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OMAHA, Neb. — BYU basketball’s season got here to an finish with a 71-67 loss to Duquesne in Thursday’s NCAA Match first spherical, the Cougars’ third straight first-round loss within the match and one in every of three 11-6 upsets on the opening day (shoutout to Oregon and South Carolina).
By way of the Cougars’ first Massive 12 marketing campaign, the crew returned to the NCAA Match for the primary time since 2021 solely to be bounced by an upstart A-10 champion making its first look in 47 years with a retiring coach (and incomes its first win since 1969).
However does the early postseason exit mar BYU’s season, together with the Cougars’ first season within the Massive 12?
“Clearly, our targets weren’t met this 12 months,” BYU level guard Dallin Corridor mentioned bluntly, after calling it a “season of resilience” earlier. “It is time to re-evaluate and set larger targets, to study from this and get higher. Whether or not we received at the moment or we misplaced at the moment, Kobe Bryant would all the time say, it is the identical factor the subsequent day: You stand up and return to work. That is what it’s for us.”
That recalibration contains an offseason of recruiting, when former Idaho star Isaac Davis and returned missionary Collin Chandler are anticipated to hitch the squad. It might additionally — or will seemingly additionally, based mostly on at the moment’s faculty basketball panorama — embody a glance to the switch portal to interchange departing seniors like high rebounder Spencer Johnson, walk-on Tredyn Christensen and anybody else who could be a part of the departures within the offseason.
“It has been an absolute dream to have the ability to play right here for 4 years,” mentioned Johnson, an American Fork Excessive grad who initially went to Weber State, Utah Valley and Salt Lake Neighborhood Faculty earlier than signing with BYU. “To see the expansion that we have taken as a program, as people, it has been unimaginable.”
Whether or not that features Jaxson Robinson, a senior with a 12 months of eligibility left as a result of COVID-19 pandemic however has early NBA curiosity, or Noah Waterman, who acquired a waiver for an additional season of eligibility final week, stays to be seen.
However a glance again on head coach Mark Pope’s fifth season in Provo is a reminder of what the Cougars achieved.
Picked to complete thirteenth by the coaches, BYU’s run included a fifth-place end of their inaugural Massive 12 season after ending fifth of their last season within the West Coast Convention.
That is largely as a result of a handful of upsets, together with house victories of top-25 applications Baylor and Iowa State and an exhilarating highway win at Kansas that snapped the Jayhawks’ then-19 recreation house successful streak.
Robinson led the best way with 14.2 factors per recreation, doing his work nearly completely off the bench en path to Massive 12 Sixth Man of the 12 months honors. The senior might return for one more 12 months of school basketball after graduating in April with a level in communications.
However the two-time switch from Texas A&M and Arkansas might additionally go for a professional profession within the NBA, G League or overseas.
Both means, the Robinson-led Cougars have skilled a wild trip that nobody — save essentially the most blue-goggled supporters of this system, however not even lots of them — would have anticipated when the crew took a preseason journey to Italy and Croatia final summer season.
But the thrilling wins, shut losses and thrilling moments aren’t what Pope will keep in mind essentially the most.
“It has been actually magical. However what’s one of the best half is watching our guys develop and grow to be one thing extra,” Pope mentioned previous to the NCAA Match. “I might take you man by man, however simply take into consideration Jaxson Robinson’s trajectory and the way a lot he is grown each single day at BYU. I consider a man like Dallin Corridor, who had the entire world on his shoulder with out numerous assist on the level and the way he is been in a position to reply in so many epic moments.
“Our veteran guys like Spencer Johnson and Trevin Knell, Noah Waterman’s development, Aly Khalifa’s magic and what he is introduced right here; that is all one of the best half is watching these guys develop as people and as males.”
If Robinson returns, the Cougars might have one other veteran crew able to serving to the Massive 12 earn its status as soon as once more of one of the best basketball convention within the nation.
However the Cougars even have one other downside, one shared by convention mates Texas Tech after Thursday’s upsets: making it previous the primary spherical.
For all that it achieved through the common season, BYU nonetheless hasn’t received a recreation within the NCAA Match since 2012, when a gaggle led by Brandon Davies, Noah Hartsock and Matt Carlino overturned a 15-point halftime deficit to beat Iona 78-72 within the First 4.
May the Cougars snap that streak subsequent season? Within the present age of school basketball, the place continuity is fleeting at the same time as BYU took a stab at it this 12 months, that will likely be as difficult as ever.
“We perceive what a multi-year course of it’s,” Pope mentioned. “From 12 months one final 12 months to 12 months two was epic development and development. I feel our program is hungry to proceed getting higher. We have made huge strides in that space. And sooner or later, you understand we’ll be progressing on this match. Jaxson and Spencer will likely be a giant a part of that as a result of they opened the door for this primary season within the Massive 12.”
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