Pardon coach Kevin Young’s No. 22-ranked BYU basketball team if it is just a little bit distracted on Saturday afternoon when it hosts the struggling Colorado Buffaloes at the Marriott Center.
Tipoff is at 2 p.m. and the Big 12 game will be televised by Fox Sports 1.
At halftime, BYU will retire Jimmer Fredette’s No. 32 jersey, and hang it in the rafters of the 54-year-old building alongside those of Roland Minson (No. 11), Mel Hutchins (No. 14), Kresimir Cosic (No. 11) and Danny Ainge (No. 22).
“It is just the truth-telling (the team needs to hear). In my experience in coaching, that’s what guys want to hear. They want the truth, whether they like it or not, and that’s something that we definitely do here.”
— BYU basketball coach Kevin Young
The term “trap game” is often overused in sports, but this one just might qualify as such for the Cougars (18-6, 6-5), who are coming off an emotional and energy-sapping 99-94 win at Baylor on Tuesday that snapped a four-game losing skid.
Meanwhile, the Buffaloes (14-11, 4-8) are coming off a discouraging 78-44 loss at No. 16 Texas Tech, and after that Wednesday night game, coach Tad Boyle ripped into his squad, saying he was “embarrassed by our performance” and infuriated by its overall lack of toughness.
An angry bunch of Buffaloes — who have mostly been good at home and miserable on the road — will roll into the Marriott Center.
On the other hand, the Cougars need to guard against looking past Colorado, because next Wednesday they travel to Tucson to take on No. 1 Arizona (23-1), which, coincidentally, hosts Texas Tech on Saturday.
During his coaches show Thursday night, Young said the Cougars need to continue to stack days and realize where they fit in the landscape of college basketball.
Although the win over Baylor gave BYU a much-needed boost of confidence, it also showed that there’s still plenty of work left to do.
“Keeping things in perspective is important, but also telling them the truth and showing them areas that are unacceptable as it relates to execution or effort … or unselfishness (is important, too),” he said. “None of those things have been a glaring problem, but we just have to be more consistent.
“It is just the truth-telling (the team needs to hear),” he continued. “In my experience in coaching, that’s what guys want to hear. They want the truth, whether they like it or not, and that’s something that we definitely do here.”
BYU dropped its last two games at the Marriott Center — to No. 1 Arizona and then-No. 8 Houston — but a loss to middling Colorado would be absolutely devastating, considering what lies ahead. The Cougars are currently tied for sixth in the Big 12 standings with UCF and West Virginia and still desperately trying to get into the top four and get a double-bye in the Big 12 tournament.
“We feel good about the steps we’ve taken in the season,” Young said. “It is so important to remember just how long of a season it is, and so many lessons can be learned. You just try to get better. We took a little step back with Oklahoma State. For me, that was a big setback, but everything else has been battles. It’s been learning, and we’ve been right there.”
BYU enters the weekend at No. 19 in the NET rankings and No. 21 in Kenpom. Colorado is No. 79 in the NET and No. 77 in Kenpom. However, the Buffaloes do have some good players — four are averaging 10 or more points per game, led by guard Isaiah Johnson at 16.1 ppg.
The Buffs opened Big 12 play with a win at Arizona State and a win over Utah in Boulder, then dropped six in a row before beating TCU 87-61 at home. That win over TCU — which just knocked off No. 5 Iowa State in Fort Worth — was CU’s most impressive win of the season.
BYU opened as a 14-point favorite.
“Every team in our league is a good basketball team. There are a couple (teams) who have struggled, kind of at the bottom, but for the most part (every team is good),” Young said. “… The Big 12 is a very hard league.”
Honoring Jimmer Fredette and retiring No. 32
The retirement of Fredette’s number comes 15 years after the native of Glens Falls, New York, took the college basketball world by storm in his senior season at BYU. In 2010-11, Fredette launched “Jimmermania” across the country by averaging 28.9 points per game and leading the Cougars to their highest ranking in program history, No. 3 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.
Coincidentally, Fredette led the nation in scoring that year, and now another Cougar — freshman forward AJ Dybantsa — leads the country in scoring. Dybantsa is averaging 24.5 points per game, while Kansas State’s PJ Haggerty is second at 23.3 points per game.
In his last six games, Dybantsa has averaged 30.7 points, 4.0 assists and 3.5 rebounds and shot 55.3% from the field.
Thursday night, Young said Fredette’s career was nothing short of incredible.
“What he’s done for this university, and obviously, what the university’s done for him, too, has been incredible. … It is just a beautiful thing that he’s getting the recognition. It will be an incredible day for him and his family. To have that to be such a forever thing is really special.”
Young said Fredette was one of the first former players to reach out to him after he replaced Mark Pope in April 2024 and that they’ve gotten to know each other well.
“This is just a great, great honor for him, and I am excited to be part of it and sit back and watch it,” Young said.
