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What did the BYU men's basketball team do after suffering the most embarrassing loss of the Dave Rose era, that 114-101 setback to Utah Valley last Saturday?

The Cougars hit the film room.

Players Eric Mika and Yoeli Childs and Rose met with reporters on Tuesday afternoon to talk about the 13-point loss to the Wolverines and preview Wednesday's game against Utah State (3-2) at Vivint Smart Home Arena in SLC, and Rose acknowledged that the guys "are obviously down, and with a young team especially, it is our job to get them back on the right path. We showed them a lot of film, watched a lot of film. I think guys were surprised at what the film looked like."

It was a horror film for the Cougars (4-2).

"They really couldn't feel what was happening [against UVU, until they saw it again]," Rose said. "The bottom line with this group will just be that we gotta defend better, we gotta play harder, we gotta respect loose balls, rebounds. We just have to have a more urgent attitude toward playing that part of the game.

I think that sometimes that happens with talented guys. They feel like they can always make up for it on the next play, and in reality you can't. You gotta stop people from scoring, you got to take advantage of 50-50 balls and sometimes maybe even 70-30 balls when it looks like they are going to get it, you go take it from them. And so I think that has been the biggest focus."

Mika said the mood of the team "is good" and he feels like they handled the crushing loss well, given the circumstances.

"No one likes losing at all. And so guys are definitely down a little bit, but I think we rallied around each other and stuck together and talked about a lot of things we need to improve on in these last two days," Mika said. "We have been getting after it, improving on those things, and getting ready for tomorrow. So, I feel good."

Rose said the intensity of an instate matchup caught a few guys by surprise, including Houston transfer LJ Rose and freshman Yoeli Childs.

"For sure," Childs acknowledged. "They came out and they played harder than us the other day. That's why we lost. They hit shots, but they played harder than us and we can't let that happen. We gotta be a team that comes out and attacks other teams and gets them on their heels and the last couple of days in practice have been tremendous. We have been working our butts off, and I don't think you will see that again. I think we will outwork everybody we play."

Childs said he likes having another instate game to test whether the Cougars can handle the intensity.

"This was my first instate game, but it seemed pretty intense. It is always a good thing to have, is intense games, not just instate rivals, but intense, hard-fought games will be good for us and help us mature as a team," he said.

Tipoff for the BYU-USU game is at 7 p.m. tonight at Vivint. The Cougars are 15-4 all-time at the venue in Salt Lake City, including 11-1 since Rose became their coach in 2005. They have won their last 10 games at the home of the Utah Jazz, including a 68-63 win over USU on Dec. 6, 2008 and a 85-74 win over the Aggies on Nov. 30, 2013.

As my colleague Steve Luhm noted in this article advancing the game, both teams desperately need a win after suffering back-to-back losses recently.

"They are in the same situation as we are — got off to a good start, had a couple games get away from them," Rose said of the Aggies. "This will be a real interesting matchup of them sitting on a couple losses, us sitting on a couple losses. How does that affect your confidence going in? How does that affect execution? And then you add the instate rivalry to it. I am obviously excited to play, because we want to get out there after getting beat. So, I am sure Tim [Duryea] feels the same way about his group."

Rose said he's been impressed with Utah State's guards and wings, especially senior Jalen Moore, a Sky View High product. Moore is averaging 18.2 points and 4.8 rebounds per game.

"Really quick, aggressive, talented guards," Rose said. "These three guards can really get you in a mixer. They shoot the ball really well. They have a go-to guy in Jalen Moore. He can shoot threes, put it on the floor, create for himself, create for other guys, and he can post up. They post him up quite a bit. He is one of their all time leading scorers, in the top 20 or so. And then their big guys are not really low post scoring guys. One guy is. The other ones are face up guys, so that creates some issues for us.

But what really impresses me is these guards. These guards are really good. They can get anywhere they want on the floor. And that caused us real problems the other night. So, hopefully we can adjust to it."

Freshman Koby McEwen of Wasatch Academy is averaging 11.0 points and 4.4 rebounds in his first collegiate season.

"He's really quick and fast," Rose said. "He is a jet with the dribble. He has a great confidence in his individual game. He is playing with so much confidence for a young guy. He has been really impressive."

The third guard is Shane Rector, who is averaging 10.2 points per game.

Obviously, BYU's problems against UVU and Valpo in the losses were on defense, a familiar malady in the Rose era. In a teleconference to set up Saturday's HoopHall Classic in Los Angeles, Rose was asked about how his team is developing on defense.

"The first four games of the year, we were tremendous defensively," he said. "I thought that we were holding teams right around 60, 60-plus points per game. For a team that scores 90, that is a pretty good margin. The last two games defensively I think our mindset has slipped. We have tried to outscore people. We got 89 one game and lost, and got 101 and lost. So, we need to really make a commitment to the defensive end — not so much our coaching staff — I think our coaches are tremendous. We teach it, we work on it, we build it. I think we were really making some progress. I think we've taken a step back in the last week and we need to get more aggressive on that defensive end.

We have had some real issues with foul trouble, especially with our interior guys. That may have taken a little bit of the aggressiveness away from us. But we've got to learn to trust each other. We have to learn to go make those defensive plays, and when we do get ourselves in foul trouble we have to trust the next guy up. But we can't just yield and try to outscore people."

The Cougars will play tonight without wing Elijah Bryant, the transfer from Elon University, for the second-straight game. Rose said Bryant may have tried to come back too soon after having meniscus surgery on his knee before the season started.

"We might know more by the end of the week, but it looks like it could be 8, 10, 12, 15 days [before he returns]," Rose said. "We will see. Hopefully we will get him back, and when he gets back probably hold him a little longer this time, get his leg strong and get him to where he has enough strength in his upper and lower leg to protect that knee a little bit. But I fully anticipate him being back. We just don't know when."