BYU basketball: Cougars pick up impressive road win over Princeton

We’d been waiting all week to see how BYU basketball would respond to its first real test of the season. Now we know – they passed.

BYU basketball picked up a strong road win over the Princeton Tigers, capturing a 65-56 victory on Wednesday night.

It was impressive for a number of reasons. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, the Cougars won with their defense. Last season, if BYU went on a 9+ minute scoreless streak, they’d be losing by 20.

Now, under the direction of Heath Schroyer, the Cougars can hang their hat on their defense and play gritty, hard-nosed basketball.

I mean, looking at the metrics, you’d think BYU basketball got destroyed by Princeton.

The Cougars hit just 17 shots on the night (although they connected on 22 free throws), had 16 turnovers and were out-rebounded by 13.

All those things add up to loss.

Except they didn’t.

BYU basketball, led by Elijah Bryant and his 22 point, seven rebound performance, got a win. Over a top 100 team, on the road. That simply doesn’t happen. At least not for the Cougars.

The last time BYU basketball got a road win over a top 100 non-conference opponent? Way back in 2013 over Stanford.

Yoeli Childs also had a hyper-efficient night, scoring eight points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Zac Seljaas added 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting and TJ Haws scored 10 points of his own.

Perhaps the biggest moment of the game was Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson’s ejection. On the broadcast there was no explanation given for why he got so angry so fast, but it resulted in a seven-point swing for the Cougars.

My Take

It’s important to stay level headed through wins and losses. Getting on the hype train sets you up for major confusion and disappointment (sound familiar?). But I must admit… I’m buying in.

I haven’t seen BYU basketball play defense like this in years. Heath Schroyer truly is changing things in Provo. I don’t know if the Cougars will have quite enough in the tank to defeat St. Mary’s and Gonzaga – but this team is going to be fun.

Assuming they take care of business against the rest of the West Coast Conference, I think the Cougars are good enough to make the WCC a three-bid league again.