Kevin Young calls out frontcourt for playing 'not good enough' against Houston

BYU basketball could use a little help from their frontcourt.
BYU Cougars head coach Kevin Young applauds a shot made against Kansas Jayhawks during the game inside Allen Fieldhouse on Jan. 31, 2026.
BYU Cougars head coach Kevin Young applauds a shot made against Kansas Jayhawks during the game inside Allen Fieldhouse on Jan. 31, 2026. | Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In Marvel's Spider-Man: No Way Home, the Green Goblin, played by the remarkable Willem Dafoe, shot a quote into the heart of his adversary, stating that the titular hero was "Strong enough to have it all, too weak to take it."

That quote has reverberated around the vacant concourses of my mind as I witness BYU basketball, with all the talent they could ask for, hit the same wall over and over again in the swing of the Big 12 schedule.

BYU basketball is horribly shallow across Kevin Young's depth chart. With top-end talent like AJ Dybantsa, Rob Wright, and Richie Saunders, many are left scratching their heads after watching the Cougars rattle off four straight losses and five in their last six games.

This year's team entered the campaign standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the giants of the Big 12 Conference, but given the chance to compete with the best, the Cougars have proven to be out of their depth, and ill-equipped to go blow-for-blow with a heavyweight for the full 40 minutes.

But that's not due to a lack of production from the best players on the roster, no not at all, it's the "others" -- those outside of the heralded Big 3 -- that are selling the Cougars short, stunting their growth and prematurely halting their progression.

5-21 against Houston, 7-20 against Oklahoma State, and 6-19 against Kansas, the "others" have averaged 30% from the field and scored just 20.4% of BYU's total points in those three games. That leaves a whopping 79.6% of the scoring responsibility lying on just three players. It's no wonder why the Cougars are sliding down the Big 12 standings; it's three on five out there.

Kevin Young took a moment to address this disparity during the Houston post-game press conference, gritting his teeth as he said, "Go make a shot. I don't know what else to say. [Keita and Ahmed] were 3-of-10 combined and then 3-of-8 from the free throw line, so those are basically seven missed layups, and five missed free throws between your two centers."

"Not good enough," he punctuated.

There's been a sense of timidness -- a noticeable hesitation -- when BYU's big men are tasked with scoring the ball. While Keita has improved as a free-throw shooter and a shot-blocker in his senior season, his shooting numbers are down from 67% a year earlier. For a player whose shot diet is restricted to <5 feet from the cylinder, going 1-of-6 in a critical home clash with Houston will doom the Cougars.

Ahmed, in turn, has been shockingly ineffective as a scorer. A player arriving at BYU from the pros, it's headache-inducing to try wrapping one's head around the anxiety he exhibits with the basketball in his hands.

The story isn't any better on the defensive end, as the Cougars' recent slide has played host to one of the worst interior defenses in the nation -- a scarlet letter for players who pride themselves on rim protection.

Kennard Davis has returned to his horrific shooting standard since his 5-for-8 three-point eruption against Arizona. He's shot 29.5% from deep this season, including 3-of-16 from distance in his last three games -- that's 18.8%. Should I put a content warning on this article? We shouldn't allow the youth of our world to witness such atrocities.

Mrus and Kostic, two players added to the roster in hopes of bolstering outside shooting, are 28.2% and 33.3% from distance, respectively in their first years with the program. That, alongside their defensive ineptitude, has given Kevin Young no choice but to plaster their shorts to the bench.

BYU basketball is fatally unbalanced. Without a drastic shift in the near future, the fate of this edition of BYU hoops may be doomed to become the most disappointing in program history.

It's a team effort, and the Big 3 cannot win alone in the Big 12.

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