DENVER — The Cougars' early exit from the Mountain West tournament should send BYU and Air Force to the National Invitational Tournament, now operated by the NCAA. Those pairings will be announced Sunday night.
Meanwhile, the Cougars arrived in Provo Friday, two days earlier than expected thanks to rival Utah who upset them late Thursday on a career performance by center Luke Nevill.
With the Cougars and Falcons out, it marked the first time in MWC tournament history the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds failed to advance to the semifinals. AFA lost to Wyoming.
BYU coach Dave Rose said the Utah advantage came on the boards where the Utes collected 16 offensive rebounds to just five for the Cougars en route to a 74-70 win.
"I think that if you want to look at one thing, what was the key, what happened, what didn't happen, the fact that they had 16 offensive rebounds and got second chances a lot of times, especially late in the game. When we got the lead, there were a couple of times we got a stop, then we couldn't get the rebound; they got second chances. I think that was probably the determining factor."
Nevill, who was taken to the hospital Thursday afternoon with chest spasms, had 29 points and 14 rebounds — both career highs. He also made 11 of 15 free throws.
The loss dropped the Cougars to 20-8 on the season, a good record, but not a factor in the fast-closing NCAA Tournament selection process.
The Cougars outshot Utah 50 to 44 percent, outscored Utah off turnovers 16-15 and had more bench scoring 29-11, but were outrebounded by the Utes 37-21. Utah also had the advantage at the line with 21 makes to BYU's 16.
Jimmy Balderson, who scored 13 points in the loss, said any NCAA talk was out of the hands of the squad after losing to Utah. "I don't know. We'll see what happens. It's not in our hands. It would have been nice to get this win, be able to keep playing more basketball. We'll see whatever happens. Wherever they put us, they put us. We'll just keep looking forward to playing the next game."
The Cougars had 10 steals to get back in the game against the Utes, coming from nine down to take a late four-point lead. But Rashaun Broadus and Balderson missed long shots that could have proved key in the final minutes, and Utah held on with Nevill setting a tournament scoring record for a freshman.
"We've had trouble all year with teams that pressure us," Balderson said of BYU's first-half struggles. "Until we learn, you know, to be strong, attack the basket more. In the first half, I thought we were tentative. We weren't attacking the basket. We were letting their pressure get to us. We weren't playing our game. They were playing, they were controlling the tempo."
The Cougars will not know their fate in the NIT until Sunday night after NCAA pairings are announced. If selected to the NIT, as expected, the Cougars would likely be one of the top seeds in the round of 32. BYU could host at least one and possibly two NIT games in the Marriott Center this coming week.
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com