Lumberjack Classic arrives in Prescott Valley - The Prescott Daily Courier

PRESCOTT VALLEY - For the second straight season, the Northern Arizona University men's basketball team will play a pre-conference game tonight at Tim's Toyota Center - only this time the opponent is a Brigham Young squad fresh off a Sweet 16 appearance in the 2011 NCAA tournament.

Last year at Tim's, NCAA Division I mid-major NAU routed Alabama State 74-46 in a contest that the Flagstaff-based university partly designed to draw attention to its extended campus located next to Yavapai College in Prescott.

Tip-off for tonight's game, now dubbed the Lumberjack Classic, is at 7:05 p.m. It will be broadcast live over the Lumberjack Radio Network on KBTK 105.1 FM and via the Internet at www.bigskytv.org (video) and www.bigtalkerradio.com (audio).

NAU coach Mike Adras said university president John Haeger created the contest as a way to bring the communities of Flagstaff and Prescott together, and he hopes it remains an annual event - especially now that Yavapai College no longer fields men's and women's basketball teams.

This year, Idol Sports & Entertainment, a sports marketing company established in Seattle during the mid-1990s, took over operations for the game from NAU.

Adras said the ball got rolling earlier this year when an Idol Sports official called to ask him if he'd like to play BYU at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale. But when Adras countered, saying he wanted the game at Tim's instead, Idol Sports and Haeger made it happen.

During the 2010 tilt at Tim's, NAU honored former Bradshaw Mountain High School boys' basketball standout Matt Lyon, who moved on to compete for the Jacks from 2003-05.

"I really liked what we did last year playing down there (in PV)," Adras said in a phone interview Tuesday from Flagstaff. "I thought it was well received. Now evolving into this BYU game, it's absolutely tremendous. And we're obviously very excited to bring NAU basketball once again back down to the (Prescott) Valley."

The Lumberjacks, who finished the 2010-11 campaign with a 19-13 overall record and a trip to the Big Sky Conference Tournament, have gotten off to a rough start this season at 2-4.

NAU lost its leading returning scorer, starting junior guard Gabe Rogers (13.1 points per game in 2010-11), after he tripped and fell in his dorm room and injured his shoulder on the first day of the fall semester. The All-Big Sky second-team pick, who is the Lumberjacks' best 3-point scorer, underwent surgery Oct. 10 to repair a torn labrum and won't be back until at least January, Adras said.

"He's a prolific shooter and a very good on-ball defender," Adras said of Rogers. "He's got more experience than anybody on our team. He had a terrific off-season to prepare for this year. It's really unfortunate."

Without Rogers, the green Lumberjacks start three freshmen, including hot-shooting guard James Douglas (6-foot, 175 pounds), who's averaging a team-best 13.7 ppg. Six-foot-4, 190-pound senior forward Durrell Norman (8.3 ppg, 6.0 rebounds per game) and 6-foot, 185-pound junior point guard Stallon Saldivar (8.0 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 5.3 assists per game) pace the team as returning starters.

Meanwhile, at BYU, the Cougars have retooled their lineup without 2011 Naismith Award-winner Jimmer Fredette, who averaged 28.9 points and 4.3 assists per game as a senior last season. The leading scorer in NCAA Division I, Fredette guided BYU to a school-record 32 victories and the aforementioned Sweet 16 appearance.

The Cougars (4-2 overall) of the West Coast Conference, who are coming off a 73-56 loss to Wisconsin last Saturday, possess a much bigger team than NAU. That will no doubt cause match-up problems for the Jacks, who have no player taller than 6-6 in their starting five.

Six-foot-8, 230-pound starting senior forward Noah Hartsock leads BYU with 16.8 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks and a steal per game. He has scored double figures in each one of BYU's first six games. Forward Brandon Davies (6-9, 235) is another standout, averaging 12 ppg and 5.5 rpg.

"Noah Hartsock is a tremendous player - I think he's an NBA player, to be perfectly honest - and Brandon Davies is very long and athletic," Adras said. "Then they have guys that are able to get to the basket and knock down open shots. This is a very talented team."

Adras added that NAU must stay composed, rebound well and take high-percentage shots to avoid costly big runs from the Cougars in order to stay in the game.

"Collectively, as a team, we have not yet discovered the difference between a good shot and a bad shot," he said. "We've taken bad shots and it's led to basically empty possessions."

After this evening's game, the schedule won't get any easier for the Lumberjacks, who will face Arizona at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in Tucson. On Dec. 17, NAU takes on Arizona State in Tempe.

"I like to say we're 'Arizona's Team' this year because we're playing in Prescott Valley, we're playing down in Tucson and in Tempe, and obviously we play a lot of games in Flagstaff," Adras said. "I don't know anybody else that's played in four different cities in the state this year, and yet we're proud of that."

Tickets for tonight's contest are still available. For more information, call 866-443-8849 or log on to www.gettix.net.