After hearing the news that BYU guard Matt Carlino was transferring from the school I made the mistake of going and looking at a bunch of the comments from the stories that were written.

What I saw disgusted me as a sports fan and as a BYU fan specifically.  Although there were plenty of fans who took the classy approach and wished Carlino well in his future in college basketball and moving forward, there were substantially more “fans” who took the opportunity to take shots at his game and at him as a person.  What kind of real fan attacks a college kid in such a way?

He competed and fought for the Cougars and we as fans can’t ask for anything more.  From the time Carlino was a redshirt, he represented BYU the right way.  He didn’t complain when he was demoted midseason and he gave it his all.  And on top of that, he will leave Provo with a degree.  Can you trash a kid for any of that? No way!

Sometimes I am disappointed to associate myself with a number of BYU fans because of their reactions in situations like this.

Just because you didn’t like his style of play or because he meet your lofty expectations (no doubt because he was labeled the next Jimmer right after he arrived on campus) doesn’t give any fan the right to Belittle him.

For the fans trashing him, they clearly don’t understand basketball either.  Carlino is a very good college basketball player and has been ever since he arrived.  In two and a half seasons on the floor, Carlino scored more than 1,200 points (27th all-time), made 157  3-points shots (sixth all-time), handed out 437 assists (seventh all-time) and recorded 161 steals ( sixth all-time).  That leaves his per-games averages of 12.5 points, 4.6 assists and 1.7 steals as well as 3.3 rebounds.  Those numbers place  Carlino second all-time in assists per game and second all-time in steals a game at BYU.

Expectations were elevated because of the fact that Carlino was trying to fill Jimmer’s shoes in the eyes of most, but that was just unrealistic.  Jimmer won every National Player of the Year Award out there and a top 10 NBA pick.  No one could’ve filled those shoes.  NO ONE!!

I have a word of advice for all the haters; turn off your computer and move on.  Carlino was a special player who was a big part off two NCAA tournament teams and a NIT final four team. He will be remembered in the eyes of true Cougar fans as a great player and will be missed.