Yoeli Childs shows he's more than a scorer in BYU's rout of Nevada


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PROVO — As the BYU basketball team went into the halftime locker room Tuesday night in the Marriott Center, Yoeli Childs had zero points on 0-for-7 shooting.

But there was no whining, no disgust, no abject disappointment from the Cougars’ star power forward with designs on an NBA career.

Of course, being up 34-22 on Nevada while holding the Wolf Pack to its lowest-scoring half of the season will aid that.

But Childs also didn’t panic because he knew that, eventually, he would get his. And if not, it would mean his team didn’t need his points, or maybe his rebounds, or even his jaw-dropping assists to beat the Pack.

But in the second half, he came out with a little fire — and proved just how good he can be, scoring six of the Cougars’ first nine points of the half to finish with 14 points, 13 rebounds and three assists as BYU ran away from the Pack 75-42 in front of an announced crowd of 10,570 fans at the Marriott Center.

“I really liked the way they handled the post,” said BYU coach Mark Pope, who complimented head coach Steve Alford’s "monster" help defense in keeping Childs in check for 20 minutes. “It was a great defensive scheme on their part, and we understood that’s what they do consistently.

“We didn’t respond to it very well; that’s on me. I should’ve prepped my guys better. But it is really effective.”

And while some may have seen a down game from Childs ("only" a double-double, amirite?), his teammates saw something very different. They saw through the six-rebound, two-assist, 0-for-2 effort from 3-point range before the break.

And they saw something entirely different after it, too.

Brigham Young Cougars forward Yoeli Childs (23) shoots over Nevada Wolf Pack forward K.J. Hymes (42) during the game at the Marriott Center in Provo on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019. (Photo: Spenser Heaps, KSL)
Brigham Young Cougars forward Yoeli Childs (23) shoots over Nevada Wolf Pack forward K.J. Hymes (42) during the game at the Marriott Center in Provo on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019. (Photo: Spenser Heaps, KSL)

“I saw greatness,” said BYU wing Jake Toolson, who had 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists. “That’s the sign of a great player: being able to respond. He (Childs) fought through the frustration. In the first half, he had zero points — but he got guys so many open looks. Everything he was doing out there, you might not see on the stat sheet. But he was helping us get great looks.

“And in the second half — it was only a matter of time: he’s going to make plays, and he’s going to get baskets. But the way he responded to that frustrating first half, getting fouled and whatnot, that’s the sign of a really great player.”

Through three games of his senior season — one cut short by a nine-game NCAA suspension, remember — Childs is averaging a team-high 18.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game for the Cougars. His second double-double of the season marked the 39th of his career, tied for second-best in BYU history with John Fairchild, the former two-time All-WAC center and 1965 WAC Player of the Year.

But sometimes, Childs’ biggest contributions to his teammates don’t show up in the box score. The former Bingham High standout is a phenomenally underrated passer, able to pull the ball out of the post to a wide-open guard on the wing to splash for three.

That comes in handy when you’re playing with teammates like Toolson, or TJ Haws, or Alex Barcello, or Connor Harding. That group combined for 12 3-pointers Tuesday night against the Wolf Pack, bellowing their reputation as the No. 3-rated 3-point team in the country at the moment.

A lot of those threes are quietly set up by Childs, even if he doesn’t always get credit for the assist.

“He’s such a great scorer that I think people can overlook that aspect of his game,” Toolson admitted. “But he’s always been a great passer and a willing passer.

“With that skill set and willingness to make plays for his teammates, he’s a really, really dangerous player.”

But where he excels is on the glass. That’s a skill that will lead him to a professional career — whether in the NBA, overseas or wherever else he decides to play. Childs has a chance to make it at the next level, and it’s because he doesn’t get pulled into being a one-dimensional player; he’s able to score, or rebound, or find an open teammate, or defend a team’s best player.

It just depends on what is needed. But mostly, on a BYU team that counts just three Division I-sized posts on its roster, it requires rebounding.

Good thing for Childs, too.

“He’s got a pretty good nose for the ball, he’s got an unbelievable body, and he gets off the floor so explosively,” Pope said. “He’s got really strong hands. He has a chance to become a rebounder that rebounds at the highest level of the game.”

For now, though, Childs will just try to be the best BYU player he can be. That means winning — and the Cougars have a chance to do that again Saturday against in-state rival Utah State in the third-annual Beehive Classic (6 p.m. MST, BYUtv).

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