A lot of teams would have collapsed after giving up a 21-point lead on the road in one of the most hostile environments in all of college basketball and being on the wrong side of most of the whistles down the stretch in Ames, Iowa, on Tuesday night.
But these BYU Cougars have shown the past month that they are not an ordinary team in building a seven-game winning streak, five of those victories of the Quad 1 variety, to earn a top-four seed or better in next week’s Big 12 tournament and put themselves squarely in the Big Dance.
After the Cougars (22-8, 13-6) edged the Cyclones 88-85 in double overtime, coach Kevin Young told the BYU Sports Network there was a change of mindset a month ago, on Feb. 1 when BYU beat UCF 81-75 in Orlando, after trailing 40-38 at halftime.
“We had a little situation in Orlando at halftime, in the locker room, where enough was enough in terms of teams punking us, pushing us, not letting us hold space, taking the ball from us,” Young said. “And I think since that moment we have grown a ton in that area, and we are really imposing our will on teams now.”
The Cougars still committed a whopping 29 turnovers against ISU, one of the best teams in the country at getting takeaways. But they made up for it with a relentless effort in the rebounding department, out-boarding the home team 52-24 at Hilton Coliseum, where it is now 33-2 the last two years.
Keba Keita’s chase-down block of an attempted dunk was emblematic of that new mindset, Young said.
“He never gives up on plays,” Young said. “That’s the attitude our team has really adopted. … Iowa State made it extremely challenging for us. But I think our group has really grown, and we clearly have more room to grow in that area. But to be able to gut one out in this place, I don’t know what their home record is and all that stuff, but I am sure it is pretty impressive.”
The Cougars are now 12-3 in their last 15 Big 12 games, after a 1-3 start. They are 2-2 in overtime games this season, another sign that their mental toughness and poise has improved after they dropped their first two OT games, to Ole Miss and Utah.
It is the most overtime games for BYU in a season since the 1987-88 campaign.
“I mean, you learn through experience, and then you can lean on those experiences,” said Richie Saunders, who was 13 of 13 from the free-throw line and has made 16 straight from the charity stripe and 18 of 19. “We’ve learned that it is just a matter of enjoying the opportunity and the moment. … They are such a good team. We knew this was going to be a battle, even when we were up 21, or whatever the lead was.”
One of those moments was a lob pass from Trey Stewart to Dallin Hall for a dunk, a play that made all the highlight shows late Tuesday night, along with Keita’s block that is being hailed as one of the best defensive plays in BYU basketball history.
“It felt really good to see hard work pay off. I thought my teammates really trusted me down the stretch, and coach did, to make plays,” said Hall, who had a season-high 22 points. “Despite the turnovers, we just had to keep going at them. I just wanted to help the team win in any way that I could, and tonight that was the result.”
Stewart and Mawot Mag also came up huge defensively, particularly on ISU’s final possession when it was hunting for a 3-pointer and the win and BYU’s defenders denied an open look.
“It shows toughness, and what we are made of, too” Mag told the BYU Sports Network. “Any adversity thrown in front of us, we are always going to prevail.”
That wasn’t the case on Feb. 8, when BYU was routed 84-66 at Cincinnati and was in serious jeopardy of missing the NCAA Tournament. Now the Cougars are one of the hottest teams in the country, and looking to improve their seeding in the Big Dance as much as possible.
After they face Utah (16-14, 8-11) on Saturday at the sold-out Marriott Center (8 p.m., ESPNU), they won’t play again until Thursday in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, having received a double bye with Tuesday’s epic win.
They quite likely could be facing Iowa State again, if the No. 5 seed beats the winner of the 12/13 game next Wednesday. That’s not necessarily a good thing for BYU, considering that ISU fans turn T-Mobile into “Hilton South” because it is only a three-and-a-half hour drive from Ames.
What does Young think of a rematch?
“Don’t turn the ball over,” he said, flatly, then followed with an oft-repeated story about how he envied coaches who got to experience March Madness when he was an NBA assistant.
“You get a chance to play against really good teams, who are super well-coached, so as a competitor, man, that is what you look forward to, being able to right some of the wrongs from this game,” he said. “If that ends up holding true, that will be a big-time game.”
As of mid-afternoon Wednesday, the team had not made it back from Iowa. A team spokesperson said blizzard-like conditions and 50 mph wind gusts have made it impossible to return to Provo.
