BYU basketball: How the Cougars slew the giant

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.