There are two sides to a basketball game, and in the midst of BYU's lack of bench production, it can be easy to forget that the Cougars' biggest problems don't reside on the offensive side of the ball. Rather, it was the defensive effort of Kevin Young's squad that viewers deemed to be offensive.
BYU allowed 99 points against Oklahoma State on Wednesday night. It's the most the Cowboys had scored in all but two games this season (illustrious company of South Florida and Bethune-Cookman allowed 100+), and they did it by going for the jugular, cramming interior scoring down the Cougars' throat for 52 points in the paint. For a 40-minute basketball game, that's a horrific number.
And it wasn't a one-off whoopsie on the road, either. The BYU defense is slipping, losing their grip from being a top-20 defense prior to Big 12 play and plummeting below the top-40 nationally. In their last three games, BYU has allowed 61.29% from two-point territory.
The Cougars' interior defense is playing doorman, not bouncer, and it's stockpiled into three consecutive losses.
During BYU's 3 game losing streak, they have allowed opponents to shoot 61.9% from 2 point range.
— CougarStats (@CougarStats) February 5, 2026
For the entire season, the worst defense in 2pt% allowed in the nation is 62.5% by Chicago St.
61.9% would be the 2nd worst in the nation.
Considering the Cougars' frontcourt personnel consists of Keba Keita and Abdullah Ahmed, two rim-protection specialists in their senior year and fresh out of the G-League, respectively, BYU basketball has been timid, ineffective. It's no wonder why the team is being dominated in the first half of every recent contest, you'll never stop a team that scores on nearly every possession.
And that's exactly what the Cowboys did. In the second half alone, after BYU had already overcome a double-digit deficit to knot the score at halftime, Oklahoma State torched the Cougar defense for 1.57 points per possession, and a stop rate of under 25%.
Ugly, ugly, ugly.
Dybantsa, Saunders, and Wright have carried a substantial load on the offensive end -- Dybantsa posted 36 points in an effort to keep pace with the Cowboys -- but defensive effort has been pitiful when it comes time to establish a run.
BYU basketball aspires to compete against the cream of the Big 12: Iowa State, Arizona, Kansas, and, of course, Houston-level programs. But the difference between talented teams and great teams lies in the collective, not the individual. The best teams in the nation are able to fill up the scoreboard on one end, and shut down counterattacks on the other, and BYU has been a one-sided attack when facing capable opposition.
Kevin Young knows his defense has been abysmal, and he's certainly up to his neck hunting for answers, but nothing will change until, well, a change is made. Egos must be tempered, and players must buy in. Like the legendary Cougar team of last season, this year's team needs to learn to stack the days and solve the season little by little.
And they need to start now.