Personal

Born May 1978 in Santa Clara, Calif. ... parents are Christopher and Kristina, both graduates of BYU ... married to former BYU All-America volleyball setter Anna-Lena Smith ... spent three weeks in Russia in March 1996 to help high schools set up student councils .... served an LDS Church mission to Russia after freshman season ... likes to go body boarding ... recruited by Stanford, Santa Clara and Colorado State ... majoring in civil engineering.

At BYU

CAPSULE: A three-year starter, Nielsen will play a big role for the Cougars in 2001-02 with the loss of the team's other four starters ... An intelligent player with a good mid-range jumper, his 56.3 career field goal percentage ranks third all-time at BYU ... Nielsen and teammates Matt Montague and Michael Vranes were all freshmen members of the 1996-97 BYU team that finished 1-25 .... After returning from his mission, Nielsen has played the past two seasons for coach Cleveland , helping the Cougars earn a combined 46-20 record and two postseason tournament berths ... He is Academic All-MWC and a Cougar Scholar Athlete.
JUNIOR (2000-01): Nielsen was fourth on the team in scoring (6.2) and second in rebounding (3.8) last year ... started in 28 of 33 games ... had seven double-digit scoring games ... had a season-high 16 points at Utah, going 6-6 from the field