This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Sitting in my hotel room this morning in downtown New Orleans, watching a cruise ship — the Carnival Triumph — dock on a bank of the Mississippi River. Pretty cool. The thought just struck me — will the Florida Gators cruise tonight against the Cougars (as most analysts on ESPN and CBS) seem to believe they will)? Florida's favored, will have a larger crowd at New Orleans Arena, and has more experience in big games such as this one. Just watched Doug Gottleib on ESPN say that this will finally be the game where BYU will really miss Brandon Davies inside. He also mentioned that BYU is without 6-9 inside player Chris Collinsworth, who averaged six points and six rebounds a game before having his season ended by knee surgery in early January. Of course, the Cougars have Jimmer Fredette. The game will tip off at 6:27 p.m. here in New Orleans (5:27 p.m. in the Mountain Time Zone) and will be shown on TBS — which apparently exercised a clause in its contract with CBS and demanded the game. Fredette said Wednesday he's not sure how the Gators will guard him this year. "I've seen both ways, both types of defenses," he said. "It just depends on the team. Sometimes they will try to let me get my points and then stop everybody else, or really double-team me hard and let the other guys beat them. "So I've seen both, but it just depends on the situation. You've got to go out there and read what they're doing and take what the defense gives you and see if you can win the game." Jackson Emery said he hasn't seen Fredette have an off-night yet this year. "I guess you can consider it an off night if he doesn't score 30 or more," Emery said. "But I think the biggest thing we have to realize is that we have to score points as a team. We know Jimmer is going to get his points, and we know at the same time if we score it is going to make it a lot easier for Jimmer to score."

———————————- Mentioned in a blog yesterday that an Orlando Sentinel columnist, Mike Bianchi, asked questions related to BYU's honor code. Here's a link to the column that came out of it. More morning links: * My advance of the tonight's game says the Cougars will get the Gators' best shot tonight, after knocking off the SEC power last year. * My notebook contains a variety of newsy items, including the fact that Florida players say they are not out for revenge. * Columnist Gordon Monson lists five reasons why BYU could win and five reasons why Florida could win. * The Tribune's Michael C. Lewis wrote about how this BYU basketball team has captivated Provo and Cougar fans throughout the country. * Kurt Kragthorpe's column says the timing has never been better for the Cougars to advance to the Elite Eight. * Monson's sidebar is about the enjoyable fellow who is Noah Hartsock. * Kragthorpe's sidebar is about BYU's starting freshman, Kyle Collinsworth.