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UCF forward Jordan Burks, center, steals the ball away from BYU forward AJ Dybantsa, left, during the second half an NCAA college basketball game, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in Provo, Utah.

Tyler Tate, AP Photo

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BYU forward AJ Dybantsa (3) looks to shoot over UCF forward Jordan Burks (99) during the first half an NCAA college basketball game, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in Provo, Utah.

Tyler Tate, AP Photo

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UCF forward Jordan Burks (99) shoots over BYU guard Robert Wright III (1) during the first half an NCAA college basketball game, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in Provo, Utah.

Tyler Tate, AP Photo

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BYU has been a second half team all season, but coming all the way back from down 36 points is a pretty big ask.

If you bleed blue, your blood had to be boiling Tuesday night, because the Cougars were horrifyingly awful in a 97-84 loss to UCF in the Marriott Center.

Anyone who sat through the painful 40 minutes of the game (whether in the arena or watching on TV) knows that the 13-point final margin is a mirage: BYU was never in this game after the first few minutes.

Cougar head coach Kevin Young was at a loss to explain what he witnessed.

“It’s hard to put your finger on it really, truly,” he said on his post-game radio interview. “I’m a ‘why’ guy. I like I want to know why things happen. So I didn’t have a great answer for that. I thought we looked tired. I thought we looked disinterested and it was super disappointing.”

Coming off an upset of No. 6 Iowa State on Saturday — the Cyclones actually moved up to No. 4 in Monday’s AP poll — there was hope that BYU had figured out a plan for moving on without the injured Richie Saunders.

But Tuesday was a nightmare. Definitely not worth the price of admission for the stunned sellout crowd, and certainly not worth whatever the players are getting paid from NIL these days.

The Cougars were laughably and completely outplayed, starting out bewildered on defense and inept on offense and never showing any amount of fight to not get dominated.

“We just couldn’t find the right thing to grab a hold of, to plant the flag , ‘This is what’s going to get it done,'” Young said. “We were kind of plugging holes all over the place, and it felt like we were just drowning.”

The beating began early as BYU couldn’t find any of UCF’s shooters at the 3-point line. The Golden Knights made 11 of 16 from distance in the first 20 minutes, most without a Cougar defender in sight. Jordan Burks made back-to-back 3-pointers for a 20-6 UCF lead five minutes into the game and the deficit just kept growing reaching 20 points with four minutes remaining . A triple from Themus Fulks gave the visitors a stunning 24-point lead, 52-28, at halftime.

“I thought we did a poor job in our one-on-one defense,” Young said. “I thought we did a poor job of getting out to shooters. Maybe the respect wasn’t there, for whatever reason. They (UCF) got comfortable, and I just didn’t think they felt us at all in the first half. It was just like they were playing a pickup game.”

Four players had multiple 3-pointers for UCF in the first half, led by Chris Johnson (3-4) and Burks (3-5). BYU, meanwhile, had no giddy-up on offense, shooting 11 of 35 (31%) from the field and 3 of 11 (27%) from the 3-point line.

If Cougar fans had any hopes of a stirring second half comeback, those hopes were dashed immediately. The Golden Knights scored 12 straight points to open the second half to push their lead to 36 points, 64-28, with 16:25 to play. Boos rained down as Young was forced to call a time out just 90 seconds into the second half, but no amount of changes or challenges could snap his players out of their malaise.

The Cougars managed to find some offense in second half, scoring 58 points. They made up some ground late but never really threatened to make it a game.

“The Big 12 is a beast and you can’t take any game lightly,” said guard Tyler Mrus, whose hustle and intensity was part of the second half showing. “They came out ready to play and we didn’t come out as ready to play. They were just blitzing us. They were hitting the wide open guys and they couldn’t miss from three. I don’t think we saw that coming.”

Burks and Fulks paced UCF (20-7 overall, 9-6 Big 12) with 24 points each — Fulks also had 11 assists — and Jamichael Stillwell contributed 12 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. The Golden Knights finished 14 of 24 from the 3-point line (58%).

Not that any of BYU’s numbers mattered, but AJ Dybantsa scored 29 points and Rob Wright, at one point 1 of 10 from the field, had 20 points and seven assists. Dybantsa scored 19 points and Wright 16 in the second half when the game was already decided. Aleksij Kostic made 4 of 9 from the 3-point line and scored a career high 14 points. But the deciding factor was 3-point shooting, where the Cougars were 9 of 27 (33%), outscored by 15 points from beyond the arc by the Golden Knights.

BYU (20-8, 8-7) will attempt to figure out a way to recover from Tuesday’s debacle all the way across the country with a two-game road trip at West Virginia on Saturday and at Cincinnati on Tuesday.