Oklahoma City
In commuting terms, the BYU Cougars made it from Provo to Draper in the NCAA Tournament.
They stopped short of Salt Lake City, which makes their visit to Oklahoma a mixed success.
Exiting the Ford Center after Saturday night's 84-72 loss to Kansas State in the second round, the Cougars could look back and realize they were roughly 23 minutes away from playing in EnergySolutions Arena.
That's where the Wildcats are headed this week for the Sweet 16, after absorbing BYU's terrific start and then seizing command for good late in the first half.
Facing a No. 2 seed, the Cougars understood that just about everything would have to go right for them to advance.
They needed a good start, cooperation from K-State with missed shots, help from the officiating to give them free-throw opportunities, offensive contributions from players beyond Jimmer Fredette and support from Kansas fans against the rival school.
So how did all of that work out for them? Reasonably well at times (except for the part about the Jayhawk backers getting behind them), just not sufficiently to make an upset happen.
"We just didn't get everything we wanted done," said guard Jackson Emery.
They accomplished more than usual in this tournament by outlasting Florida in double overtime in the first round. They followed that strong finish with the best start they could hope for, going ahead 10-0 with Emery heating up. They were still leading by 10 points midway through the first half, only to have K-State close with a 28-8 run, thanks mostly to guard Jacob Pullen.
BYU was playing in a road environment. The Kansas fans were too drained from a loss to Northern Iowa to worry about cheering against K-State.
The Cougars also knew they would encounter superior athletes from the Big 12 Conference at this stage. That's nothing new. What especially hurt them this time was something else forbidden among BYU's students. K-State fans wear "Fear the Beard" T-shirts in honor of Pullen, and he was good for 34 points, the most of any BYU opponent this season.
Without him, the Wildcats would have been in all kinds of trouble. With him, they overcame BYU's initial success and stayed in front by at least five points throughout the second half.
In every defeat, there's a "what-if" sequence. BYU's moment of regret came when they trailed by six points and Fredette launched a good-looking three-pointer. The ball rimmed out, the Wildcats' Denis Clemente delivered a three of his own and K-State was never really threatened after that.
It all left the Cougars wanting more. Emery described BYU's rare two-game tournament experience as "fun" and "what you wish for," but there's always the inevitable unhappy ending.
But this was more satisfying than usual, certainly. "I thought in past years, we got off to slow starts or rolled over and died," Emery said. "We kept fighting. ... It's just going to make us better. It's just going to make us more hungry."
Everything changes dramatically if Fredette leaves for the NBA. Assuming he comes back -- and he should, for his own good -- the Cougars can build from here.
"I believe in the five years that we've been doing this together with our staff that our team has gotten better every year," said coach Dave Rose, "and we're to a point where I think our players really believe. ... We'll just continue to plug away and get better and better."
Kansas State will take BYU's place in Salt Lake City, though. That makes this a missed opportunity for the Cougars, who came close enough to go home disappointed.
