LAWRENCE, Kansas — After scoring a career-high 33 points and looking like a future professional basketball player in No. 13 BYU’s 90-82 loss to No. 14 Kansas on Saturday, senior Richie Saunders said the Cougars have been in this position several times before throughout his stellar four-year career and aren’t about to panic.
“Lots that we need to improve on, and we will, and I am excited to continue to move forward,” said Saunders after BYU dropped to 1-2 all-time against KU in Allen Fieldhouse. “I’ve been in this position many times throughout my career, and I know the flip side of what is waiting for us.”
What is waiting for the Cougars (17-4, 5-3) immediately is another tough Big 12 road game at Oklahoma State (15-6, 3-5) in Stillwater on Wednesday (7 p.m. MST, Fox Sports 1), a matchup that looks more difficult than before after the Cowboys dropped Utah 81-69 Saturday at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.
By way of comparison, BYU beat Utah 89-84 at the home of the Utes on Jan. 10.
Losses to the No. 1 team in the country, Arizona, and to perennial power Kansas in front of 16,300 crazed fans at one of the toughest places to play in college sports can be forgiven and probably will be, for the most part, when the polls come out Monday.
BYU dropped from No. 14 to No. 15 in the NET rankings, and are at No. 15 in KenPom.
A third straight loss would be cause for concern for a team with its sights set on a long NCAA Tournament run. The Cougars haven’t lost three straight since falling to No. 14 Houston, Texas Tech and TCU last January.
“We just gotta figure it out,” said sophomore point guard Rob Wright, who added 18 points and six assists and somewhat regained his shooting touch with a 7-of-16 effort after going 3 of 16 in the 86-83 loss to No. 1 Arizona last Monday. “We were just motivated to get a win on the road. We weren’t really worried about the storylines.”
Of course, Saturday’s chief storyline revolved around the two players expected to be taken first and second in June’s NBA draft, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa and KU’s Darryn Peterson. The Kansas freshman clearly outplayed the BYU freshman before leaving the game with 16 minutes remaining with cramping issues.
But BYU coach Kevin Young has more issues to deal with than the fact that his highly compensated star hasn’t looked the part of a No. 1 pick against elite competition. Dybantsa was 6 of 24 at the Marriott Center in the loss to Arizona.
Most notably, Young has to figure out how to beat the very best teams on BYU’s schedule and pick up a signature win or two in February. There are plenty of opportunities left, beginning Saturday when the Cougars host defending national runner-up Houston, which is No. 5 in Kenpom and No. 9 in the NET.
“We are a battle-tested group, and we are a couple shots away from being able to have some of those (signature wins),” Young said. “For me, that just gets more fire in the belly to get it right.”
The Cougars also need to get their first halves right against the best teams on their schedule. The website Cougarstats.com pointed out on X Saturday that BYU has been outscored 248-191 in first halves by KenPom top 30 teams, and has outscored them 267-229 in second halves.
“Most of our struggles in the first half have been execution-related,” Young said. “I think that was the case (against Kansas). It is hard to overcome 9 of 12 (shooting) from 3. … At the end of the day, it is shot-making.
“We are shooting the 3 at a much higher clip in the second half than we are in the first. That’s something that you really can’t necessarily fix.”
One issue Saturday was that Southern Illinois transfer Kennard Davis Jr, arguably BYU’s best defender, picked up his second foul just four minutes and four seconds into the game and had to be replaced by Mihailo Boskovic, who is a decent rim protector but just a so-so on-ball defender.
Even legendary Kansas coach Bill Self said the Jayhawks’ hot shooting start was an anomaly.
“To go 9 of 12 from 3, obviously, that’s great,” Self said. “But it is not real.”
So BYU trailed by as many as 21 points in the first half, and by 20 at halftime, before making the Saunders-led rally in the second half. It was BYU’s second-largest halftime deficit.
The Cougars came back from 21 down against Clemson to beat the Tigers in overtime on Dec. 9 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, but doing that against a good KU team on its home floor proved to be an insurmountable task.
“We have to make sure that we’re doing everything in our power individually and collectively to generate good offense in first halves of ball games,” Young said.
Wednesday night in Stillwater would be a good time to start.