The BYU basketball team toppled the undefeated Gonzaga Bulldogs. Here are the three reasons behind their historic win.
BYU basketball was done.
Their only bucket was a crazy, nearly-accidental, no-look scoop from Elijah Bryant. The Gonzaga Bulldogs were chewing up the Cougar defense like a week-old Denta Bone. BYU entered the game with a one percent chance of victory against the Zags, but even that seemed to fade as the Cougars trailed 18-2.
But the Cougars won.
The Cougars won, beating the nation’s top-ranked team for the first time in program history, topping the top dog in their own Kennel. They followed up a great bounce-back performance at Portland with an all-timer. And all this a mere week after their lowest point of the season: being drawn and quartered by St Mary’s grinding, glacial play style.
So how did they do it?
Some publications will give you a bunch of statistics. They got so many more rebounds, so many points off turnovers. But those aren’t the reasons they won—those are merely indications of the eventual result.
There were a number of reasons the Cougars claimed victory. A multitude of small chances that broke right. But for me, here are the top three.