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BYU Basketball: Takeaways from the road blowout at San Francisco

By Shaun Gordon

LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 03: Head coach Dave Rose of the Brigham Young Cougars looks on during a quarterfinal game of the West Coast Conference basketball tournament against the San Diego Toreros at the Orleans Arena on March 3, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Cougars won 85-79. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - MARCH 03: Head coach Dave Rose of the Brigham Young Cougars looks on during a quarterfinal game of the West Coast Conference basketball tournament against the San Diego Toreros at the Orleans Arena on March 3, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Cougars won 85-79. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /
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San Francisco dominated BYU Basketball on Saturday night. The Cougars played their trademark porous road defense and paired it with an offensive no-show.

Another road game, another embarrassing loss for BYU Basketball.

This time it was San Francisco who ran the Cougars out of the building 82-63. It’s BYU’s first loss at the Dons since the Cougars joined the West Coast Conference.

San Francisco has cemented themselves as the second-best team in the conference, and BYU has proven they still don’t have the fortitude to beat a good team on the road.

Or at home for that matter.

One of BYU’s stars showed up to play in the first half, the other finally figured out where the basket was in the second, and no one else could move the needle for the offense.

Here’s what we learned from the loss:

Two Halves Don’t Make a Whole

TJ Haws showed up in the first half and Yoeli Childs didn’t. Then Haws disappeared after halftime while Childs woke up.

Haws had 10 points before the break on 4-7 shooting, while Child was an abysmal 2-11 from the field. After halftime Haws only managed two points on 1-3 shooting, while Childs finished with 25 points after going 9-10 the rest of the way.

Neither player could play decent defense the entire game, though.

Giant Runs

San Francisco blew the game open with 16-0 run late in the first half as BYU fell into a six-minute scoring drought. The Cougars then had to play catchup the rest of the game.

BYU managed to chip the Dons’ lead down to six points in the second half, but then the Cougars allowed a 12-1 run that effectively ended any comeback chance.

The Cougars still panic when things go wrong, especially on the road, which allows runs to stretch much longer than they should

Lighting it Up

When you allow teams to shoot 63.3% from the field and 47.4% from the three-point line you’re going to lose almost every game, and that’s what San Francisco shot.

BYU’s defense lacks focus and discipline on the defensive end. San Francisco coach Kyle Smith is a Randy Bennett acolyte, so the Dons play with focus and discipline. They made the Cougar defense look completely foolish throughout the night, much like St. Mary’s did two weeks ago.

Until someone can instill some of that discipline into BYU’s defense, they’re going to continue to look horrible against teams who know how to move the ball.

Losing Battles

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In our preview of this game, we mentioned three battles that BYU needed to win in order to beat San Francisco:

  • The turnover battle
  • The rebound battle
  • The bench battle

How did they do?

The Cougars actually won the turnover battle 15-11, which may be the only thing that kept the Dons from reaching triple-digits.

San Francisco completely destroyed BYU on the boards 34-20.

San Francisco’s bench completely outclassed BYU’s bench 29-10.

When you’re manhandled in two of the three key areas of a game, is it any wonder you lose by 19?

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