Analysis: Loss to Cincinnati shows No. 12 BYU Cougars are who we thought they were — 2 months ago

Even before BYU surprised almost everyone by going 12-1 in non-conference games and becoming one of the darlings of college basketball in November and December, it figured that the Cougars would need to win games like Saturday night’s against fellow Big 12 newcomer Cincinnati to finish in the upper half of the league.

Now it appears that coach Mark Pope’s team will struggle just to get a handful of victories in the so-called best basketball conference in America.

What a difference one game against a bonafide Power Six opponent makes.

The No. 12-ranked Cougars performed a face plant in front of 16,879 fans at the Marriott Center on Saturday, falling apart offensively in the second half and losing 71-60 to raise questions about whether they really are a contender, or just a pretender that feasted on a mostly soft preseason schedule.

On this night, they were the latter, exposed by a fired up Bearcats team that started miserably on offense, then patiently weathered some red-hot shooting by BYU’s Trevin Knell and won going away.

In the last 12 minutes of the second half, when BYU made just three shots and missed 14, the Bearcats bullied the Cougars mercilessly, proving that, at least on this night, athleticism, physicality and talent are superior to one 3-pointer after another, some well beyond NBA range.

“It is going to be like this night after night after night,” Pope said in his five-minute news conference after the game.

BYU better hope not.

Up next is Baylor, those same Bears who won the national championship in 2021. If BYU thinks Cincy was big and bad and overbearing on defense, wait until it faces coach Scott Drew’s team at its brand new digs in Waco.

As auditions in their new conferences go, this one went as poorly as imaginable for the Cougars.

“I am really pleased with the win, because I think we beat a great team,” said Cincinnati coach Wes Miller, who said a week of watching film of BYU making shots from everywhere, out-rebounding everybody and taking care of the ball like it was the last Cougar Tail on the shelf convinced him that it would take a top-notch effort in Provo.

All it took, really, was 12 solid minutes in the second half as the Cougars self-destructed.

“Defensively, I thought we were pretty good for the most part all night,” Miller said.

Knell, known as the “Shot Doctor” around BYU, was the Cougars’ lone bright spot. He hit nine 3-pointers, tied for second-most in school history and one shy of Chase Fischer’s school-record 10 in a single game.

The rest of the Cougars were 4 of 30 from beyond the arc. That’s not going to get it done. The Cougars said they were going to live by the 3-point shot this year. Saturday, they died by it.

“I like the 46 (attempts),” Pope said. “I would take 46. The disappointing side is we missed 33 of them and we were really unsuccessful on the offensive glass, and that is a real problem for us.”

In a matchup of two of the top rebounding teams in the country, Cincinnati won the battle of the boards, 44-37. The Cougars had just five second-chance points, a season-low.

Credit Utah Valley transfer Aziz Bandaogo, who returned from a back injury to grab 10 defensive rebounds. He also finished with 12 points off the bench; Viktor Lakhin led Cincy with 17, and took almost as many free throws, six, as BYU’s entire team made — the Cougars were 5 of 10 from the charity stripe.

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“They made some plays and they were really effective at getting to the free throw line, and all that kinda made the game feel a little slower,” Pope said.

“I think our guys, we probably started pressing a little bit, which is clear, and we probably started becoming a little bit more stagnant and accepting a little bit more uncharacteristic plays out of ourselves instead of really working and trusting ourselves to get a little deeper into a possession.”

Dallin Hall was 2 of 12 from beyond the arc, while BYU’s leading scorer, Jaxson Robinson, had just five points on 2 of 7 shooting.

“I think we were playing the best 3-point shooting team in the country, and he’s their best 3-point shooter,” Miller said of Robinson, who was just 1 of 5 from deep. “Of course we (prepped) for him.”

Cincinnati “is a high level defensive team, a physical defensive team, so for us, the answer for us is our cuts have to be harder and more complete. They were really physical with him,” Pope said.

After Knell made his ninth 3-pointer and Richie Saunders made a layup and was fouled, the Cougars appeared to have righted the ship with 12 minutes remaining.

But Knell was taken out of the game with 10:23 remaining after a rare 3-point miss and UC ahead 52-51, and didn’t get back in until 4:33 remained.

By then the Bearcats had a 61-53 lead and all the momentum.

“Trev has played such great basketball on both ends of the floor. It was really terrific. We are trying to keep fresh bodies out there the best we can,” Pope said when asked why Knell was out for so long.

“And (BYU was) trying to maintain some matchup integrity with some of the matchups that we liked well. But he was terrific tonight. I thought he was fantastic.”

Everybody will remember the last 12 minutes as being BYU’s undoing, but its failure to get more separation in the first half — when Cincinnati was shooting miserably and was careless with the basketball (13 turnovers) — took its toll in the second half when the visitors made their comeback.

The Bearcats made just one of their first 10 shots and went through a scoring drought of nearly seven minutes.

It was as ugly of a first half as has been played in the Marriott Center in quite some time. Sloppy ball-handling, careless turnovers, and plenty of bricks — at both ends of the floor.

Knell hit four of his first six 3-pointers, but the rest of the Cougars were 2 of 12 before Noah Waterman hit one to push BYU’s lead to 29-19, a first-half high.

Cincinnati cut the deficit to 31-24 at halftime, then got stronger as the game wore on.

BYU faded.

“Again, I thought our defense tonight came alive for the first time in a long time,” Miller said.

The teams combined for 25 turnovers in the first half, including 12 by BYU, which was averaging just 9.8 per game in non-conference play.

The Cougars finished with 18 giveaways.

“Proud of the win. Good win against a great team,” said Miller, whose team hosts Texas on Tuesday.

Is BYU really a great team? It certainly wasn’t Saturday night, as the Big 12 got its first sight of what happens when 3-pointers aren’t falling.