Kevin Young makes a splash in NCAA Tournament debut

Hand it to BYU’s rookie coach Kevin Young. He broke a five-game BYU losing streak in the NCAA Tournament for the No. 6 seed Cougars with a convincing 80-71 East Regional first-round win over No. 11 seed VCU on Thursday in Denver.

The win gave BYU win No. 25 on the season, the most by a first-year coach in program history.

And none of the previous coaches played a schedule as difficult nor in a league as tough as Young did.

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This is the program’s first trip to the round of 32 since 2011 when Jimmer Fredette hit shots from the ocean all season. Young surpassed Mark Pope in career NCAA Tournament wins on Thursday.

He did it with a lot of tools.

He did it with schemes. He had depth.

He seemingly shrugged off what conspiracy theorists say the NCAA Selection Committee does to BYU because of no Sunday play — picking a first-round opponent to face the Cougars that excels at a BYU weakness (fighting off physical guard play). VCU was that kind of team and Young and his players made that point moot.

VCU is no Houston.

BYU is the first team to score 80 on VCU’s defense this season. And the Cougars weren’t scoring field goals — most free throws — in the final minutes.

He did it with a team prepared to win, mentally and physically. He used depth and he got his key players to step up, including freshman Egor Demin (15 points).

Young found a myriad of ways to win. His zone defense stymied VCU’s offense and for most of the game his pressure on Atlantic 10 player of the year Max Shulga (12 points) was effective. While that zone served up some VCU 3s, it completely took away the Rams’ inside attack.

But more than anything, Young found a way to push through VCU’s machete hack defense.

That kind of defense killed the Cougars at Providence and twice against Houston this season. It sent the Cougars out of the NCAA first round last year with Mark Pope when Duquesne deployed the put-welts-on-BYU-dribblers technique.

VCU tried it.

And failed.

This is exactly what BYU needed — a solid win — heading into Saturday’s game with No. 3 seed Wisconsin.

Yes, Young, his staff and players deserve credit for dialing it in against defensive-minded VCU.

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Anytime a BYU team is outshot from distance (15 to seven in 3s) it means a loss. But on this day, the Cougars outscored the Rams 38-20 in the paint while dominating the boards 40-31.

Impressive. It was NBA-like.

Because BYU got points near the rim with Fouss Traore, Keba Keita, Mawot Mag and Richie Saunders, it meant the hack defense couldn’t prevent BYU’s inside game from kicking in, outshooting VCU 50% to 41% from the field.

Young got his team in the paint. When the paint attack failed, BYU got the rebound or got fouled. The Cougars didn’t need the 3-ball. That, and BYU’s transition game, killed VCU, who mined six steals.

BYU and VCU were tied at 24 minutes before half. Then BYU ripped off a 12-2 run. Just four minutes into the the second half BYU raced to a 20-point lead at 54-34.

The Cougars took a 39-28 lead at the half because VCU struggled to attack BYU’s switching zone defense and watched freshman Demin knock down a trio of 3-point shots to lead the Cougars with 11 at intermission.

Why was this so important?

Because Demin wasn’t supposed to do that. As a 27% 3-point shooter, most teams leave him alone so they can cheat defensively by helping to cover others, especially All-Big 12 star Saunders. Thing is, Saunders picked up two fouls and only played 12 minutes in the first half and the Cougars carved out an 11-point lead.

It was the largest BYU lead in NCAA play in 10 years.

Demin dumping treys?

He killed the Rams, who tried to trap and double him right after he crossed half court.

In the second half, he added a left-hand reverse drive lay-in off the dribble and had an elite turn-around fade-away shot inside the key over a VCU defender. He finished with 6-of-11 shooting.

It was a mustard on a hotdog kind of move.

Young’s team led VCU for nearly 29 of the 40 minutes.

Advancing like this? Young surely can fall in love with this college gig.