Is this all there is? That's the question BYU sports fans have to be asking themselves after the men's basketball team lost yet another first-round NCAA tournament game on Thursday. For the fourth time since 2004, the Cougars played well enough to be in an NCAA tournament game but not to win it.

 BYU has won 20, 25 and 27 games in Dave Rose's first three years and two Mountain West Conference championships.

Is this as good as it gets for the Cougars?

BYU fans want more.

Sure, they're disappointed. Fans moan and groan about how the team let them down, and how they can't believe they got sucked into caring again.

Believe me, nobody feels that disappointment more than the team and the coaching staff. Who has more invested, fans or the team? The Cougars have been working their butts off since July, only to fail to meet one of their very important goals.

In college football, there's a glass ceiling for BYU and other mid-majors because of that joke of an organization known as the Bowl Championship Series. Under the current setup, the best the Cougars can hope for is to go undefeated and play in a big-money BCS game.

The NCAA basketball tournament is different. All 65 teams, no matter how unlikely, could get on a roll and become media darlings. Gonzaga has done it, George Mason has done it. Even Utah did it, back in 1998. Win one game, you've got a chance to keep going, and who knows what will happen?

Is there a glass ceiling for the BYU men's basketball team? And is the reward of an NCAA tournament win on the other side of the glass?

This year's team was good enough to win a first-round game. The Cougars simply didn't play well enough to win. BYU didn't execute down the stretch, A&M did.

Don't belittle BYU's accomplishments. Right now, the Cougars are a good college basketball program. Not great, good. But the bare facts are that the Cougars haven't been relevant in the NCAA tournament since 1981 and haven't won a tournament game since 1993.

Has something changed since 1993 in college basketball?

Most fans would tell you that there's more parity in college hoops. A number of factors have led to this, including the best players leaving early for the NBA and widespread television coverage. On Friday in the Tampa tournament pod, the lower seed won every single game: No. 12 Western Kentucky over No. 5 Drake, No. 13 San Diego over No. 4 Uconn, No. 13 Siena over No. 4 Vanderbilt and No. 12 Villanova over No. 5 Clemson.

So it can be done.

Why can't BYU do it?

BYU's recruiting is what it's been for the past two or three decades: Nice LDS kids with an occasional exceptional player like Danny Ainge, Travis Hansen, Rafael Araujo or Keena Young breaking the mold. After beating BYU, Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon said if he were on the other sideline, he would be intimidated by the size and athleticism of his team. His post players are all built like NFL defensive ends and 6-foot-7 shooter Josh Carter was practically unguardable on Thursday. Texas A&M was once ranked No. 9 in the country and suffered from inconsistency most of the season. The Aggies put it together against BYU, especially in the game's final moments.

On Wednesday, curious basketball fans watched BYU practice at the Honda Center. I would have given anyone without any previous knowledge of the Cougars $100 if they would have picked out Lee Cummard as the team's best player.

Not to knock Cummard; he's a fine player. We already knew that BYU will never have the size and athleticism of a major Division I program. The Cougars have to do it with attributes like execution, effort and teamwork. Those things were in short supply in both the MWC Tournament championship game and in the first round of the NCAA tourney this year. BYU played tentatively in the second half against UNLV and in the first few minutes of the game against Texas A&M. The Cougars failed to get out on 3-point shooters. They didn't share the ball like they had all season. With the kind of experience BYU had on the floor, the question is "Why?"

Were they tired? Intimidated? Did they peak too early?

They'll never tell us, because they're not going to point fingers or sell anybody out.

Fine.

Next year's BYU team returns its top three scorers -- Cummard, Trent Plaisted and Jonathan Tavernari. Freshman sensation Jimmer Fredette will probably take over the point guard spot. With this much experience returning, a breakthrough to at least the second round of the NCAA tournament is possible.

What will it take? Stronger leadership in crunch time is a good start. The MWC should be better, and that will help prepare BYU for postseason.

But the Cougars will be fighting against history.

Something that happens once may be a fluke, or just bad luck. If it happens four times, it's a trend.

Right now the trend shows BYU can't compete on a national level in basketball -- and maybe never will.

• Daily Herald Sports Editor Darnell Dickson can be reached at 344-2555 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it