Kevin Young needs to find a closer

BYU head coach Kevin Young talks with his players before a game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys held at the Marriott Center in Provo on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News

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BYU’s basketball team is still looking for an alpha dog closer heading into a trip to Colorado and a home game against Cincinnati this week. This was evident in the Cougars’ loss at Utah in overtime, where there were numerous chances to close out the Utes that failed. It’s been a theme for this team, especially on the road as free-throw woes continue. Here’s my piece on this challenge.

Young told reporters this week he was close to figuring things out. A consistent theme in BYU’s close losses have been failure to make a play or two. This happened against Ole Miss, Texas Tech, TCU and Utah. The other losses at Providence and Houston were simply blowouts.

“I think we have had a great sense of urgency,” said Young. “I don’t think that has been something where we have fallen short. When losses stack up things naturally get a little bit tighter. I want our guys to know how confident we are in them.”

Question of the week

Who should be Kevin Young’s go-to guy in crunch time and why?

Jay Drew: Not having a legitimate go-to guy has hurt BYU time and again this season, as I have outlined several times, including after the loss to Texas Tech at the Marriott Center. While the Red Raiders had Darrion Williams, BYU had no established leader to go to, and saw their 14-game home winning streak snapped.

The top candidate for BYU should be Richie Saunders, who also happens to be the Cougars’ best player at this point in the season. Obviously, Saunders didn’t get enough late touches in the overtime loss to Utah, although if you go back and watch the film, the Cougars were clearly trying to get the ball to the redshirt junior.

The reason why Saunders should be the guy is that he’s not afraid of the moment. There are other guys on the team, and we won’t name them here, who have not been able to come up clutch when the game is on the line. Saunders has.

A secondary go-to guy should be Dallin Hall, who made the game-winner last year at Kansas. Bottom line, though, is that this BYU team simply needs to get better at free-throw shooting if it wants to finish strong in the Big 12. Free-throw shooting, as much as anything else, is the reason Utah edged BYU 73-72 last Saturday.

Dick Harmon: Generally speaking, point guards who can penetrate, pass, finish, shoot from the outside, make runners, teardrops, bombs, and hit midrange jumpers make the difference in NCAA Tournament play. That goes for regular-season games too and there’s no better example of this than how Jimmer Fredette impacted games. That he made nearly 90% of his free throws added to his value with a game on the line, another in this category is TJ Haws. These two were alpha dogs and made free throws under pressure.

Unfortunately, BYU does not have a player like Fredette or Haws who can take control of a game. Egor Demin isn’t that guy — yet. Dallin Hall was that guy last year, but he isn’t the same right now due to split time and his early-season injury. However, Hall needs to get back his confidence and chemistry and step up, or Kevin Young may have to go to a wing player like Richie Saunders, who is BYU’s best all-around player. I like the consistency shown by Fouss Traore in the low block, but a player like Traore cannot trigger a play and he’s a liability with the dribble when teams are collapsing down on him after he is fed the ball.

If Hall is the most likely candidate, he needs to improve his ability to finish off his drive penetration as he did a year ago. You could make an argument for Baker Dawson. He can create a shot, hit 3s, and make mid-range shots. He sometimes loses his dribble, but he is aggressive and experienced. This is a real dilemma for Young right now and it has cost him wins.

Cougar tales

Following the CFP championship game with Ohio State beating Notre Dame, the Associated Press final poll placed BYU at No. 13.

After losing an overtime game at Utah, basketball coach Kevin Young is still looking for his playmaker to seal games. In this piece Jay Drew examines that issue for the Cougars. Here is Drew’s analysis of the loss to Utah last Saturday in the Jon Huntsman Center.

From the archives

From X-verse

BYU’s conference schedule breakdown, by NET quadrants, based on today’s rankings:

First eight Big 12 games:

4 in Quad 1
3 in Quad 2
1 in Quad 3

Final 12 Big 12 games:

10 in Quad 1
1 in Quad 2
1 in Quad 3

— Greg Wrubell (@gregwrubell) January 20, 2025

BYU was 43rd in Kenpom before Big12 play began. After a 2-4 conference start, they have dropped all of one spot.

— CougarStats (@CougarStats) January 20, 2025

Extra points

Former Cougar shatters half-marathon mark (Deseret News)

Manti Te’o praises Kalani Sitake at Poly HOF (KSL Sports)

Cougar freshman gets fifth player of week honors (KSL Sports)

Fanalysts

Comments from Deseret News readers:

Bingo! That’s the question, KY doesn’t understand the college game. BYU doesn’t have a go-to person and let’s say if we have a lead with two minutes left, who is going to be our free-throw shooter to take us over the top? None, it’s not over BYU could easily be 5-1 instead of 2-4, meaning that they are competing and even leading in those games they lost. Problem is they have no one who they can count on. Saunders is the closest person but the guy is turnover prone in the last two minutes of the game.

— Wise-sage

Utah didn’t win as much as BYU lost. Played in SLC, the Utes were forced into overtime. The Y missed their last five possible points on missed shots, losing by one point. And any team that can’t shoot better than 40% of free throws literally beats themselves. Fix that if you want to win.

— Holy-Schamoly-what-baloney