The beginning of the Lee Cummard era for BYU women’s basketball has been excellent.
Under their longtime assistant turned first-year head coach, the Cougars have started 12-1 on the season to currently rank No. 46 in NET.
But BYU has its most daunting challenge thus far coming up next: hosting No. 8-ranked TCU Wednesday night at the Marriott Center, where the Cougars will look to hand the Big 12 preseason favorite its first loss of the year.
“For us, it’s another data point on where we’re at as a team,” Cummard told reporters earlier this week.
“... Notoriety-wise, in this league, if you can finish in the top half of this league, you’re going to have all the notoriety you want. It’s a great opportunity for us because I think (TCU is) a legit Final Four contender with their talent and skillset and size, and we’re coming into it believing that we can come in and get the job done.”
If the Cougars can pull off an upset over TCU, it would be the first regular-season victory over a top-10 squad in program history, and the highest-ranked team BYU has ever beaten.
Cummard’s crew is already 1-0 in Big 12 play, having knocked off UCF 71-50 in Orlando on Dec. 20 behind double-digit scoring efforts from Delaney Gibb, Marya Hudgins and Sydney Benally.
However, facing TCU is a whole different ballgame.
“This is going to be a true test and welcome to the Big 12 (moment),” Gibb said Tuesday on “BYU Sports Nation.”
“I think for us it’s super exciting because we’re kind of an unknown team, no one really has a lot of ideas what we’re going to do this season. I think that we’re going to surprise a lot of people, and so it’s so fun to be able to match up against TCU and just kind of find out where we lie in this league. I think that that’s going to really benefit us in the future.”
Of BYU’s 12 victories this year, eight have come by 10 points or more, while close wins over Montana, Virginia Tech and Washington State each came down to the wire. The Cougars’ only setback has come in the form of an 84-71 loss to No. 17 Vanderbilt in the Virgin Islands.
BYU has been strong defensively, allowing just 56.5 points per game, generating turnovers at a high clip and only surrendering more than 70 points in a loss to Vanderbilt.
The success on defense has allowed the Cougars to survive their somewhat inconsistent offensive output, as BYU is shooting just over 42% from the field and averages more turnovers than assists.
“I think we’re a top-50 team as far as turning teams over, and really the Vanderbilt game is the only game we really didn’t have any success with turnovers, and we didn’t pressure that game the way we should,” Cummard said. “So (forcing turnovers) have allowed us to overcome those (offensive) deficiencies.”
The underclassmen-heavy Cougars do have plenty of talent on offense, with three players — Gibb, Olivia Hamlin and Marya Hudgins — all averaging double figures in scoring, and six others all contributing between 6.0 and 8.8 points each as well.
Benally, a freshman, has averaged 5.4 assists per game, and College of Charleston transfer forward Laura Rohkol leads the team in rebounding at 7.0, with four games of 10-plus boards already.
Hudgins, veteran Arielle Mackey-Williams and freshman Braeden Gunlock have been BYU’s best 3-point shooters, and Brinley Cannon, Kambree Barber and Bolanle Yussuf are all providing plenty of points and rebounds.
Gibb, the reigning Big 12 Freshman of the Year, has missed eight games due to injury but returned to action against UCF. In five appearances, she’s averaged a team-high 15.4 points with 5.2 assists and 2.0 steals per game.
“It’s a good group that’s connected, and we want to stay that way,” Cummard said. “Obviously, we still haven’t faced tremendous adversity as far as connectivity is concerned because we’ve been fortunate to win some games, but we’ll see how that happens if we can continue to do that. The injuries have been some adversity, and that’s been hard for some, but I think we’re doing a good job of staying in it with each other.”
BYU will face No. 8 TCU at 7 p.m. MST Wednesday at the Marriott Center.
