There is no debate about who deserves player of the year honors in college basketball after Friday night. No debate at all.
Jimmer Fredette put all speculation to rest with a performance for the ages in a 87-76 victory over New Mexico. Fredette helped BYU advance to the championship game of the Mountain West Conference Tournament by scoring a career-high 52 points on 22-of-37 shooting -- including 7-of-14 from 3-point range.
Fredette gave an indication this would be his night when he made 14 of his first 20 shots to score 33 points by halftime. To put it in perspective, that is the same amount Wisconsin scored as a team over 40 minutes in a 36-33 loss to Penn State in the Big Ten quarterfinals on Friday.
Many experts wondered if BYU could get past a Lobos team that had already beaten the Cougars twice this season, especially given that starting center Brandon Davies was no longer on the team after being suspended for an honor code violation. Fredette quieted those critics -- at least for one night -- when he set a new single-game scoring record for the Cougars and passed Danny Ainge to become BYU's all-time career scoring leader.
Some bracket projections had dropped BYU down to a three or four seed going into Friday based on the assumption the Cougars would lose to New Mexico a third time. It's a safe bet many of those projections are going to be reevaluated come Saturday morning.
The only question ahead for BYU now: What can Jimmer do for an encore?
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