Breaking down the Utah loss

By now the Cougars have figured out that playing better than an opponent for 80 percent of the game is not good enough. Playing better in crunch time is what matters. Now they just need to figure out a way to do that. I’m sure the coaches have watched enough film of the Arizona State, Wake Forest and Utah games to know what went wrong. The trick is transferring that information over to the players, who can shift into that “late-game execution” mode when they get into this situation again.
Still, I don’t see any reason for the Cougar faithful to jump ship, or for the team to panic. Even with three league losses the Cougars are still very capable of winning the conference title. With wins over the next week over Wyoming and Air Force, both games the Cougars should win, they’ll probably finish the first half of the season one game out, maybe even tied. Remember, Utah and New Mexico have simply won the games they were expected to win and lost the ones they were expected to lose. The Cougars, UNLV and San Diego State, on the other hand, have to make up for losses in which they were favored to win.
To me, the reasons BYU lost on Tuesday night are all fixable. The Cougars killed themselves from the free-throw line, didn’t get good looks on critical possessions late in the game and in overtime, and they ran out of gas in overtime – which to me is why Utah did get so many easy baskets in the extra five minutes.
But anyone who watched the Utah game and BYU’s other games has to recognize that this is still a solid basketball team. There were a lot of bright spots in that loss that, if built upon, will help the Cougars down the road. Despite missing seven free throws, Chris Miles played a good game. He was adequate on defense, Luke Nevill is simply that difficult to guard. And Miles’ offensive game and the confidence he showed was the best I’ve seen from him yet. How about Jimmer Fredette? Yes, he needs to be more patient at times and tends to force things on key possessions, but he made some huge baskets in scoring 21 points and dishing out 10 assists. Those are big-time numbers. What I hear most from fans is that Lee Cummard needs to take over games a little more. Perhaps, but I think his ability to stay within the flow of the game is one trait that makes him so good. What I’m really hearing most from fans is that Jonathan Tavernari does more bad than good. Even though he has a tendency to take the flashy and Hollywood route quite often, he’s still an extremely valuable piece to this team. Everyone, including the coaches, have been left shaking their heads many times when Tavernari tosses up quick shots or acrobatic shots. But ask every opposing coach that faces BYU and they’ll tell you, Tavernari is the key to beating BYU. In my opinion, the Cougars cannot win without him. He’s a good rebounder and has many offensive skills, and he is one of the top players in the MWC. For sure, there’s no one else on BYU’s bench who can add more to the Cougars’ chances to win. For some reason he’s in a little confidence slump right now. But I expect he’ll come out of it soon and BYU fans will be cheering him loudly when he goes on one of his quick scoring runs or hits a game-winning three. Don’t forget, his 3-pointer late against San Diego State was the basket that really put the dagger into the Aztecs.