYU attire and got over 30 Cougar shout-outs from perfect strangers… BYU has fans EVERYWHERE!) More than ever, I am proud of BYU. Thank you for standing up for virtue and morality. I hope it was an easy decision to make.
