BYU's win over UC Riverside was an absolute massacre, improvement from last year

In the game following a 20+ point comeback against Clemson in the Jimmy V Classic, BYU basketball mercifully provided an absolute blowout on the surface of the Marriott Center. "Mercifully" may be a poor choice of words for the Cougars' win over UC Riverside, considering the hosts nearly doubled their visitors' total point output.

On Saturday, BYU basketball massacred UCR to the tune of 100-53, a far cry from last season's matchup, which yielded a final of 86-80, a game in which Kevin Young's squad narrowly escaped Mark Magpayo's Highlanders.

On Saturday night in Provo, AJ Dybantsa, Richie Saunders, Rob Wright, and an entire host of Cougars maimed their Big West guests for 40 straight minutes. Dybantsa led the way on the box score, posting team-highs in points (26) and assists (7), Saunders followed with 19 points of his own, and Aleksej Kostic (BYU bingo fans, pull out your stamps) ignited for 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting from beyond the arc.

This win marks something of a declaration to the rest of the college basketball world. A warning shot, if you will. Winning by 47 points is not unintentional. For most teams in Division I, such a lopsided victory is nearly unthinkable. It's bold, it's brash, it's mania, and it's often pure delusion to assume your team is capable of nearly doubling their opponent's point total.

But BYU basketball in this, the year two thousand, twenty and five, is mania. It's lunacy. This is a team unlike anything you've ever seen emerge from Provo, Utah, because this is a team that sincerely has realistic championship aspirations. They passed the AP Poll Top 12 test (every single March Madness winner has been ranked in that bracket historically in the modern era) in last week's rankings, and are winning at the highest level before the dawn of the Big 12 Conference slate.

Kevin Young has a tall task ahead of himself, staring down the barrel of what may be the toughest Big 12 Conference ever in the same season that every piece has finally come together for his program. He may have the most deadly weapon in all of college hoops at his disposal in Dybantsa, (barring Darryn Peterson and Cam Boozer, depending on who you ask) and a roster stuffed with high-level shooters, athletes, and veterans.

Does beating UC Riverside prove that BYU basketball is a championship contender? By itself, no. But this is a team that's proved resilient in the toughest of conditions, against the greatest teams in the country, and they're just beginning to mesh.

Come March, BYU basketball will be a force of basketball fury. All I ask is for you to pay attention to the signs beforehand, because there will be plenty. Take a nearly 50-point win as Exhibit A.