‘Not good enough’: Kevin Young takes aim at post play after discouraging loss to No. 8 Houston

After Saturday night’s discouraging 77-66 loss to No. 8 Houston in front of 18,188 at the Marriott Center, BYU coach Kevin Young was clearly miffed over a lot of aspects of his team’s play as the Cougars lost a fourth straight game for the first time since February 2023.

But the second-year BYU coach saved perhaps his harshest criticism for his centers, 6-foot-8 senior Keba Keita and 6-10 sophomore Abdullah “Bido” Ahmed.

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While Keita and Ahmed were solid defensively — Keita blocked three shots and Ahmed one — the duo missed a boatload of shots in the paint, giving away points that were sorely needed down the stretch.

“Go make a shot,” Young said. “I don’t know what else to say. The two of them were 3 of 10 combined, and then 3 of 8 from the free-throw line, so those are basically seven missed layups and five missed free throws between your two centers.

“Not good enough.”

Keita and Ahmed were actually were 3 of 7 from the free-throw line, but maybe Young was counting a bonus opportunity that Keita missed with 12:10 remaining and the blue Cougars leading 52-50. Two made free throws there would have given the home team a two-possession lead.

Instead, it kicked off a streak of three straight misses, including Ahmed’s dunk attempt, which was blocked.

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BYU’s bigs were also less than stellar when Houston had the ball in the final nine minutes or so, as the red Cougars scored 10 of their 17 second-chance points in that stretch.

In an ironic twist, Ahmed got away with goal tending on one UH shot, only to have freshman Kingston Flemings finish the possession with a 3-point play.

Losing “one-on-one battles is what it looked like from the sideline,” Young said of BYU giving up 13 offensive rebounds. “Disappointing, because (with) that and missed free throws, it felt like we had our chances and didn’t capitalize.”

“If we step up there and make free throws, it is a different ball game.”

BYU wing AJ Dybantsa

Young said during one of the late timeouts he told the players the game was going to be won or lost on the glass.

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“And we weren’t able to come up with (them),” he said. “We gotta be better.”

After the 90-82 loss at Kansas, Young said a lot of BYU’s woes against the best teams on its schedule could be attributed to a lack of consistent shot-making. Poor defense was primarily the culprit in the 99-92 loss at OSU, but then the bricks and clanks reared their ugly head again Saturday night.

Of course, Houston should be credited for some of those misfires — coach Kelvin Sampson’s teams are always among the best in the country in defensive field goal percentage.

But going 13 of 31 from 2-point range is not going to get the job done against any team in the Big 12, let alone last year’s national runner-up. Players not named AJ Dybantsa or Rob Wright were 6 of 30 from the field.

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“If we step up there and make free throws, it is a different ball game,” said Dybantsa, who was 9 of 14 from the field, but just 7 of 12 from the free-throw line.

Normally the most reliable shooter on the team, Richie Saunders was 1 of 8, including 1 of 6 from 3-point range.

“Yeah, they were great (defensively) on Richie,” Young said. “I thought they did a good job with one-on-one defense, and then on 3s as well. That was a big part, clearly, of their game plan, which they did a good job on him.”

Saunders did extend his 3-point streak to 14 games with a triple with 10:04 left in the first half.

The gauntlet of difficult games continues on Tuesday night, as BYU (17-6, 5-5) now travels to Waco, Texas, to take on Baylor (13-10, 3-8) at Foster Pavilion. The Bears have won two of their last three games, including an 86-67 walloping of Colorado the last time they played at Foster Pavilion.

Saturday, they made a ferocious comeback before falling 72-69 to No. 7 Iowa State in Ames.