Analysis: Flashy athleticism, stellar inside shooting power No. 8 BYU in big win over Holy Cross

Heading into the most highly-anticipated season in program history, BYU was expected to be much longer, quicker and more athletic and dynamic as a team.

Through two games, such an assessment has proven correct.

The No. 8-ranked Cougars put on a high-flying show Saturday night at the Marriott Center, routing Holy Cross 98-53 in Provo’s first opportunity to see Kevin Young’s new-look unit in the regular season.

“Anytime we compete against somebody else at this point of the season feels good because it’s hard to learn about our group playing against each other,” Young told reporters after the game. “So, I think that’s the big takeaway, just trying to learn and see areas that we can improve upon.

“There was obviously, I think, good things and bad things tonight. Our defense was really good, and I thought offensively, you know, we had moments.”

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BYU opened the night with 10 unanswered points and never looked back, also compiling other 12-0, 11-2 and 10-1 stretches.

The Cougars’ main focus heading into the night was finishing around the rim, and for good reason. In Monday’s season opener against Villanova down in Las Vegas, BYU missed 15 total layups, which helped create some late drama in an eventual 5-point victory.

Against Holy Cross, however, the Cougars went 16 for 18 on layups, dunked 10 times and shot a whopping 32 for 38 (84.2%) from 2-point range — the highest mark for the program since the KenPom era began in 1998.

“Something we did a lot of work on this week was finishing,” Young said. “I thought we were going (inside) a lot without a plan prior to this game, but tonight you saw some really good interior footwork by our guards driving.”

For Young, greater efficiency in the paint isn’t just about cleaning up missed layups. It’s what he views as the most important factor in determining his team’s offensive ceiling this year.

“I think this notion of paint finishing and paint decisions, to me, is probably the thing that’s going to move the pendulum the most for us this season,” Young said.

“If we can figure out how to be great rim finishers and great paint finishers, we’re going to be a really, really good offensive team. If not, we’ll be OK because we have talent, but really, to me, that’s the thing we’ve got to get right more than anything.”

BYU clearly got it right against Holy Cross, scoring 62 total points down low as the Cougars consistently got downhill and attacked the rim with forceful success.

Five BYU players — AJ Dybantsa, Richie Saunders, Rob Wright, Kennard Davis and Dawson Baker — reached double figures in scoring as the Cougars shot a collective 61.9% from the field with 20 total assists against just six turnovers.

Dybantsa, playing against a school just 60 miles away from where he grew up in Massachusetts, posted 17 points with eight rebounds and three assists.

He shot 7 of 10 from the field and recorded a plus/minus of +32.

Wright added 15 points with another three assists, and both Davis and Baker scored 12 points with two made 3-pointers apiece.

Saunders, who was revealed to have been dealing with the flu earlier this week against Villanova, bounced back to lead all scorers with 20 points on 7 of 10 shooting while adding four rebounds, two assists and a career-high four steals.

“I just think that’s who we all know Richie is,” Young said. “You know, when we were walking out of the locker room, he looked like himself. I think he’s been trying to find his footing with these new teammates, and obviously the health going into last game was not great.

“Honestly, I have not worried one iota about him. He’s a great player, and he’s gonna be great for us this year. Tonight was definitely, I think for me, what I expected him to play like.”

BYU was excellent defensively, holding Holy Cross to just 53 points on 35% shooting and forcing 15 turnovers.

“That’s obviously something that was not a strength of our’s last year,” Young said of his team’s defensive ability.
“We definitely wanted to recruit to that a little bit more (in the offseason), and so I think we’re going to be able to get a lot more stops, be able to run off of our defense, and then have some exciting plays in transition like we saw tonight, so I’m excited about what we could do with that moving forward.”

The Crusaders shot 38.7% from 3 a year ago to rank No. 10 nationally. On Saturday, with largely the same group returning from last year, they were held to a 3 of 22 mark (13.6%) from deep by the Cougars, with BYU’s newfound length proving problematic.

“The things you just see right away is just the length and athleticism,” Baker said. “That will bring a different kind of feel to the game naturally for offensive players to see different angles with that. ... We’ve got a lot of guys that just are good at one-on-one defense, being able to guard their yard.”

For the second straight outing, the Cougars didn’t exactly light it up from 3-point range themselves, hitting 7 of 25 triples after going 5 of 17 against Villanova.

BYU didn’t hit a 3 on Saturday until after 17 minutes had passed, having started 1 of 10 from deep before finally getting a second make.

But Young isn’t concerned about the lower volume and efficiency of his team’s treys thus far in the young season, believing the offense to be more balanced than before and still capable of knocking down outside shots when necessary.

“Obviously we’re playing a lot of guys right now. I think when our rotation starts to tighten up, you know, we’ll have some potent shooting out there combined with the downhill threats of AJ and Rob, and obviously Keba (Keita’s) rim pressure with his rolls and so forth,” Young said.

“So I think it’s going to be a pick your poison thing and we’ll have to see how teams are trying to guard us. Now, with that being said, you know, it’s in my nature to try to get up a lot of 3s, but not at the cost of not taking rim shots if they’re there.”

With the win, the Cougars are 2-0 on the young campaign. They host Delaware next Tuesday before a major test against No. 4 UConn in Boston next Saturday.

“I think some things that we’re figuring out as a team is just being a defensive unit and being together, you know, communicating,” Baker said.

“That’s going to come with time, but, I mean, once we mesh those things together, both that and offensively, when we mesh things like that together, we’re going to be really, really good.”