If Saturday afternoon's humiliating 86-55 loss to No. 14 Houston at the rocking Fertitta Center showed anything, it was that the BYU Cougars might not be what we thought they were.
For starters, they have not shown the ability to be tough-minded in the face of adversity. It is certainly something first-year coach Kevin Young and his staff must correct before they head back out to Texas at the end of the week.
BYU was mostly forgiven for that 19-point loss at mediocre Providence on Dec. 3 because it was facing a short turnaround and a long, cross-country road trip after playing in San Diego over the Thanksgiving weekend.
The loss at three-loss Houston cannot so easily be forgotten, and not just because BYU was exposed by one of the best defensive teams in the country.
The blue-wearing Cougars wilted at both ends of the floor, and looked as if they had lost their confidence, and trust in one another. Senior guard Trevin Knell, the lone bright spot in a dismal game , insists that wasn't the case, but the lapses were troubling, if nothing else.
"We are still confident. We are still a really connected team," Knell said, after scoring a team-high 12 points. "We have a quick turnaround on Tuesday (against Texas Tech), and there are a lot of things that we can learn from this, so we just gotta come with a different level of fight. … I think that is what we are going to go into the next game with, is a lot more fight."
Houston (10-3, 2-0) extended the nation's longest home winning streak to 30 with the blowout win, and solidified its standing as one of the favorites to win the Big 12 this year, along with Kansas and Iowa State. BYU (10-3, 1-1) will be at TCU next Saturday, but before that the Cougars host a Texas Tech Red Raiders team on Tuesday (7 p.m. MST, ESPN+) at the Marriott Center that buried Utah 93-65 at the Huntsman Center on Saturday.
Young was asked if there were any positives to emerge from the lopsided loss, and he quickly pointed out that having big men Fousseyni Traore and Keba Keita on the court at the same time — for the first time this season — gave the Cougars a spark in the second half.
"I think there is always stuff you can build from," Young said. "As bad as it felt, there were good moments in terms of carving them up. … We went with Keba and Fouss, kind of a jumbo lineup, for the first time. I thought that bore some fruit, which was good to see."
Noted Knell: "Fouss and Keba in together was good. I love playing with those two guys. They play with a lot of heart."
Nobody in royal blue played with much grit and desire at Fertitta Center, where the red-wearing Cougars are 101-6 since it opened in 2018.
"That's a crazy stat," Young acknowledged. "It was a passionate crowd. Kelvin (Sampson) gets these guys to play really hard. He is a great coach, probably a hall of famer. You just have to give credit where credit is due.
"I don't know if it is anything unique to the building. I just think they play with an extreme level of confidence, and play a very physical brand of basketball that on the road and in that type of loud environment it can be a challenge to deal with," Young concluded.
Now the Cougars turn their attention to another hard-nosed, defensive team, a team that beat them 81-67 in a Big 12 conference tournament quarterfinal last March in Kansas City. Texas Tech's losses were to St. Joseph's (78-77), No. 22 Texas A&M (72-67) and UCF (87-83) in its Big 12 opener last Tuesday.
By most accounts, Texas Tech has improved from last year — Utah would probably agree with that assessment — and is picked to finish seventh in the league.
Is BYU better than it was last year? That's probably a debate for another time, but so far the results have not been encouraging. Jaxson Robinson, Noah Waterman, Aly Khalifa and Spencer Johnson — known for his mental toughness and leadership — have not been easy to replace.
Meanwhile, the newcomers have not made as big of an impact as expected, with the exception of Keita, the University of Utah transfer. As BYU mixes it up with tougher teams this month, freshmen Kanon Catchings and Egor Demin will need to step up their games as well, or the Cougars could be looking at the NIT, or worse, come March.
