Patrick Kinahan: Less-is-more theory may have salvaged BYU’s basketball season

PORTLAND, Ore. — Less than a minute into the most recent in a sequence of humbling BYU losses, Kevin Young skilled an epiphany that virtually slapped him throughout the face.

In his second yr as a university head coach, Young knew the Cougars wanted to alter earlier than the once-promising season slipped away in catastrophe. And it began with him.

“Sometimes coaches get in their own way, and I’m not immune to that,” Young stated, standing in a hallway contained in the Moda Center on Wednesday, someday earlier than his group takes on Texas within the NCAA Tournament.

Finally securing a win over a ranked group on Feb. 21 in opposition to Iowa State, the Cougars performed as in the event that they have been over the shock of shedding Richie Saunders to a season-ending harm the week earlier than. Beating the sixth-ranked Cyclones was the catalyst that would supply the momentum BYU wanted going into the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments.

So a lot for that theory.

Three days later, UCF ran the Cougars off the Marriott Center ground in essentially the most embarrassing lack of the season. The two-game highway journey that adopted was no totally different, because the West Virginia after which Cincinnati losses seemingly diminished BYU to taking part in out the string in what would rank among the many program’s most disappointing seasons.

It took lower than a minute into the Cincinnati recreation for Young to know his method was not working. Leading as much as the sport, BYU practiced defending a particular play the coaches scouted out.

Come the sport, the Bearcats scored off the play on their first possession. The Cougars have been defenseless — if not completely soulless, too.

“Everything we did in practice looked great and then they couldn’t do it in the game,” Young stated. “That’s when I was like, we’ve got to do something different. This isn’t resonating with the group.”

The ensuing cross-country flight gave Young ample time for introspection. By the time the aircraft touched down within the early morning hours of March 4, he conjured up a plan to breathe new life into his downtrodden group.

From then on, the gamers have been in a position to absolutely grasp the brand new message. Backing off over-coaching, Young preached the less-is-more idea, that means all he wished was for his group to play tougher, longer and sooner.

“By simplifying things, it allowed us to hold the guys accountable,” he stated.

The outcomes have been instantly obvious in BYU’s win over No. 11 Texas Tech to finish the common season on March 7. The Cougars carried it over in wins over Kansas State and West Virginia within the convention event.

Looking as if they’d no real interest in taking part in protection, BYU confirmed the kind of effort required to compete in opposition to higher Big 12 groups as an alternative and within the NCAA Tournament. Even the hassle in shedding to No. 5 Houston within the quarterfinals was sufficient to extend the collective confidence going into the Texas recreation on Thursday.

“I’ve been at this for 20-plus years and, like, you just never stop learning,” Young stated, “and this has been a great example of that.”

As the Cougars tackle the Longhorns, who beat North Carolina State on a last-second shot in Tuesday’s play-in recreation in Dayton, Ohio, the slew of losses earlier within the season are a distant reminiscence. The four-game shedding streak with a wholesome Saunders that started in late January and the empty highway journey two weeks in the past do not matter anymore.

The new breed of Cougars is a special bunch now, gamers and coaches consider. They reject the notion that Texas is primed for an upset, which appears to be a theme espoused by some school basketball consultants.

“You want to get to this point with confidence,” Young stated. “You want to be playing your best basketball of the year.”