Winning and losing can be habit-forming. The time it takes to replace bad habits with good ones is debatable, but if there is any truth to the Power of Three theory, the Cougars are on the cusp of better days.
Back-to-back victories against Colorado and Cincinnati have the Cougars (13-6, 4-4) sharpening their claws for Tuesday night’s showdown against Baylor (13-6, 5-3) at the Marriott Center (7 p.m., ESPN2). A third-straight victory will go a long way toward creating a habit of winning that is necessary to compete in the upper half of the Big 12.
Understandably, the Buffaloes (9-10, 0-8) and Bearcats (12-7, 2-6) are far from the conference standard and beating them convincingly might scream a false sense of security; however, the way BYU marched through both might shout more about the Cougars than it does about their opponents.
After a pair of tight first halves, where BYU led by two at Colorado and by eight against Cincinnati, the Cougars charged out of the locker room as men on a mission, delivering a flurry of defense, rebounding, shooting and ball control.
A layup by Egor Demin with 11:43 to play capped a 25-7 scoring run to put BYU up 63-43 in Boulder, en route to a 16-point win at Colorado for their first true-road victory of the season. The Cougars outrebounded the Buffaloes 27-24 and beat them 16-8 on assists.
Saturday night, Demin finished the first half with a 3-pointer and he and his teammates hit four more in the first 4:49 of the second half to build a 45-28 lead against Cincinnati. BYU also won the rebounding battle 34-28 and dominated the assists battle 18-11 in a 28-point win, their largest margin of victory in any Big 12 game.
To their credit, the Cougars have done in their last two games what they failed to do in four of the previous five – defend, rebound, pass, score and win. What remains in question is whether they can do it on a regular basis.
The rules on habit-forming depend on who you ask. A study published in Scientific American suggests it takes between three weeks and three months. BYU doesn’t have that kind of time. Instead, they might prefer what Jo Burgess, creator of Lifesorted.com contends — it takes three days (or three games).
“If you want to break a habit, stop doing it for three days straight,” Burgess writes. “If you want to continue a positive habit, make sure you don’t skip it for three days straight, because if you let it lapse it’s hard to start again.”
Determining the kind of team BYU is going to be for the rest of the season could finally take its form against Baylor. A third-straight win would put the Cougars in a tie for sixth place in the Big 12 while at the same time, solidify a winning habit that could take them much higher.
There is no shortage of positive numbers to feed BYU’s mentality. The Cougars are No. 1 in the 16-team Big 12 in 3-point shots made (202), No. 1 in rebounding margin (+9), No. 3 in assists (17.16), No. 4 in scoring offense (80.37) and No. 7 in scoring defense (66.21).
The emergence of Richie Saunders as BYU’s go-to guy and leading scorer (14.9) combined with the re-emergence of Demin and his all-purpose arsenal (10.9 points, 5.9 assists, 4.3 rebounds) make the Cougars tough to stop. Those two represent a rising tide that raises all the boats in BYU’s harbor — when they are rolling, the rest of the roster relaxes and starts rolling too.
Long before the Madness of March comes the Foes of February, featuring the likes of Arizona (twice), Kansas and West Virginia. Head coach Kevin Young and his staff have emphasized the battle at hand as the only battle there is and right now it’s all about Baylor.
BYU’s fight against the Bears is just one game, but the outcome of this January finale could have so much to say about where this team goes from here. If they are to benefit from the theoretical Power of Three to turn the season around — the only thing missing is a third consecutive win — Baylor.
Indeed, winning and losing can be habit-forming and with BYU so close to making winning a habit, the results on Tuesday might just be the most significant of the season.
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.