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Kevin Young has almost an entire week to get his No. 13 Cougars prepared for rival Utah in the Marriott Center on Saturday. He’ll be dealing with adjusted schemes, plans of attack, hopefully increased offensive acumen, and a few injured players recovering from everything from ankle and shoulder sprains to the flu.
Young and his staff have now witnessed how Big 12 coaches have deployed strategies to defend his team. He’s witnessed what the emphasis has been to take star freshman AJ Dybantsa out of games. This long week is a time to react to those game plans.
The Cougars are fresh off a painful loss to Texas Tech in Lubbock, where Young and his team can peg plenty of agenda items to improve upon. Center Keba Keita is nursing an ankle sprain and AJ Dybantsa had his shoulder taped up from a minor injury against Texas Tech.
That was the game that center Abdullah Ahmed sat out with a shoulder injury. In the game against the Red Raiders, power forward Khadim Mboup left the floor at a critical juncture with a possible concussion after having an amazing impact on the action.
In the rematch with the Utes, it will be interesting to see how Runnin’ Utes coach Alex Jensen makes adjustments from his team’s impressive effort in the Huntsman Center loss to BYU. For the Cougars, it will be interesting to see if the same coaching moves will be made and what impact playing before a packed Marriott Center will have on this rivalry game.
Cougar Insider predictions
Question of the week: Big 12 opponents Utah, TCU and Texas Tech have deployed a wall strategy to force AJ Dybantsa out of his sweet spot inside the key and disrupt his rhythm with varied success. What do you think of the ploy and how will Kevin Young and his staff counter? Predict the score of Utah at BYU this Saturday.
Jay Drew: Kevin Young has said for almost two years now that the Big 12 has some of the best basketball coaches in the country, at any level, and that has proven true through the first five games of the conference schedule this year. Going against the likes of Alex Jensen, Grant McCasland and Jamie Dixon, nothing is coming easy for the now-No. 13 Cougars, and especially for freshman phenom AJ Dybantsa.
Game plans have been drawn up specifically to stop Dybantsa, and a few have worked. It appears to me that coaches are realizing that Dybantsa is not an elite 3-point shooter. He’s rather average in that aspect of his game. So they are taking away the midrange game, and the driving game, as much as they can.
Utah, for instance, did everything it could to get the ball out of his hands once he got inside the 3-point arc.
Of course, Texas Tech was the most effective, holding Dybantsa to a season-low 13 points. Teams are also being allowed to play rough with the freshman, at times with no fouls called.
I expect Young and his staff to counter with more ball screens and more ways to get Dybantsa the ball at his sweet spot, which appears to be at the elbow (the corner of the paint near the free-throw line). One thing the Cougars are lacking, as opposed to last year, is an effective low-post scorer. They really miss Fousseyni Traore, in that regard.
It would also help if a sharpshooter could emerge to take the pressure off Dybantsa and BYU’s other star players, Robert Wright III and Richie Saunders. Maybe that could be Mihailo Boskovic, or Idaho transfer Tyler Mrus. We will see.
Prediction: BYU 88, Utah 75
Dick Harmon: Playing on the road in the Big 12 is a tough act for any team. Iowa State and BYU found the truth of this. Still, the Cougars led Tech with nine minutes to play and had control of that game until Khadim Mboup was injured and the Red Raiders hit strategically big 3-pointers. Kevin Young’s team almost got it done.
The challenge, as shown in the final nine minutes in Lubbock, was finding a productive offense once Wright left the game. Until that moment, Wright was unstoppable, and TT had no answer for him. Dybantsa is going to see a “wall” set up for him around his sweet spots, and that puts the onus on Saunders, Wright and Kenneth Davis to make defenses pay.
BYU was outrebounding TT midway through the second half. A key part of the equation for the Cougars is getting out in transition, pushing the ball, and using speed and athleticism to stress the defense and secure easy shots. It would also help to spread the floor and set more screens and effective picks to free Dybantsa.
BYU needs to make 3-pointers to chase wins on the road. In three league games away from Provo, the Cougars are shooting just 25% from distance. That won’t cut it. The 3 is the great equalizer in basketball and ultimately defeated BYU in Lubbock.
Finally, a big part of Dybantsa’s game is scoring seven to 10 points from the free-throw line. He is very good at drawing contact because defenders struggle to keep in front of him when he uses his length to cover a lot of space in the key. He needs to get those calls when he earns them, when he’s bumped off his line of attack or hacked. This is totally out of the control of coaches and Dybantsa. It’s on the officiating crew. He’s got to stay aggressive and get to the line. It not only helps make productive possessions but gets defenders in foul trouble, and that can change the trajectory of the opponent’s personnel.
Prediction: BYU 87, Utah 72
Cougar tales
BYU’s first loss in conference play took place at Texas Tech in a game the Cougars played tough until the final minutes. Here is Jay Drew’s analysis from Lubbock.
The Cougars got a career night from volleyball player Connor Oldani in a top-10 matchup.
From the archives
From X-verse
Extra points
- BYU gets Oregon TE Saleapaga (Deseret News)
- Cougars get transfer corner (Deseret News)
- BYU finishes No. 11 in AP poll (KSLsports)
Fanalysts
Comments from Deseret News readers:
I think Dybantsa and Saunders looked exhausted in the last quarter. They play all game, because no one else besides Wright can score for them. That big man they picked up looks lost. Unless they get something from the bench, they won’t get far. Also, Toppin looks like the real deal, he’s unstoppable. The coach is right, they’ll learn from the game, and that includes him.
— montgomeryruss
Double team AJ, and manhandle him if the refs don’t call fouls and force someone else to make 3s. It worked for TT. Davis at 29%, won’t cut it. Nor will BYU at 23%.
— wallyball
Up next
- Jan. 21| 7 p.m. | women’s basketball | Texas Tech
- Jan. 23 | 9 .m. | women’s track and field| @ Penn Elite
- Jan. 23 | 1 p.m. | women’s tennis | San Diego
- Jan. 23 | 7 p.m. | women’s gymnastics | @ Arizona State
- Jan. 23 | 7 p.m. | men’s volleyball | Cal Irvine
- Jan. 24 | 9 a.m. | men’s track and field | @ Penn Elite
- Jan. 24 | 1 p.m. | women’s tennis | @ Cal Poly
- Jan. 24| 3:30 p.m | men’s basketball | Utah
- Jan. 24 | 7:30 p.m. | women’s basketball | West Virginia
- Jan. 26 | 8 a.m. | men’s golf | @ Arizona NIT
- Jan. 26| 7 p.m. | men’s basketball | Arizona