Cougars leave Kansas City and Big 12 tournament with renewed sense of optimism

KANSAS CITY — Ten days ago, BYU basketball coach Kevin Young left the city of Cincinnati a discouraged and somewhat downtrodden man.

“Dark times,” he called them, after the Cougars’ losing streak hit three games with losses of 8 points or more to midlevel Big 12 teams UCF, West Virginia and Cincinnati.

Those disappointing days have been replaced by a renewed sense of optimism, however, as a simplification of the process has resulted in a clear turnaround for the program. Sure, No. 5 Houston snapped BYU’s three-game winning streak with a 73-66 ousting of the Cougars in a Big 12 tournament quarterfinal game Thursday night in Kansas City, but the return trip to Provo was far better than the last time BYU visited the Midwest.

“We just proved to ourselves that we could compete with the best. We just gotta finish out games,” said star forward AJ Dybantsa after setting the single-tournament scoring record with 93 points in three games. He passed Kevin Durant, who had 92 points in the 2007 tournament for Texas.

“What I learned is that we are resilient,” said Dybantsa, who had 26 points on 7-of-18 shooting against Houston. “We are gonna persevere to the end. A lot of teams would have folded in our position (after fellow star Richie Saunders was lost to a season-ending knee injury). But we are resilient and we persevere.”

Dybantsa has now scored 859 points for the 23-11 Cougars, who are now 6-5 in Big 12 tournament games. That’s No. 3 on BYU’s single-season scoring list, behind Jimmer Fredette (1,068 points in 2010-11) and Devin Durrant (866 points in 1983-84).

Can the country’s leading scorer (25.3 ppg.) put this BYU team on his shoulders and carry it to another Sweet 16 appearance, or beyond?

“We just proved to ourselves that we could compete with the best. We just gotta finish out games.”

—  BYU forward AJ Dybantsa

“Oh yeah, definitely,” Dybantsa told the Deseret News. “I mean, if you want to say that (yes), but, I mean, it takes a team to win. If they need me to be that leading guy, or whatever it takes, then I can do that.”

BYU’s run in the Big 12 tournament showed that he’s got some help, far more than it appeared 10 days ago. Point guard Rob Wright was his usual consistent self, and became a little more of a distributor than he had been at the end of February.

Senior center Keba Keita upped his effort after a midseason lull, while Kennard Davis Jr. found his shooting stroke. Freshman Aleksej Kostic is a streaky shooter, but when he’s on, he’s really on, and a valuable weapon for Young to take the heat off Dybantsa and Wright.

Then there’s Khadim Mboup and Dominique Diomande, a couple of seldom-used reserves in the regular season who showed they have the heart and mettle to play hard-nosed defense.

Young has finally found some disruptors on defense, guys who can get steals and produce easy, fast-break, crowd-livening buckets.

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“I am grateful for the chance,” Diomande said after getting 4 points and three steals against Houston. “I knew my time would come. Even when I wasn’t playing a lot, I was still here for my teammates, cheering for them. I am happy. The last three days, that was me (playing and getting encouragement from the bench). So it was cool.”

The first half against UH was one of BYU’s better halves of basketball this season, particularly away from the Marriott Center. It took a 41-34 lead in the first half and led 41-37 at the break.

Several of the Cougars — Dybantsa, Wright and Keita — insisted that they didn’t run out of gas while playing their third game in as many days, but Young acknowledged it was a factor.

“I don’t think I’ve ever as a coach played three games in three days before,” Young said. “It is tough. I think our guys, especially (Dybantsa and Wright), logging the minutes they had in three straight games, that is extremely impressive.”

It was the first time this season that BYU has led at halftime and lost, dropping its record to 16-1 in that category. The Cougars had won 25 straight games under Young when leading at a halftime until Thursday night.

Houston has “guys who can make plays with the game on the line, which is what you need this time of year,” Young said.

So what’s next?

Young said he will give the players a few days off to rest and recuperate. They will gather on Sunday to watch the NCAA Tournament Selection Show together and learn their next destination and opponent.

As the Deseret News reported Friday, the majority of tournament projections have BYU locked into a No. 6 seed, even after the loss. CBS Sports and USA Today dropped BYU from a No. 6 seed to a No. 7 seed.

It will be BYU’s 33rd appearance in the NCAA tournament; only 19 other schools have been to the Big Dance more than the Cougars. Of course, BYU holds the dubious distinction of most appearances in March Madness (32) without making it to the Final Four.

Wright, the rooster-tough point guard who experienced the tournament last year with Baylor, says the turnaround has given BYU hope that it can make a long run.

“I think it is just (that) we found our identity as a team,” he said. “We’ve got role players stepping up, like Dom. Aleksej is hitting big shots for us, playing great the last couple of games. We are just figuring out who we are as a team.”

After grumbling a bit about the officiating after the Houston loss, Young launched into a soliloquy, of sorts, when he was asked about seeing this team finally come together after the loss of Saunders on Feb. 14.

“It has been rewarding because when you go through adversity, it really does bring groups together,” he said. “I think it has brought our group closer together. I think it has brought our fan base closer together. We had that moment at our last home game (against Texas Tech). I think the fans knew how much we needed that win.”

The coach said even his own family is back on board.

“I think it has really galvanized all of Cougar Nation,” he said. “It has galvanized our locker room and our coaching staff. The Young household is galvanized a little bit more, which is nice.”