Listen, BYU basketball has a big problem, and it's causing my faith to falter in regards to a Final Four berth. The BYU basketball program has never reached the heights of the Final Four in its entire history -- this has been well-documented and completely tiresome to be reminded of every time the team enters the NCAA Tournament in March.
This year's team was crafted to be the antidote to this ailment. Medicine for a sick program that has never fully reached its potential. The cure for BYU basketball's largely fruitless postseason history -- early NIT results notwithstanding -- is this star-studded bunch of hoopers under the watchful stewardship of head coach Kevin Young.
But even with one of the best rosters in all of college basketball at one's disposal, reaching the highest peaks of the sport is an honor reserved for a very select few. No team is perfect -- no team is unbeatable. Such is the case with the AJ Dybantsa, Richie Saunders, and Rob Wright-led 2025-26 BYU basketball team.
This team's Achilles heel has been slow starts, and it's plagued them against teams of all shapes, sizes, and skill levels. Take UConn, a top-5 team that toppled the Cougars in the early season by opening with an 11-point lead into the first half (leading by as many as 15) as BYU's offense failed to keep pace with Dan Hurley's tried-and-true program. Losing a game like that by just two points is equal parts gutting and encouraging, proving this team can compete with anyone, while reminding many that the result could have looked very different had BYU held their own in the first half.
Then against Clemson, the wheels nearly flew off the vehicle entirely.
No team wants to trail by 20 points or more at any point of any game, yet this is exactly where the top-10 Cougs found themselves in Madison Square Garden earlier this season. Scoring just 21 points in the first half, few will remember BYU's second half as a dominant effort that completely stifled a good Clemson team -- history will remember that game as the moment Coach Young's crew snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, capped by a Rob Wright buzzer-beater.
An all-time great finish? No doubt. A game that should have been so close? Not quite.
But against good teams, even a top-10-ranked bunch like BYU will struggle on occasion. Stumbling out of the gate against teams of the quality of Pacific and Abilene Christian, however? That sets my annual basketball anxiety right back on schedule.
BYU scored just six points in the first 5:50 of the first half against their old WCC foes in the Marriott Center. Against Abilene Christian? BYU and its WAC guests were knotted at 33 in the final minutes of the first half.
With all due respect to ACU and Pacific, BYU has a far more concerning stretch of competition due once the calendar turns to January. Arizona, Houston, Iowa State, Texas Tech, Kansas, the list stretches for eternities when it comes to high-level competition in the Big 12 Conference. It's the perfect conference to prepare for a Final Four run if you're BYU.
On the other side of that coin however, it could be a demoralizing in-conference schedule if the Cougars find themselves falling too far behind too frequently against other Final Four hopefuls.
BYU's slow starts can be attributed to many factors. Especially against weaker competition, tinkering and experimenting with different strategies, personnel, and defenses can lead to underwhelming results. BYU ran a full-court press against Pacific and in the later moments against ACU, which is a defensive scheme uncommon for the Cougars when not entirely necessary. With injuries to Keba Keita, Dawson Baker, and the preseason-forced absence of Nate Pickens, BYU's depth chart has been depleted, forcing Kevin Young to search his bench for production.
BYU has proved capable of winning when it counts. Finding ways to overcome these ugly openings and turning them to exceptional final results is the mark of a good team, but they'll need to play dominant basketball for all 40 minutes if BYU would like to become a great one.