Looking through a creative lens, you can find a connection to almost everything, and that includes the recent struggles of the BYU basketball team, the near disaster of Apollo 13, and Houston.
It is nearly 56 years since the spacecraft ran into trouble on its mission to the moon. It will also be 45½ hours between BYU’s 99-92 loss at Oklahoma State and the time the No. 16 Cougars tip off against No. 8 Houston in Provo on Saturday (8:30 p.m. MST, ESPN).
BYU’s journey is not a life-threatening drama that the astronauts on board Apollo 13 faced, but the Cougars do share a scenario of having an unexpected problem show up that threatens their mission, with limited time to fix it.
After an oxygen tank exploded, the astronauts of Apollo 13 had six days to chart a course back to Earth before they would run out of air. Losers in four of their last five games, BYU has six weeks to breathe life back into its high hopes for the NCAA Tournament.
The crisis facing Apollo 13 was technical. BYU’s issue is mostly mental. The Cougars need an identity. They need to come to terms with what kind of team they want to be and then go be the best version of it.
In recent weeks, the defense has weakened, critical rebounds have become elusive, and the gap has widened between shot taking and shot making. The guys haven’t quit. The fight is still there, but when playing with wounded confidence, their hesitancy to connect, react and respond is illuminated and exposed.
As opposing Big 12 defenses have shown, the Cougars need more than the Big 3 and yet they need more from them at the same time. AJ Dybantsa, Richie Saunders and Rob Wright III are the engines that make BYU go.
On any given night, any one of them can steal the show, as Dybantsa did with 36 points at Oklahoma State. Saunders scored 33 last Saturday at Kansas — but BYU lost both games and it has been a while since all three have played big on the same night.
Likewise, consistency from Keba Keita and Kennard Davis is more than a desire — it is a requirement if this team is going to grow from good to great. Same goes for the bench.
Apollo 13 had brilliant minds working at Mission Control to guide them through their challenges. BYU coach Kevin Young has an army of qualified assistants to do the same for the Cougars.
A program facing a midseason identity crisis is sunk if its liability is a lack of talent. That is not the case for BYU. This is a historic ensemble of gifted performers who are still adjusting to playing with each other — and for each other.
The Cougars have 10 games left in the regular season to pull it all together. If it takes all 10 to solidify an identity capable of contending in the Big Dance, so be it. Young didn’t put this roster together to fight for a fictitious February championship. It is all about March.
When astronaut John Swigert informed Mission Control of the unexpected development on board Apollo 13, he said, “OK, Houston, I believe we’ve had a problem here.”
Actor Tom Hanks jazzed up the phrase in the 1995 movie “Apollo 13″ with, “Houston, we have a problem.”
For BYU on Saturday, Houston IS the problem.
At 20-2, the Big 12’s top defensive squad poses a galactic challenge for a team just trying to get back into orbit. A loss to Houston for BYU (17-5) won’t be unexpected. A win would tweak the current narrative, but if the Cougars find their identity during the process, it could change everything.
The nation celebrated when the astronauts of Apollo 13 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean near Samoa on April 17, 1970. The crew never made it to the moon, and many feared they wouldn’t make it back to Earth either — but they did — with help from Houston.
Whether BYU reaches the Final Four for the first time in program history is still up in the air. Recent developments have many believing they won’t make it. However, this crew of Cougars are going to exhaust every possibility to pull it off — and Houston can help … by helping BYU find themselves on Saturday night.
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.