Since BT is back up and running I figured I would bring my series of BYU sports posts back here now.

For those of you not paying attention to this sort of thing, BYU men’s basketball is in the midst of its winningest season ever. BYU already has 28 wins to go with its only 4 losses through the end of the regular season. The Cougs have been ranked in the top 10 this season and are currently ranked in the top 15. BYU is led this year by arguably the best player to come through Provo since Danny Ainge, junior guard Jimmer Fredette.

This week the Mountain West conference tournament (aka “the UNLV Invitational”) will be held in Las Vegas. Despite BYU’s incredible season the Cougs come in as the #2 seed. Two of the four regular season losses came at the hands of #8 New Mexico and the Lobos sewed up the regular season title and the #1 seed in the MWC tournament with a close win in Provo a week ago as an ailing Jimmer watched from the bench. BYU will kick things off with a game against TCU on Thursday. That game should not present much of a challenge but Friday the Cougs will likely be facing UNLV, the only team that beat BYU soundly this season. BYU wouldn’t mind a chance at redemption for that loss in Vegas I think. With any luck the Cougs will get another shot at New Mexico in the finals on Saturday as well.

The perfect scenario for BYU would be solid victories over TCU, UNLV and UNM. That would likely lead to a 3 seed in the NCAA tournament starting next week. With two wins in the MWC tourney the Cougs would probably be looking at a 4-5 seed. With only one win the seed could drop to a 5-6 I imagine. All of this matters because the better the seed in the Big Dance, the better the chances are of advancing into the tournament. Winning in the NCAA tournament at all is something BYU hasn’t done since I was a student there in 1993 so that is a huge deal for the team and fans.

I am on record predicting a 30+ win season and a Sweet 16 berth as early as last September. If mononucleosis-stricken Jimmer Fredette can stay healthy it looks to me like my predictions still have a pretty good chance of coming to pass.

Rise and Shout Cougar fans. It’s March!

From the MA boxes:

Box 1 – Juvenile Instructor notes the Social Science Research Council’s report on religion and blogging. Their list of 100 of the most influential religion blogs includes my now-inactive Mormon Inquiry at Beliefnet project, which makes me wonder about the study. But a compliment is a compliment — thanks, SSRC.

Box 2 – BCC’s resident biologist posts Avoiding the Temptation of Literalism. Resist, o ye literalists! Do not succumb to the temptation to “think the scriptures are there to give us information about the factual nature of the universe or to offer reports of strictly a historical nature.”

Box 3 – Life on Gold Plates publishes its own set of notes on Richard Bushman’s talk “Joseph Smith and the Routinization of Charisma.” I found this set more readable than the set posted at JI last week, but maybe that’s just me. Bushman struggles to correct the widely-held view that Joseph Smith was an autocrat (I have run across that view twice this week in two separate books by respected historians!). A fine talk.

Box 4 – SteveP strikes twice (see Box 2), this time with The Flesh Flies of Climate Change. Bad news: the flies are moving north.

Box 5 – The Mother’s Daughter, a personal essay at The Exponent.

Box 6 – At Mormon Matters, Jacob’s Ladder. Is it a metaphor for the efficacy of works (we hoist ourself to heaven rung by rung) or grace (Christ is the ladder)? I liked the post. I liked the movie.

Box 7 – NDBF’s little jab at LDS evolutionists, who dutifully respond in the comments.

Honorable Mention – One post per box seems so unfair.

• Polygamy, Natural Law, and Imperialism at T&S.
• Signs, appearances, and blogging at BCC.
• Exit, Voice, and Change at BCC. Great week at BCC.

Outside the box – And now for something completely different: the Blogger Brawl at Mormon Times. Description: “Thirty-two Single Mormon bloggers from all over the globe are competing for a permanent columnist spot on MormonTimes.com.” It’s sort of a take-off on March Madness. I’m stumped why the Mormon Times calls these young singles “bloggers,” which in normal usage refers to someone who runs a blog or posts at a blog. Apparently MoTimes considers the bio-blurbs to be “blogs” (i.e., something posted online) and therefore those posting the bio-blurbs are “bloggers.” Please, if words still mean something, call them wannabe-journalists, not bloggers. I feel slimed.

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*Given that “Niblets” already implies a certain mininess, we hereby also solicit a better name.

Okay, here are the regular highlights from each MA box.

Box 1 – At Juvenile Instructor, notes on Richard Bushman’s talk at the 2010 BYU Church History Symposium, titled Joseph Smith and the Routinization of Charisma. Additional posts on other presentations are featured at JI and also at Life on Gold Plates.

Box 2 – I’m partial to Genesis and Genre at T&S.

Box 3 – I really enjoyed the post at BOAP’s blog on BH Roberts and James E. Talmage. I had not previously recognized the change in style and method of Talmage, basing most of his doctrinal positions on Bible references and, to a lesser extent, LDS scriptures. This is contrasted with Roberts’ approach to doctrine, rooted more in historical statements by Joseph Smith and other LDS leaders. Very interesting. I’m looking for Clark or Jared* to jump in and explain phase and group velocities, however.

Box 4 – The Cell Tome, at Red Brick Store. Welcome to the era of the cell phone novel.

Box 5 – At Flooding the Earth, Books About the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. How many do you own or have you read?

Box 6 – I was all set to highlight the Is God Still Progressing? post at Mormon Matters (and put in a few kind words for the Latter-day heretics who think God will be a little more god-like next year), but it will have to settle for the silver. The gold goes to a late entry, Why Do Mormon Women Rule the Blogosphere? Good question.

Box 7 – How could I not select Moses as Dr. McCoy at LDS Science Review?

Outside the box – No contest: New Order Mormon Standards of Truth at Junior Ganymede, that blog with a truly eccentric orbit. I was going to really unload on this post, opposed as I am to the practice of bloggers publicly questioning — by name — the faith of another. That’s what bishops are for, except that bishops proceed (when they must) confidentially and responsibly. Then I read the follow-up post, Public Apologies. I think it does a nice job patching things up. No further comment required.

Comments welcome. Self-promotion discouraged but tolerated (see Box 2).

Box 1 – At Juvenile Instructor, “Mormon history’s movement out of the margins.”

Box 2 – A series on depression at BCC, starting with the series overview.

Box 3 – At Life on Gold Plates, a discussion and link to an NPR piece on the bittersweet story of a mother who died young but wrote a cache of letters to be opened annually by her growing daughter. Very touching. There’s a “lost sheep” angle.

Box 4 – At Patheos, Gospel Doctrine Boredom.

Box 5 – At Latter-day Commentary, Revelation and Emotional Response. To me, the Dodger game sounded like a date, but whatever.

Box 6 – At Our Thoughts, Mormon girl wins gold.

Box 7 – At Mormon Heretic, a straight-up post on the state of Mormon apologetics, with several quotes from By the Hand of Mormon by Givens.

Outside the box – Mormon Monsters, a new group blog. Tagline: “The Monsters are a diverse group of individuals, all tied to the Mormon faith.” I think big anonymous group blogs are a little out of fashion, but I understand that some bloggers have their reasons.

Box 1 – I liked Imposed Openness at FPR, exploring how the LDS Church can have a theological approach that welcomes “a variety of viewpoints,” yet have manuals and a membership that is inclined to suppress diversity and openness in most discussions of most topics.

Box 2 – How to Make Mormon Literature Great. Nice discussion in the post and comments on this perennial yet still beguiling question.

Box 3 – The LDS Newsroom Blog lists LDS athletes competing at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. May they all perform well and make their countries proud.

Box 4 – At ZD, the latest entry in a series on being 30-something and single in the Church.

Box 5 – Along the same lines as the FPR post discussed in Box 1, Clean Cut posts Wide Latitude of Possible Beliefs in Mormonism.

Now for some blogs you may be less familiar with.

Box 6 – At Pieran Spring, a detailed and very enlightening post on Joseph Smith’s Revelations on Preexistence and Spirits. The post also provides historical religious context by summarizing what other Christians believed about spirits at this time:

From the outset, it’s important to note the religious environment at the time. Spirit was universally held to be immaterial. Early converts to Mormonism would have accepted the traditional worldview that God created all things, including souls, ex nihilo. There were, however, differing views among Christians as to when and how the soul was created. Among the variations, two are particularly important to note. Some believed that the soul was created at the moment of conception or birth (creationism). Others believed that the souls of all men were created during God’s initial creative act in the beginning (preexistencism).

Box 7 – At Poor Rustic, a post on Pre-Adamites that’s not just a rehash of what Nibley said. The post reviews essays in a book titled Reading Genesis After Darwin, summarizing the approach taken by the authors like this:

Although the authors seem to come from more conservative Christian traditions, so far in my reading none has tried mount a defense of a literal reading of Genesis, or to harmonize it with biology, geology, or cosmogony. In fact, to this point they have all rejected that sort of an approach.

Also in Box 7, Pure Mormonism writes about The Best Conference Talk You Never Read. It was an actual Conference talk; toward the end of the post there is a link to a transcript.

Outside the Box – Not all LDS blogs are listed at MA. Here are a couple of posts from outside the box.

• At Heavenly Ascents, On Corruptions in the Biblical Text: Ancient and Modern.
• At Lehi’s Library, A Review of Pelagianism. Given that Mormons are often dismissed as modern-day Pelagians by modern-day Christians, it’s worth getting to know the views of Brother Pelagius a bit better.