A failure to finish has cost No. 18 Cougars chances to win their first two Big 12 games
WACO, Texas — There’s been a common denominator in BYU’s first two Big 12 basketball games, a pair of losses that have more or less brought the Cougars back down to earth after a tremendous nonconference run.
The Cougars (0-2, 12-3) suddenly can’t finish.
“I thought Baylor did a tremendous job spreading us out and kind of attacking us off the bounce.” — BYU coach Mark Pope
They gave up a 10-point second-half lead against Cincinnati in their 71-60 loss at the Marriott Center last Saturday, then fell 81-72 to No. 14 Baylor on Tuesday at sold-out Foster Pavilion in Waco after leading the talented Bears by nine early in the second half.
Turnovers have also been a problem, as Cincy scored 17 points off 18 Cougar giveaways in Provo and Baylor netted 18 from 14 turnovers on Tuesday in improving to 2-0 in league play, 13-2 overall.
BYU got just four points from five Baylor turnovers.
“Only five turnovers will win you a lot of games in the Big 12,” said Baylor coach Scott Drew.
Obviously, there are a lot of other issues at play, including the inability defensively to stay in front of very talented offensive players. Cincinnati scored 50 points in the paint against the Cougars, while Baylor also used a spread-out style to force isolation and get to the rim.
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Baylor had only 22 points in the paint, but the Cougars oftentimes had to drop off shooters, and the Bears made them pay.
The best 3-point shooting team in the country was 10 of 23 from beyond the arc (43.5%) and it could be argued that wide-open triples by Jayden Nunn, Jalen Bridges and Langston Love in the final 10 minutes were absolute daggers that won the game for the Bears.
“I thought Baylor did a tremendous job spreading us out and kind of attacking us off the bounce,” said a frustrated BYU coach Mark Pope after the game.
Dallin Hall made a pair of free throws with 1:06 left to get BYU within five, 75-70, and the Cougars had Bridges trapped near halfcourt and seemed on the verge of forcing a held ball, with the possession arrow in their favor.
But Hall was whistled for a foul with 54 seconds remaining, BYU’s 24th foul of the contest, and Pope was assessed a class A technical foul for slamming a plastic bottle of water into the scorer’s table in front of BYU’s radio crew.
Love and Bridges subsequently made four free throws to ice the game.
The technical foul served as a symbol of the coach’s frustration after another failure to finish. For the second straight game after a loss, BYU did not make players available for interviews.
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“Listen, they are a terrific team,” Pope said. “They are a top-20 team right now and they play well at home, and that is why — because they are a terrific team and we just couldn’t quite pull it together to contain that (dribble penetration and 3-point shooting).
“It was a combination of the 3-point line and the free-throw line (Baylor was 21 of 28 from the charity stripe) and then some stuff right at the rim, which is exactly what efficient offensive teams do.”
If there was a positive development for BYU, it was that junior post player Fousseyni Traore looked much better Tuesday in his return from a hamstring injury than he did last Saturday. He had six points and a rebound in nearly 10 minutes.
“Being thrust into this league, there is going to be a learning curve for him,” Pope said. “But I felt like he had a bigger impact on this game tonight than he did against Cincinnati, which is really important.”
Pope said he was proud of Traore for some “really terrific defensive stands late in the game” when he switched on Baylor’s guards and cut off their routes to the hoop.
On the flip side, starting forward Noah Waterman struggled for the second straight game, and third straight loss. The 6-foot-11 senior took just one shot, a 3-pointer, in 22 minutes and failed to score. He did grab six rebounds.
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
Against Cincy, Waterman was 3 of 12 from the field, 1 of 9 from deep, and scored just seven points in nearly 30 minutes. In BYU’s first loss, at Utah, Waterman was 0 for 7 and didn’t score in 21 minutes.
Although the failures to finish have caused some national pundits to start suggesting BYU may be a fraud now that the competition level has increased dramatically, the Cougars remain highly regarded in the metrics. They were No. 4 in the NET rankings and No. 11 in Kenpom.com heading into Wednesday night’s games.
Up next for BYU is another Big 12 road game on Saturday at Central Florida. The Knights were 9-4 heading into Wednesday’s home game against No. 3 Kansas at sold-out Financial Arena in Orlando, Florida.
