3 takeaways from BYU’s NCAA Tournament loss to Texas

PORTLAND, Ore. — BYU’s trip to the Big Dance has come to an abrupt end.

The 6-seeded Cougars added a new entry to their long list of NCAA Tournament first-round losses, suffering a 79-71 upset at the hands of the 11-seeded Texas Longhorns Thursday at Portland’s Moda Center.

BYU finishes the season 23-12 — and with the most bitter of tastes in its mouth.

3 takeaways

BYU was blown out in the rebounding department. Texas out-rebounded the Cougars by a 40-31 margin, including a 21-11 difference in the first half alone.

But it was 16 offensive rebounds for the Longhorns that ultimately buried BYU, as Texas followed its own misses with 16 second chance points.

The Cougars had no answer for Longhorns center Matas Vokietaitis, who scored 23 points down low while grabbing 16 boards.

Conversely, BYU’s own starting big man Keba Keita ended the night with just five rebounds.

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AJ Dybantsa met the moment, but he didn’t receive enough help. Thursday will be Dybantsa’s sole appearance in the NCAA Tournament, but he made sure to leave a lasting impression despite the loss.

BYU’s freshman phenom finished with a game-high 35 points to pair with 10 rebounds, shooting 11 for 25 from the field and a perfect 12 of 12 from the foul line.

Unfortunately for Dybantsa, his teammates combined to outscore him by just a single point — 36 to 35.

In all, the Cougars shot 43% from the field and a startling 18% from 3-point range, missed 11 layups and barely averaged a single point per possession.

Both the game and season as a whole represent major missed opportunities for the Cougars. Specific to Thursday, BYU was the higher seeded team and held a clear rest advantage, while Texas was playing its second do-or-die contest in a 48-hour span with a cross-country red eye flight sandwiched in between.

It didn’t matter. BYU fell asleep at the wheel too many times on Thursday, especially defensively, and allowed the exhausted Longhorns to appear anything but.

But the sting of Thursday dwindles in comparison to the total frustration felt at the end of a campaign that began as the most anticipated in program history.

BYU opened the year ranked No. 8 in the preseason poll, then won 17 of its first 19 games. The dreams of a deep NCAA Tournament run felt more than attainable.

What came next was an unprecedented collapse, as the Cougars lost 11 of their final 18 outings and went from protected seed territory to the wrong side of a March upset.

BYU’s injury luck was poor. Richie Saunders’ torn ACL will live on as a painful “what if” in the hearts of Cougar fans.

But BYU’s struggles can’t be pinned entirely on injuries. The Cougars weren’t good enough defensively. They couldn’t stay consistent. They dug themselves into too many deep holes early in games, a habit they stopped being able to overcome.

From the end of January onward, there just seemed to be a serious funk surrounding the group, one that was only escaped from a handful of times.

Dybantsa, the author of one of the most prolific freshman years in college basketball history, will head to the NBA without a March Madness victory under his belt.

His heroics couldn’t save BYU. The debt grew too steep for him alone to ever repay.

And thus, the season comes to an awkward end.