Kevin Young and his BYU basketball team fell late to Texas Tech in the Mariott Center on Tuesday night. Coach Young's first home loss with the Cougars came at the hands of a Big 12 foe in a matchup the hosts could have snuck away with a victory.
"Offensively, I like how we played," Kevin Young opened to the media following the 72-67 defeat. "[But the] ball didn't go in the basket for us from 3. We've got to make free throws to win close games. We've got to rebound to win close games. Although the second chance points didn't hurt us I'm disappointed in even giving them 14 offensive rebounds."
Kevin Young’s opening statement after BYU falls to Texas Tech at home. pic.twitter.com/nUUpa23nsx
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) January 8, 2025
"Late-game defense was bad. [...] We did not execute our scheme."
Shooting struggles have plagued this team for the last two games. But while Houston's defense could have stopped a bullet train, in a 5-point game, two more 3-pointers can mean the difference between a win and a loss.
Egor Demin has led the way with poor shooting, and while his passing ability remains his NBA skill (he gathered another 6 assists, the jump shot has to improve from an efficiency standpoint. It looks smooth out of his hands, but it just hasn't gone in, with Demin missing 19 straight 3 balls dating back to the Rady Children's Invitational.
But forcing Demin to bear the load of BYU's poor shooting numbers wouldn't be fair, as the team shot 21.7% from beyond the arc compared to Tech's 35.7%.
I think a major aspect of BYU's failure to get over the hump in close contests like last night's is the rebounding discrepancy. As Coach Young said, 14 offensive rebounds is just unacceptable, and frontcourt players like Keba Keita and Fousseyni Traore must crash the boards and eliminate second-chance opportunities.
BYU nearly matched that number on the other side, gathering 13 on the offensive glass themselves, but double-digit offensive rebounds should be an advantage rather than a desperation attempt to even the score.
Free throws need to improve. Easy looks at the basket need to go in. Be it nerves, confusion, or some combination of the two, BYU simply isn't doing the small things that win basketball games at the moment.
Not all is lost, however, so please don't shove your foam Cougar claw in the paper shredder just yet. BYU's next four games are very winnable, and could set this team back on track to a 5-2 conference record after a 1-2 start.
A quad-slate of TCU, Oklahoma State, Utah, and Colorado should be enough to get the ball rolling in Provo once again--no need to panic just yet.