by RENALDO DORSETT
LJ Rose will move from one “Cougar” programme to another for the third stop of his NCAA basketball career.
Rose, who recently graduated from the University of Houston has committed to join the BYU Cougars and will be immediately eligible to play this upcoming season.
Following an injury plagued senior season with the Houston Cougars, where he appeared in just two games, Rose will look to conclude his collegiate career on a strong note.
BYU has just four guards eligible for play next season after they lost starting guards Kyle Collinsworth and Chase Fischer to graduation. And Jordan Chatman transferred following his acceptance to law school.
Although he played sparingly as a senior, as a junior, Rose averaged 9.8 points and 5.3 assists in a starting role when relatively healthy. In that season he became the 17th player in Houston history to register multiple seasons with at least 100 assists, dishing out 101 in 19 games. He was named to the Las Vegas Class all-tournament team that season, and was an American Athletic Conference honor roll nominee in February 2013.
In his sophomore year, and first with the Houston programme, he averaged 8.9 points and 5.5 assists per game.
At the national level for team Bahamas, Rose was the starting point guard for team Bahamas when they won gold at the 2014 Caribbean Basketball Confederation Championships, however he suffered an injury in the opening game of the tournament and was relegated to the sidelines.
At 6’4” 195 pounds, and a true point guard with a pass-first mentality, Rose was the ninth-ranked point guard in the class of 2012 by ESPN.com coming out of Westbury Christian Academy. He chose Baylor over Arizona, Memphis and Georgetown.
In his freshman season with the Bears, He posted 0.9 points and 1.2 assists, in sparse playing time, prompting his transfer to Houston the following year where he gave the Cougars a strong Bahamian connection on the court with Rose, Mikhail McLean and Danrad Knowles.
Rose is the son of Lynden Sr and Marilyn Rose and comes from a strong basketball bloodline following the success of his father and his uncle, the late Cecil Rose.
Lynden Sr played collegiately at Houston, where he was a member of Phi Slama Jama, and was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in the sixth round of the 1982 NBA Draft. He went on to play professionally in the CBA and Europe and, at the national level, he played for the Bahamas in the 1991 Pan American Games.
At Houston, Lynden Sr played alongside current BYU coach Dave Rose on the Phi Slama Jama squads at Houston from 1980-82.
L.J. Rose is also the cousin of former BYU guard Archie Rose, who averaged 1.3 points and 0.3 assists per game in two seasons for the Cougars after transferring from Lee College.
Cecil Rose also played collegiately for the Houston where he scored more than 1,200 points for the programme. He was selected in the 1978 draft by the New Jersey Nets.
Cecil was a member of the famous “Miami Jackson Five” which included Mychal Thompson and played for the Bahamas at the 1977 Pan American Games.