PROVO — For No. 14 BYU, its regular-season games and its West Coast Conference Tournament games are over.
Now, the waiting game has begun as the Cougars look ahead to Selection Sunday.
BYU saw its nine-game winning streak end with a 51-50 setback against Saint Mary’s in the WCC Tournament semifinals at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas Monday night in a Quad 1 neutral-site game.
“It’s incredibly disappointing,” coach Mark Pope said after Monday’s loss. “It’s actually going to hurt more in an hour and it’s going to hurt way more tomorrow.”
BYU’s streak of futility in conference tournaments continues — the Cougars haven’t won a conference title since 2001.
Still, due to its body of work during the season, BYU is regarded as a lock for an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament.
“We’ve got to pick ourselves up and jump into this thing,” Pope said. “I’m excited about the future that lays ahead for us. We’ll go back home, get to work and get a shot at this next deal.”
The Cougars had to wait nine days from the end of the regular season before playing in the WCC Tournament semifinals. They will have to wait nine more days before taking the floor again in the Big Dance on March 19.
So how will Monday’s setback impact BYU’s seeding in the NCAAs?
Going into the semifinals, ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi listed BYU as a No. 5 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. The Cougars could end up anywhere from a No. 5 to No. 8 seed, depending on what happens in other conference tournaments taking place this week and factoring in the no-Sunday play issue.
“The guys have worked really hard this year and they’ve had a spectacular year so far. They’ve earned themselves an opportunity to play in this tournament. None of them are going to take it lightly.” — BYU coach Mark Pope
Because BYU doesn’t play on Sunday, it can only be assigned to either the West Region or the Midwest Region, which features a Thursday-Saturday format all the way through. The only first-round sites the Cougars can go to are in Spokane, Washington, St. Louis, Missouri, Albany, New York, or Tampa, Florida.
Tuesday morning, the Cougars remained No. 9 in the NCAA’s NET rankings and dropped one spot to No. 13 in Kenpom.com.
In the meantime, BYU will have to sit on this bitter defeat to Saint Mary’s as guard Jordan Ford hit a game-winning jumper with 1.4 seconds remaining.
It was the Cougars’ worst offensive performance of the season. BYU recorded season lows in points (50), field goal percentage (36.2), assists (7), field goal attempts (47) and field goals made (17).
While the Cougars established a new single-season school record for 3-pointers made in a season Monday (332, eclipsing the previous record of 330), they hit just 7 of 18 3s against the Gaels.
Also troubling for BYU is that Monday marked the fourth time that it has squandered a significant second-half lead this season. The Cougars led Saint Mary’s by 11. Previously, they led San Diego State by nine, Utah by 16 and San Francisco by 14 before falling to those opponents.
Meanwhile, forward Yoeli Childs, who finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds, became the school’s all-time leading rebounder Monday (1,053), surpassing Kyle Collinsworth (1,047).
BYU was without two key players against Saint Mary’s — forwards Kolby Lee and Dalton Nixon. Lee didn’t play due to illness while Nixon has been out for nearly a month with a serious ankle injury. The Cougars are hoping to have both players back for the NCAA tournament.
So it’s time for BYU (24-8) to turn its attention to the NCAAs. How will the Cougars respond after Monday’s heart-wrenching loss?
“They’ve rung the ball every time this year. Last time we suffered a loss, we ran off nine straight,” Pope said. “I trust this group. I think it’s a player-led group. There’s unbelievable leadership. We don’t have any choice but to do that now.”
Pope said he is proud of what his team has accomplished this season. But it’s not over yet.
“The guys have worked really hard this year and they’ve had a spectacular year so far. They’ve earned themselves an opportunity to play in this tournament. None of them are going to take it lightly. We’ve been great at writing the story. The story we have to write is that this devastating loss, a poor coaching performance and not the best performance we’ve had on the court, that that will springboard us to doing something special, that these guys have been dreaming their whole lives about doing. That’s the story we have to write. It’s the only story left for us, so we have to write it.”