Another too-little, too-late effort for BYU basketball in a game where the Cougar offense failed to meet its standard until deep into the second half. The Cougars fell to a deficit of over 20 points in historic Allen Fieldhouse's 1,000th game, and a furious rally in the final minutes of the game couldn't do more than bring the Cougars within striking distance as the final seconds burned from the scoreboard.
In my prediction article for this matchup, I made the bold decision to zag against the course of nearly every BYU basketball game this season. Having seen the Cougars come out flat time and time again in the biggest games of the season, I previewed this game from a different angle, projecting Kevin Young's squad to run out ahead early, taking control in one of the toughest arenas in all of college basketball.
I was stupid.
True to form, it was the Cougars' talented adversaries that took control from the jump. Kansas began this game red hot from the field, knocking through three of their first four three-point attempts, projected top pick Darryn Peterson splashed through his first four shots with switch-hand layups, pull-ups, three-balls, and a trio of steals early on. BYU was locked up on the offensive end.
The Cougar offense was completely stagnant in the opening 20, at one point allowing a 13-0 run from the Jayhawks as eight straight field goal attempts missed the mark.
Foul trouble married BYU's scoring impotence, and as the foul count climbed to double bonus, Kansas kept forcing the whistle. Looking stronger, faster, and far ore confident in the shadow of the phog.
If rhythm is critical for offensive efficiency, Kansas was a symphony orchestra, while BYU was a junior high school jazz band -- it was a breath of fresh air whenever a note was hit on beat. The Jayhawks were 9-for-11 from distance in the late stages of the first half, and 80% is a galaxy removed from BYU's 21%. That's how Kansas pushed the lead beyond 20 points.
It's not just that the Jayhawks were hitting shots, they were finding open looks wherever they liked and whenever they liked. Against the nation's best teams (many reside in the Big 12 Conference), BYU has seemed out of their depth. Their isolation-heavy, dribble-drive offense proving to be far too static when compared to the free-flowing juggernauts on the opposite end.
By the time halftime mercifully arrived, the scoreboard read 33-53 in favor of the home 'Hawks. Zero bench points and just seven points outside of the Big 3. Dybantsa didn't score for the first 13 minutes of game time, and Rob Wright III led all Cougar scorers with 10 points at the break.
Richie Saunders put the offensive load on his back in the second half, though, aggressively hunting his shot and forcing the Jayhawks defense to make a simple decision: foul or let him through. And he was red hot, pushing his points total to a career-high 33 points. He was a lone bright spot in a relatively dark night in the Sunflower State.
And truthfully, Kansas could've let Saunders through on seemingly every possession, because as good as he was, BYU's defense was swiss cheese, allowing a wide-open three or dunk repeatedly on the other end. The KU crowd never had reason to settle down. Reminiscent of the Cougars' battle against Alabama in last year's Sweet 16, Kansas just couldn't miss. Even with Darryn Peterson assigned to the bench for most of the second half (presumably with injury concerns), the KU machine never ran out of gas.
Outside of Saunders, BYU's scoring threat was non-existent. Dybantsa was a no-show in the biggest player matchup of the season, and an empty output from the bench unit screams this team's biggest weakness against the best teams in the nation; Khadim Mboup's out-of-nowhere three-pointer was the only saving grace from a total of zero points from the others. At this point in the season, this is a shallow basketball roster.
Robert Wright rounded out the Big 3 with 18 points of his own, self-creating and blending the interior of Kansas' defense with the ball in his hands. A good bounce-back performance after a brutal performance against Arizona for Wright.
There are only so many ways to spell it out: BYU basketball cannot win basketball games reliably if they spend 90% of the game down by double-digits. When facing the toughest teams in the nation, the Cougars have consistently looked a notch below. Despite the top-end talent to match any squad in basketball, poor contributions from outside their top three players caps this team well below that of a Final Four contender.
That was on full display for the vast majority of this game, and the final score of 82-90 is not reflective of the contest as a whole, much like the recent result against Arizona.
Dybantsa got the worse of his matchup against Darryn Peterson, despite the fact that Peterson appeared for just 20 minutes of game time. AJ has been consistently locked down by the best defenses across the country, especially in recent results. Assuming the bench's identity is as it has appeared through 20 games, Dybantsa will need to take over. 17 points just doesn't get the job done when the other cogs can't mesh.