Gordon Monson: Despite getting crushed by Alabama, Kevin Young calls BYU’s future ‘incredibly bright’

What do you tell a group of players that tried — and badly failed — to ascend to a height that only one other team in school history has reached — namely, the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament?

You wrap them in your arms, like a puppy that had been hit by a truck, hold them and heal them, and tell them exactly what BYU coach Kevin Young told his Cougars on Thursday night in Newark, NJ.

”I’m extremely proud of my guys,” he said. “This was a team that was picked to finish ninth in the Big 12, and we’re one of the last 16 teams standing.”

Standing BYU is no more.

Young said his Cougars ran into a “perfect storm” in the form of an Alabama team that had an “all-time night” and “historic shooting performance.”

The coach could have ripped his guys for underperforming in a 113-88 defeat at the hands of Alabama, led as the Crimson Tide was by guard Mark Sears, who bombed away for 34 points, all with the bright lights shining down on them. Instead, he concurrently ripped himself and threw his hands in the air, saying: “They’re more dynamic than we are, clearly. … This is a team that leads all power conferences in points in the paint, [at] 40 a night, and tonight they had 16, but then they go bananas from three.

“Sears made shots when we went under [screens]. … We felt like it would be hard for them to sustain that and so that’s where you have to give them credit because they did. That’s why I’m disappointed in myself for not being able to find a solution. Some nights you try everything, it doesn’t seem to work.”

Not on this occasion. Not even close. That’s the bad news. There’s good news, too, but hold on for that for another few paragraphs.

The way BYU initiated its defense here, sagging a bit off Sears, who had struggled in two previous tournament games from beyond the arc, allowed him — and a few of his teammates, too — to get comfortable from long range, and once he did, once the Tide did, it was bright lights out for the Cougars.

They failed miserably to do what they had to do to give themselves any chance at victory: guard that 3-point line.

So egregious was their resistance in that regard, it helped the Crimson Tide, as Young alluded to, set an NCAA Tournament single-game record for made deep balls (25 of 51). Some of that was straight due to great shot-making. But the Cougars’ lapses gave ‘Bama shooters full license to feel like they were channeling Steph Freaking Curry.

BYU never got around to shutting off that spigot.

Young reiterated: “I’m disappointed in myself and our staff that we couldn’t put our players in a better position to find answers. [Alabama] made the plays and we didn’t.”

BYU also contributed to its demise at its own end by playing hurried and harried, turning the ball over, and bricking shots. In addition, across the floor, they committed dumb fouls and yielded offensive rebounds. Alabama was quicker to the ball, more confident, more experienced in tournament play (it has made a habit of getting to the Final Four in recent years) … and yeah, that about covers it.

There were periods during which the Cougars scored baskets, but most of them came in close, off drives, midrange shots and layups. The problem with that is a pretty fundamental mathematical principle: three is more than two. While Alabama flushed shots from deep, gobbling up its points, when BYU was successful on assorted trips, it typically led to something less than that. All told, BYU hit six of 30 3-pointers, as the Tide went berserk. It started like that — Alabama hit 12 of 27 attempts from distance in the first half, BYU made one of its first 13 — and ended like that.

You might have thought there was absolutely no way BYU would stay that cold and the Tide that hot. Um … never mind. BYU’s 11-point halftime deficit grew to the aforementioned 25-pointer at the end.

Where does all of this leave the Cougars now?

Here’s the hopeful news: It leaves them taking what they can from a Sweet 16 season and looking ahead to what AJ Dybantsa and others can bring to them next time around.

In the postgame, Young implied there was no real shame in this defeat, just lessons to learn and improvement to make. Sure, the result was more lopsided than he had figured, but he said he took much satisfaction from what his guys had accomplished during an evolutionary regular season and postseason that in the coach’s first year at BYU either established or reestablished the Cougars as a new or renewed presence in big-time college basketball.

BYU had been good at hoop for many seasons, but only that. Good, good, always good. The upward exceptions came in 1981, when Danny Ainge played for the Cougars, and in 2011, when Jimmer Fredette was captivating the country by Jimmering away. Both of those teams made the tournament’s round of sweetness, with Ainge’s outfit breaking through to Elite Eight status.

It didn’t last. Those seasons were anomalies.

Zooming out a bit, what Young laid down at BYU in his first go-round there seems different. Yeah, the Cougars got crushed by the Tide here, but it felt — and feels — for them more like a jumping off point rather than the disheartening culmination of and conclusion to an extended run-up. It feels to the Cougars like the beginning, not the end, like, in BYU vernacular, an invocation, not a benediction. It feels like an ellipsis, not a period, like a story to be continued …

That’s what the players and the coach said they could feel.

“I feel like we’re kind of the catalyst to where BYU is going,” said senior Trevin Knell. “I’m excited to see the trajectory of where this program’s going.”

Added Young: “The future at BYU is incredibly bright. Anyone who pays attention to this sport would agree with that. This was a statement this season where we’re a force to be reckoned with in the Big 12 and nationally. There’s a lot of good things going on at BYU, period. … We feel like foundationally we put out a blueprint of how we want to play. Our identity is clear and now we have to hopefully do a good job to continue to recruit to that identity, continue to try to bring in high-end talent so we can play with the teams that historically have played deep into this tournament. That’s our goal.”

If anyone, then, were to page through and close the book on BYU’s 2024-25 season, in and of itself, even that would be something of a compelling read. The ending, not so much. But most of what led up to it suggests that there are sequels yet to come — what with players such as Richie Saunders eligible to return and the aforementioned top prep prospect in the country slated to join the fold in the days ahead. That makes the read more riveting. And, as Young put it, there’s more than just that.

His influence and guidance — personally and stylistically — on his team, before and after Thursday night’s wipeout, is having an enticing effect on recruits and transfers who are aware of what’s happened in this single year, the Cougars generally having benefited from playing an NBA game, with an NBA coach and an NBA staff, developing and winning as they’ve gone, as they’ve looked as though they were having … what’s this? … fun as they progressed.

The final count and most of what occurred leading up to it against Alabama was in no way enjoyable for Young and his players, but most of the season was. The game was what so many observers had guessed it would be — an explosive offensive show, as it turned out primarily executed by the folks in crimson. BYU fell victim to a team that did what the Cougars like to do, only doing it far better.

BYU’s elimination left Young with something to anticipate in the future — doing to others what was done to him on Thursday night. He’s convinced it can and will happen.

“That’s a really good basketball team,” he said, pointing at the winners. “It was an all-time night for them.”

Young now looks rather optimistically ahead to all-time nights of his own, for him and his team: “It’s exciting to think what we can build.”

Note to readers • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.