BYU added another unranked loss to their record after dropping to West Virginia.
That is now two straight losses to unranked teams, which will bring major consequences when it comes to March Madness bracket seeding.
The Cougars traveled to West Virginia, the heavy favorites to come out on top. But the Mountaineers pulled ahead at the end of the first half and never surrendered the lead, winning 79 to 71 against No. 19 BYU.
BYU’s head coach Kevin Young was not amused by his team’s first-half performance when addressing the media after the loss.
“It was a joke in the first half,” Young said. “It was a joke. Just some of the clips we watched at halftime were inexcusable.”
And, this seems to keep happening. The first-half effort has been a pain point for BYU this whole season.
“This game, it was our decision making: driving into the crowd, turning the ball over, not getting shots on goal,” Young said. “When we did what we were supposed to do on offense, we actually did a decent enough job. And then the defensive intensity was abysmal, like I said in the first half.”
During a media conference on Monday, Young immediately addressed the defensive intensity issue.
“Number one, we’ve gotta rebound better,” Young said. “I thought we gave up too many second chance points down the stretch there and our one-on-one defense was poor. So, we just gotta be better one-on-one, bottom line.”
The Cougars will finish out their regular season with a matchup in Cincinnati on Tuesday night and a home game rematch against No. 10 Texas Tech.