BYU basketball: Cougar fans have been spoiled by Y’s consistency

BYU basketball has showered its fans with success for years. Some people say 2016-17 is a down year. If this is as low as the Cougars get, fans should count their lucky stars.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: BYU basketball 2016-17 is a young team. They’ve got a lot of talent, but they’re not living up to their potential.

Variations of this idea have been regurgitated so often, the words have the flavor of gruel. Hearing them is the white noise of BYU sports talk.

But make no mistake, BYU basketball is not a terrible team. Having a winning record alone is proof of that. But the gap between expectation and achievement is killer for those who follow BYU basketball closely.

The flashes of excellence become almost galling in the face of the drudgery of defeats.

Even the BYU team that played St. Mary’s in Moraga didn’t show up Saturday. Though the final score had the same 13 point difference as back in January, the sluggish Cougars were barely a part of the competition for most of the second half.

Nick Emery, who looked to be having an awakening against San Diego, went back into hibernation. TJ Haws and Elijah Bryant were simply not enough, didn’t have enough.

And though he struggled mightily, drawing foul after foul on St. Mary’s big men, Eric Mika’s worst free throw shooting performance of the season, coupled with a distinct lack of rebounding, meant his performance was merely good. Just not nearly good enough to carry the Cougars to victory.

And with attrition, the Cougars now have no one left on the bench that can be relied on for offence.

So to the great surprise of many (unless tournament miracles rain down from above) it turns out this team isn’t even as successful as last season’s squad. Kyle Collinsworth and Chase Fischer and Zac Seljaas were pretty darn good, and they really kept the team afloat in tough times.

That team pulled off some great victories, including beating both St. Mary’s and Gonzaga, and with a small run in the NIT, got back to the 25 win benchmark. That sounds pretty nice right now.

Remember when the Y just needed a score to stay in it, and you could almost always call on Tyler Haws? He’d come off a couple screens, and like a machine, hit a perfect mid-range jumper. And before him, Noah Hartsock.

And before Hartsock, there was Jimmer. He wasn’t bad.

There is no one now on BYU’s team that you can hand the ball to in the clutch and say, “That guy is going to get the team a bucket.” It didn’t take long to forget what a luxury that was.

There are a few small (very small) chances for achievement left for the 2016-17 BYU basketball team. They will get to 20 wins, just like every year in Dave Rose’s tenure.  They will have a chance to knock off the top-ranked, undefeated Zags—perhaps more of a chance than against St. Mary’s, just because they match up better. They might even make some noise in the WCC tournament.

But doubt not that the odds are still long.

Next: BYU Football: Harvey Langi to the Oakland Raiders?

But whatever the ending to BYU basketball’s 2016-17 story, Cougar fans should be grateful that their lows are relatively high. Be grateful that there will be a whole offseason for basically this same team to work together. Then come November, those brilliant flashes might steady into dazzling lights.

The Cougars are always good, even if they’re never as good as you’d like.