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Provo • By the middle of February, most college basketball teams have established who they are, what they are all about. They have an identity, and know what it takes to win games.
Then there are the 2016-17 BYU Cougars.
Coach Dave Rose's team embarks on the final two regular-season games of the season on Thursday at last-place Portland and Saturday at No. 1 Gonzaga still trying to find itself and establish some confidence and momentum.
It appeared the Cougars (19-10, 10-6) were headed in that direction after defeating San Francisco and San Diego for their first two-game winning streak since mid-January, but then Saint Mary's happened. The No. 22 Gaels pretty much eviscerated the Cougars in front of 18,987 at the Marriott Center Saturday night, putting on offensive and defensive clinics to take a 25-point lead midway through the second half before a meaningless late run by the home team.
At this point of the season, "you need to have guys that are confident and playing with confidence," Rose said. "Saint Mary's did a really good job of taking that away from us."
The Cougars' inexperience and lack of poise showed in the first part of the second half, when Saint Mary's seized control and BYU got frustrated and impatient offensively. And the Cougars looked tired, their lack of depth evident in the grueling second half.
"We are playing a short roster, too," Rose said. "These guys are playing a lot of minutes. … There is a way that you can have your spirit broken when you are frustrated, and I think that's what kind of happened."
Time is running out, and there is just one more opportunity before the conference tournament for BYU to rescue its disappointing season. Although his team doesn't appear capable of staying within 20 points of the country's top-ranked team on its home floor, Rose isn't throwing in the towel.
"They will come back on Monday and they will get going," he said. "We have a lot to play for and we will see. We will get another opportunity next Saturday to play a nationally ranked team and see if we can do a little bit better."
But first, the Cougars have to get past Portland, a team that gave them fits on Feb. 4 at the Marriott Center before they pulled away late for a 73-62 win. The Pilots have lost 14 straight games, but will almost certainly end that skid before the Cougars arrive. Portland (9-19, 2-14) hosts Walla Walla, which dropped to 3-24 with a 101-63 loss to College of Idaho on Saturday, on Monday at Chiles Center.
"Absolutely, absolutely," Rose said when asked if BYU can still close the season strong. "I think that we are playing better. The Pepperdine game was a shock to everybody. But I think the San Francisco game and the [San Diego] game the other night, we saw a lot of really good signs. Tonight we got a team that played way better than we did. We need to rebound from that and see what we can do on Thursday."
The Cougars can clinch the third seed in the conference tournament (and avoid Gonzaga's side of the bracket) if they can beat the Pilots.
Santa Clara and San Francisco are both 9-7 in league play, a game behind third-place BYU. The Cougars own the tiebreaker over the Dons and the Broncos if they finish tied for third with either, or both.
Santa Clara hosts Pacific on Thursday and travels to Saint Mary's on Saturday, while USF finishes up at Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine.
Another issue facing the shorthanded Cougars is the health of freshman forward Yoeli Childs, who turned an ankle in the second half against the Gaels but returned to the game a few minutes later.
"I was proud of Yo, who was able to come back after turning that ankle," Rose said. "We will see how it responds in the next day or two. Sometimes the adrenaline allows you to play. Hopefully that thing doesn't swell up big."
But with the way the Cougars' season is going lately, don't count on it.
Twitter: @drewjay —
BYU at Portland
P Thursday, 8 p.m. MST
TV • ROOT Rocky Mountain