NEWARK, N.J. — For the second straight season, the BYU locker room was a pretty somber place after an NCAA Tournament loss.

The difference, of course, is that this time the Cougars won a couple of games in the tournament instead of falling in the first round again. Even with the sting of a record-setting 113-88 loss to No. 2 seed Alabama still fresh in their minds, BYU players and coaches were able to positively reflect on a great season.

“I don’t want to speak out of both sides of my mouth because I’ve talked about how I’m not a big expectations guys and I’ve said that to you before,” BYU coach Kevin Young said. “I haven’t said this all year to our players, literally haven’t mentioned it to them all year, but this team was picked ninth in the Big 12. We ended up being one of the last 16 teams in the entire country standing. I’m just so proud of that statement for this group of guys.

“My staff and I, we’ve been pretty clear about how we’re trying to establish something big-time for BYU, building on a the very successful program they’ve had for many years. This was a step in the right direction as far as trying to continue to elevate it.”

After a slow start in Big 12 play, the Cougars rattled off 11 wins in 12 games before Thursday’s loss to Alabama at the Prudential Center.

“We want to establish ourselves as a team that year after year is making runs like this and going even further,” Young said. “We want to be the last team standing in this tournament, and it’s really hard to do, obviously, but that’s our goal. I think in Year 1, we’ve got a pretty good foundation for our identity of how we want to play. Now it’s on me and our coaches to continue to recruit to that identity and try to bring in players that can help us continue to push this thing to a level that BYU has never seen before.”

Cougar junior guard Dawson Baker said, “It was a good ride. What made it even better was we started 1-3 in Big 12. We had to go through some downs to get some ups. That made it so much sweeter. It was such a fun run to be a part of. We were enjoying every minute of it, going on the road with the guys and going through all the things we did made that run we went on so much more fun. It was a special year, not only for us, but for the fan base. It’s a successful year and something we can build off of.”

Young, who came to Provo from a long career as a top assistant in the NBA, said it was a good ride for him, too.

“This is my 21st year in coaching, and this is one of the funnest years I’ve ever had, because of the guys in that locker room,” he said.

On fire from 3: Alabama’s 25 3-pointers broke the NCAA Tournament record, set by LMU in 1990. The Lions made 21 triples in one of the all-time most entertaining tournament games, a 149-115 win against Michigan.

The Crimson Tide’s 25 3-point shots on 51 attempts (49%) was stunning, especially considering they had made 60 of 173 (35%) over the past seven games. But Alabama was certainly capable of going off from distance, considering a 22 of 45 performance beyond the arc on February 25 in a 111-73 victory against Mississippi State.

BYU’s coaching staff opted to force the Crimson Tide to make threes instead of trying to stop them from getting into the paint, finishing at the rim and making free throws, something the team from Tuscaloosa is really good at as well.

“They were at 16 points at the paint and they averaged 40,” Young said. “(Mark) Sears got going, where we were under some screens early. Now, granted, they were like 35-foot bombs, but you’ve got to adjust. You have to give him credit, first of all. And then we were trying to show a little bit too much of a crowd, probably, but they made us pay. And then they got going. We could have done a lot of things better. There’s no question. But we have to give Nate (Oats) and their staff and their players credit. That was incredible performance by them, and we didn’t do enough to stop it.”

Respect: Young had a message for Oats after the game when the two shared a moment together.

“I just told him, ‘man, go win the whole thing,'” Young said. “He was like, ‘Man, the way we shot it tonight, maybe we will.’ If they shoot in like that, they will.”

The two teams have a similar approach to the game, and on Thursday, the Crimson Tide just did it better.

“It was fun,” Oats said. “BYU plays an NBA system. We had some better talent than them tonight, but it’s a lot more fun way to play basketball, if you will. When you play this way and you show everybody — even our first year, we played this way. We just didn’t have as much talent to do it. And now we’ve been able to get the talent and hopefully we get to continue to get the talent, we keep the resources where we need to and keep making these runs. I think the Alabama fans like us making deep runs in the NCAA Tournament. At least I do.”

Regrouping: BYU trailed Alabama by 11 points (51-40) at halftime. What was the message from the coaching staff?

“I don’t think we wanted to overreact,” Baker said. “It felt like a way bigger deficit than what it actually was. We knew they shot well. We were optimistic about how it was gonna be our half. Now we’re gonna shoot well. You look at how bad we played, and we’re only 10 points or so away from the game. So we were trying to stay positive and trying to disrupt what they were doing offensively. They played a good 40 minutes and shot well the whole time.”

BYU cut the Alabama lead to eight, 51-43, on Trevin Knell’s 3-pointer to open the second half and to seven, 68-61, on a Mawot Mag triple with 13:19 to play. But the Crimson Tide went on a 12-2 run, with a pair of 3-pointers from Aden Holloway, for an 80-63 advantage and the Cougars never challenged again.

Year 1: With 26 wins, Young had the most victories by a first-year coach in BYU history. He became the sixth different coach in program history to win multiple NCAA Tournament games.

Heard on press row in the first half: “I cover the SEC and that was the best five minutes of basketball I’ve seen all year.”

More 3’s, please: BYU’s Richie Saunders finished with 79 3-pointers in 2024-25, 16 more than he had combined in his first two seasons.

The Cougars needed seven 3-pointers to break the program season record, but made six (out of 30). BYU ended the season 378 of 1018 (37%) from distance.

Big wins: Alabama’s victory against No. 17 BYU was its 13th over an AP Top 25 opponents this season, a program record.