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BYU men's basketball coach Kevin Young gives instructions in a huddle during a Big 12 game against Cincinnati at Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025.

Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo

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BYU's Richie Saunders goes up for a shot against Cincinnati in a Big 12 men's basketball game at Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025.

Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo

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It only seems as if every opposing player is have a career night against BYU men’s basketball.

The Cougars current two-game losing streak has fans criticizing the defense, which has given up 85 and 84 points to Arizona and Cincinnati, respectively.

Let’s look at the numbers.

While Caleb Love was expected to lead the Wildcats in scoring (averaging 16.3, scored 18), Jalen Bradley’s 17 points (averaging 11.9), Tobe Awaka’s 14 (8.1) and Henri Veesaar’s 17 (8.4) did some real damage. Against Cincinnati, Jizzle James’ 24 (averaging 11.1), Day Day Thomas’ 15 (8.2) and Josh Reed’s 12 (3.0) caused a lot of headaches.

Everyone remembers Elijah Hawkins, who scored 22 in Texas Tech’s win while averaging 9.6, or Ezra Ausar going off for 26 (while averaging 11.1) when Utah topped the Cougars.

Actually, BYU is 3-3 in Big 12 games where an opposing player scored 20 points or more. Like most statistics, there are always exceptions to the rule.

The Cougars are getting ready to face one of the league’s most explosive scorers in West Virginia’s Javon Small (18.9 points per game) with a defense that seems to have sprung some leaks lately.

“One, we’ve been playing really good teams that are hard to guard,” BYU coach Kevin Young said. “Two, a lot of that is self inflicted. We’re turning the ball over too much. We’re giving up too many offensive rebounds. I think on the whole our half court defense hasn’t been bad. As it relates to Cincinnati, they hit an astronomical amount of tough shots, long twos and mid-range shots that for them and for every team, historically don’t go in.

“We didn’t do a good enough job adjusting in-game. Our defense definitely needs to get better. But a lot of it, in my mind, is coming out of areas that aren’t necessarily defensive related in terms of not turning the basketball over, and then finishing out possessions with rebounding.”

Young added: “Ultimately, we have to be able to get stops with the guy in front of us.”

The Cougars have eight games left in the regular season and by most metrics are a bubble team for the NCAA Tournament.

Now would be a good time to put things together.

“Basketball is such psychological warfare,” Young said. “Nothing is as bad as it seems and nothing is as good as it seems. So you’ve got to kind of stay pretty even keeled and try to control what you can control. The message to our group is that when we do the things that we want to do, we’re a good basketball team, and when we don’t, we come up short, like most teams.

“I do think we’ll put on a nice run here to latter part of the conference slate. I’m very confident in our ability to do that. We know what’s at stake. We’re in a good position. This game against West Virginia is a really big game. I know that and the guys know that. We look forward to having this game be the one that sort of puts us in a position to reel off some wins of our own.”

Scouting Report

Picked to finish 13th in the Big 12 preseason poll, not much was expected from West Virginia in the first season of the Darian DeVries era. Led by Small, West Virginia is 6-6 in league play and like BYU is on the bubble for post-season consideration.

Small not only leads the team in scoring but is averaging 4.5 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 2.2 steals per game while shooting 36% from the 3-point line. Cougar fans will remember Small from last season when he was playing at Oklahoma State and torched BYU for 34 points in Provo.

“West Virginia will present a unique challenge with Javon Small,” Young said. “He’s one of the most dynamic guards in the league. I really like how he plays. So he’ll challenge us, and we’ll have to make sure we do a better job on him than we did at Cincinnati.”

Small is the only current West Virginia player averaging in double figures since Tucker DeVries (14.9 ppg) went down with a shoulder injury in early December. If BYU focuses solely on Small, 6-foot-8 Illinois transfer Amani Hansberry (9.5 ppg), 6-6 true freshman Jonathan Powell (8.5, 35% from three) and 6-0 Washington State transfer Joseph Yesufu (5.9) are dangerous secondary scorers on any given night.

The Mountaineers are last in the league in offense (62 points per game), 12th in field goal percentage (.417) and 13th in 3-point shooting (.305) but No. 2 in defense (allowing 63.3 points per game).

The Cougars are the top field goal percentage team in the Big 12 (.476) and No. 2 in 3-point shooting (.369) but if they want to get well, it likely starts on the glass. BYU has been outrebounded by 15 boards in losses to Arizona and Cincinnati. West Virginia is last in the league in rebounding (29.8 per game), offensive rebounding (7.9) and rebounding margin (-6.6).