It happened again. BYU basketball lost an ever-so-close game against an elite team after a frustratingly underwhelming first-half performance. This time it was No. 13 BYU losing to No. 1 Arizona at home, 86-83.
The outcome would have likely been different had Kevin Young's squad not been trailing by 13 at halftime. The Cougars ultimately trailed by as many as 19 with 10:53 left in the game before a furious rally in the final three minutes to nearly pull off the miracle comeback.
With a prime opportunity to prove to the college basketball world that the Cougars are for real, they scored just 31 points in the first half before exploding for 52 in the second.
The same frustrating dynamic of sleepwalking through the first half before coming to life in the second half has played out far too often for this iteration of men's basketball.
On Saturday the Cougars were tied 32-32 at home against a vastly inferior Utah team and led by just five points at the intermission. That uninspired start bled into the second half with BYU leading by just four points with 13:40 left before blowing Utah's doors off from there.
Two games before that the Cougars trailed a subpar TCU team 36-30 at the half before grinding out a six-point win.
The game before TCU was another matchup at Utah, and BYU led by just two points at halftime before eeking out a five-point victory.
Most memorably, early in the season BYU trailed then-No. 3 UConn by 11 at halftime, scoring just 32 points. The Cougars then came screaming back in the second half by dropping 52 points before losing by just three.
Against Clemson, the Cougs scored just 22 first half points and trailed by 21 before flipping the script to outscore the Tigers 45-21 in the second half en route to a three-point victory.
When it matters most, BYU is scoring somewhere in the 30s in the first half then in the 50s in the second. The Cougars are talented enough that this flawed approach can work against Utah, Clemson, and TCU, but against UConn and Arizona that's a flawed recipe that will result in coming up short.
The 2025-26 BYU Cougars have the talent to make the first Final Four in program history. But they won't get there until they learn how to consistently play 40 straight minutes of quality basketball.