Gordon Monson: Kevin Young says BYU remains ‘right there’ with the country’s best teams. Anybody agree with him?

As BYU faced off against undefeated and unanimous No. 1 Arizona on Monday night at home, there were statements to make, doubts to quell, proof to provide, business to handle. Important matters all around, if not everlasting ones. Almost nothing in college basketball is settled with any permanence on a single night in January.

Except in this game, for most of its 40 minutes, it looked like one thing was carved in stone: Arizona is better than BYU.

Err, hold on … can you erase a carving?

The Cougars almost did.

They trailed by 19 points in the second half, looking at times embarrassingly bad, hapless and discombobulated, flailing around with too much iso ball, missing shots, gagging up turnovers, playing weak, inattentive defense, and then … scratch out all that. Or most of it.

With just more than 11 seconds left, having ground down that deficit to just one, inbounding the ball at its own end, BYU had a most remarkable, most improbable chance to win. All the Cougars needed was a made 2-point shot. That much was nothing short of easy compared to what they already had overcome.

Err, hold on … bring out the carbide-tipped chisel and that block of granite again.

What the Cougars got instead was more of the same sloppy disappointment that had plagued them for a majority of the game. A long pass deep into the backcourt to point guard Rob Wright resulted in him trying to do so much himself, dribbling up the floor, spinning like a whirling dervish into the lane, and getting his attempt blocked.

Kevin Young said afterward that he had drawn up a “two-option” play, the first priority was to get the ball to AJ Dybantsa. “They clogged the area we were trying to get it to,” he said, adding that Wright “maybe could have found something.”

Maybe the coach should have drawn up a three-option play.

Hate to throw all the blame on a college kid — even Michael Jordan has said many times he missed more than a few would-be-game-winning shots — and if Dybantsa, as the primary option, was “clogged,” where’s the blame supposed to go?

Maybe somewhere, maybe nowhere.

Had Wright’s play been successful, it would and could have capped an unbelievable comeback, but the game ended, after two additional last-second Arizona free throws, at the count of 86-83.

Speaking of Dybantsa and Wright, who combined to make a mere 9 of 40 shots between them, a defiant Young said: “We’re going to ride or die with them.”

Sing a requiem for BYU on this solemn occasion.

And so it was that a matchup filled with pregame energy and excitement and anticipation, and a fistful of pro prospects on the court — upwards of 35 NBA executives, including what seemed like half the Utah Jazz organization, mixed into a capacity Marriott Center crowd — devolved initially into a blowout and in the final minutes into a competitive blur to give BYU its ridiculous chance. The Cougars were down 10 with just more than a minute remaining.

Those with a BYU rooting interest can take heart in what came late, but they’d also have to be troubled by what came early. It’s as though the promise at the conclusion was an indictment of the scattered play that preceded it.

In a hostile building for the Wildcats, Arizona dominated, sharing the ball, getting good looks and hitting them. Even with the Cougars’ strong showing at the end, the Wildcats made 53 percent of their shots to BYU’s 40 percent. They also fed themselves at the line, making 26 of 32 free throws, against BYU’s totals there of 12 of 19. Blame the refs if you must for that imbalance, but playing sound defense is always preferable to bumping and hacking.

Of that defense, Young said: “There were too many mistakes. Not enough execution.”

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this whole affair for the Cougars was the inability of its star players to keep up with Arizona’s best guys. Dybantsa, the player the pro scouts wanted to measure with increased scrutiny, considering projections for him to be one of the coming NBA draft’s top picks, scored 24 points, but, as mentioned, his shooting was abysmal. As is normally the case, he got fouled a lot, making 11 of 16 free throws, but he only managed to hit 6 of his 24 field-goal attempts, and just 1 of his 8 deep heaves.

In his defense, there were times when it seemed he was the Cougars’ only viable option, with others bricking balls all over the gym. Wright, for instance, made just 3 of 16 shots. Richie Saunders was by far the most efficient of the so-called “Big Three,” drilling 7 of 11 attempts. Kennard Davis, who had been in a massive shooting slump, crawled out of it by going 6-for-9 from the field, 5-for-8 from beyond the arc.

Arizona’s Brayden Burries, the player who blocked Wright’s last shot, went for 29 points and Jaden Bradley got 26, both making better than half their shots. Burries got 13 of his points from the foul line. Koa Peat added 10 points.

Where does all this leave the Cougars?

The bad news for them is that for much of this game they looked far inferior to the Wildcats, far more limited in breadth and depth. When the highly recruited Dybantsa came to BYU, he gave two reasons — beyond his ample NIL funds: 1) He wanted to prepare himself for life as a pro, wanted to develop under the guidance of Young, a longtime NBA assistant, and 2) He figured with his skillset and with what BYU had in the fold, he could win a championship there.

Neither of those prospects looked overly promising on Monday night.

I know, I know, Dybantsa will end up as the top pick in the draft or one of them, anyway, but a championship run for this team appeared to be a dubious, distant dream. The resolve the Cougars showed in the closing minutes nudged that dream at least a little closer to reality. But looking ahead to what remains on their schedule — games against, among others, Kansas, Houston, Arizona again, Iowa State and Texas Tech, which already handed the Cougars their earlier Big 12 loss, will force them to play better, play together, play with more accuracy and cohesion than what was on display against the Wildcats, or to suffer more defeat.

Dybantsa is an exceptional player, a generational player, but he can’t beat quality teams by himself, and he shouldn’t even be made to try. He shouldn’t feel like he has to try. Young, then, will have to find a way to gather his team in, to get Dybantsa more help, to play with more flow and better team defense. He’ll have to be the coach his star player hoped he’d be when he first arrived in Provo. If Young can’t do that, or that talent simply isn’t there, if it’s too inconsistent, then BYU will waste the most talented player it’s ever had with unexpected losses.

Young, though, was having none of it. He put it like this: “We’re right there with every [top] team in the country. … It’s all about improvement.”

He was closer to the truth on the second sentence than he was on the first. Yeah, BYU lost by three points to college basketball’s No. 1-ranked team, but somehow it seemed closer to 30. Nothing wrong with optimism, but lofty expectations can be a cruel, cruel mother.