How Cougars are handling the early ‘learning curve’ of Big 12 competition
The start of Big 12 play may have dealt BYU an immediate 0-2 hand, but the increased intensity doesn’t bother Mark Pope. He finds it rather endearing.
“I feel like it’s just the relentless nature of the league that makes it so fun,” the Cougars head coach said of his team’s new conference digs. “It’s actually really exciting and really fun.”
“When you play great competition, your room for error is a little bit lower and the duress you’re under is a little bit greater, and we haven’t, you know, come on the right end of the scoreboard the last two games.” — BYU coach Mark Pope
While winless thus far, Pope’s squad has been far from embarrassed upon facing Big 12 foes. That’s always the first step. For the most part, BYU is holding its own against these longer, stronger and more athletic opponents, though fading late and struggling to finish.
“When you play great competition, your room for error is a little bit lower and the duress you’re under is a little bit greater, and we haven’t, you know, come on the right end of the scoreboard the last two games,” Pope said. “We’re super excited about the opportunity to get better and learn under this pressure.”
The uptick in opposition is definitely an adjustment, but the Cougars aren’t whiffing on the opportunity to truly solve this puzzle. They’ve proven they can compete with Big 12 teams, but now they need to figure out how to actually beat them.
“It’s just a learning curve,” senior guard Spencer Johnson said. “Coming into the Big 12, we knew it was gonna be really hard, we knew these are all really, really good teams and so we’re learning, we’re growing and most importantly we just stick together. The biggest challenge going through the Big 12 I think is staying together and not getting too down when we lose and not getting too high when we win, because it’s a lot of really hard games.”
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The major weakness plaguing BYU in league play has been turnovers, where the Cougars have coughed up 32 in their past two contests after playing primarily clean, efficient ball in the nonconference slate.
The growing number of giveaways could be explained by more fierce defensive pressure and tighter passing windows, but Johnson still feels he and his teammates can kick the nasty habit together on their own.
“That’s one of those things I think that’s directly in your control,” he said of BYU’s turnovers. “It’s not really like one guy had a ton of turnovers or whatever, it’s just like each dude has one or two, which doesn’t really jump out at you, but then you look down at the (box score) and you’re like, “Oh man, we have 15 or 16,” so it adds up. Just little things like (turnovers) that we actually can control will put us in a better spot.”
Learning how to handle late-game drama will certainly serve the Cougars down the stretch as well. BYU’s shooting has gone ice cold when the stakes are highest in these past two games, finishing 0-8 from the field over the final six minutes against Baylor Tuesday night.
“I think sometimes a pattern you see a lot of times in (close) games is the game plan has gone out the window and plays end up in isolation and guys make shots, and that’s just not the way we play,” Pope said. “That’s just the duress that you face when you’re playing great teams, and so it’s a process of kind of learning how to function the way we want to function under that much pressure.”
Cougars on the air
No. 18 BYU (0-2, 12-3)
at Central Florida (1-1, 10-4)
Saturday, 2 p.m. MST
Financial Arena, Orlando, Florida
TV: ESPN+
Radio: 102.7 FM/1160 AM
The Cougars will look to apply their newly-earned education as they attempt to notch their first Big 12 win Saturday at UCF, taking on a Knights team riding high from the thrill of stunning No. 3 Kansas Wednesday night.
There’s another valuable lesson — if UCF can take down Kansas, anyone can beat or be beaten by any other team in the Big 12. Pope and BYU have their sights set on achieving the former.
“... We have to do everything we can to make sure that we’re putting our best possible product on the floor every single night,” Pope said. “There’s no place to get discouraged, lose confidence, lose focus or feel sorry for yourself.”
