The BYU women’s basketball was more than ready to be home after last week.

The most obvious reason was the Cougars want to bounce back from tough road losses at Cincinnati and West Virginia — but that wasn’t the only reasons

BYU head coach Amber Whiting said in Monday’s press teleconference that in addition to the on-court struggles, her team went through a week of travel nightmares.

“After Cincinnati, we went and boarded the plane to go to West Virginia,” Whiting said. “We sat there for a couple of hours before the pilot got on the intercom and told us that when the plane was arriving, something had come off and they had to fix it that night. We had to load back up, go back to the hotel and re-check in. We practiced in Cincinnati the next day and then that became our travel day.”

But that was just the beginning of the issues BYU would face. Things didn’t get better after the West Virginia game.

“We were supposed to leave at 9 a.m. but they called us and told us to come at 10 a.m.,” Whiting said. “We went there and sat on the plane for three hours before they told us they over-fueled the plane. We had to get off the plane and go back to the hotel.”

Since the Cougars were supposed to be headed to Provo, they didn’t have a bus. Whiting talked about having to get eight Uber rides and try to get everyone back to the hotel. I think we got to bed at like 2 a.m.”

With the help of West Virginia, BYU finally got a bus and went back to the airport the next day — only to be delayed by another hour and then have to refuel in Nashville before finally getting back to Utah.

“We finally got to Provo around 5 p.m. yesterday (Sunday),” Whiting said. “I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life. It was awful.”

She said she could see the impact at practice on Monday, where things didn’t go well because everyone was tired.

“You go on the road for seven days and that’s a long time,” Whiting said. “Everyone is tired of hotels and eating out. I heard one of the freshmen tell one of her teammates she just wanted her uncrustables and peanut butter. But everyone in the Big 12 has to go through it.”

The reality is that Whiting and her team have things they need to address to try to get on the winning side in conference play, and the travel challenges didn’t help.

One of the big issues is turnovers, as the Cougars coughed up the ball 31 turnovers in the 66-53 loss to the Mountaineers, including having a 33-7 deficit in points off of turnovers.

Turnovers have been a fairly clear barometer of how BYU will do in their games. In their three Big 12 games this season, the Cougars have committed 24.3 turnovers per game and opponents are scoring 23.7 points off turnovers. In wins this season, the Cougars average 13.7 turnovers, 8.5 less than in losses, and only give up 10.1 points off of giveaways.

One of the frustrations for Whiting and her staff is that BYU was whistled for 12 offensive fouls in the two games.

“The emphasis was supposed to be on the flop this year and now we are letting people get away with it,” Whiting said. “I don’t teach my girls to flop. Maybe other girls sell it better. I don’t know but 12 in two games is a lot.”

While the defeats and travel hassles resulted in a lot of frustrations, Whiting did say she is seeing some positives as BYU prepares to host Houston at the Marriott Center in Provo on Wednesday (7 p.m. MT, ESPN+).

“I think some of the girls are starting to find their groove offensively,” Whiting said. “There are things we can fix. In the West Virginia game, the energy was there, the effort was there and the fight was there. They give it to me all the time. Those are good things. Now let’s fix the other things. Then I think we will be OK.”

Whiting knows her Cougars want to make that happen against their Cougar counterparts from Houston and get back to winning.

“I have a lot of competitive girls who just want to win,” Whiting said. “But Houston is 0-3 too and they are going to want to come here and try and steal one. We have to make sure we are taking care of our business from the beginning.”