Analysis: Backsliding BYU hits rock bottom in noncompetitive 90-68 loss to red-hot Cincinnati

CINCINNATI — In what came as absolutely no surprise to anybody who has been paying attention the past few weeks, once-ranked and mighty BYU was pulverized 90-68 by red-hot Cincinnati on Tuesday night in front of a sellout crowd of 12,012 at Fifth Third Arena.

That some people believed the Cougars, who have now lost three straight and nine of their last 13, were going to somehow flip a switch and revert to their winning ways seems quite laughable at this point. BYU’s hope for something beside a double-digit seed in the NCAA Tournament took another big hit, and another Quad 1 opportunity fell by the wayside.

Actually, it fell as flat as the Cougars (8-9, 20-10), who inched even closer to having to play in a first-round game in next week’s Big 12 tournament.

And they should be hoping not to have to face the Bearcats (9-8, 17-13), who are playing with a sense of urgency and desperation that somehow has evaded BYU coach Kevin Young’s team the past month, with the exception of that upset of No. 6 Iowa State in the friendly confines of the Marriott Center.

A mark of a mediocre team, or worse, is that it cannot play as well on the road in the face of a raucous crowd as it can at home, and that certainly applies to BYU.

Hoping to make amends for that 79-71 loss at unranked West Virginia three days ago, the Cougars looked even more lost on defense, discombobulated on offense and as out of sorts as at any time this season on Tuesday.

“Dug ourselves in a hole to start the game with just bad offense,” Young said. “They had 13 points off the turnovers in the first half, and that continued in the second.

“It was a 21-4 deficit for points off turnovers. Makes it tough to win. We were just careless with the ball.”

Meanwhile, homestanding Cincinnati played with fire and passion, beating BYU to 50-50 balls all night and taking advantage of all kinds of mismatches to win going away.

Sure, BYU superstar freshman AJ Dybantsa had a game-high 23 points, but he had to hoist up 21 shots to get there, and was 1 of 8 from 3-point range.

Point guard Rob Wright added 21 points on 8 of 16 shooting, but did not have a single assist in 32 minutes.

That’s just not winning basketball.

Wright (four) and Dybantsa combined for nine of BYU’s 15 turnovers, which, as Young noted, Cincy turned into 21 points.

Playing against another soft defensive effort from BYU, Cincy had just seven turnovers, and several of those came in the meaningless last few minutes.

“They just took the ball from us. Really, that’s the bottom line,” Young said. “We got to do a better job with our decision making.

“That’s been an area that we have struggled in. I mean, Rob and AJ had the ball a lot. They had nine turnovers between the two of them, so that’s gotta improve.”

The Cougars did improve in the rebounding department after that was the culprit in their loss to WVU, which is saying something considering Cincy has one of the tallest front courts in the Big 12 — paced by Baba Miller and Moustapha Thiam.

Those two combined for 31 points and 21 rebounds, and completely dominated inside. Super senior Day Day Thomas added 12, and Jizzle James and Jalen Celestine contributed 18 apiece as five Bearcats reached double figures.

Young said he will be happy to see Thomas and James move on after the backcourt duo killed the Cougars last year here as well.

What the Cougars — relegated to being a two-man team, pretty much, without Richie Saunders — would give to have that kind of balance.

Freshman Aleksej Kostic is coming along — he had another decent night off the bench with 14 points on 5 of 9 shooting — but starter Khadim Mboup didn’t score in 12 minutes, starting center Keba Keita was virtually non-existent on offense with two points and four fouls in 21 minutes and Kennard Davis Jr. only had six points and a rebound in 21 minutes.

Young got so desperate that he turned to seldom-used Dominique Diomande for 13 minutes. The Washington transfer played some decent defense and had five rebounds, but it is too late in the season to expect much more from him.

At times, Dybantsa tries to do too much, and it appears that he’s wearing down, along with Wright. Both missed a lot of shots that they normally make.

“Not well,” Dybantsa said when he was asked how he fared against UC’s double-teaming and constant harassment. “Just turned the ball over, careless passes, not being strong with the ball. They were just being physical. I thought I was getting to my spots.

“I could have settled. I mean, I think I did settle for tough (shots) at times. … For the most part, I was getting good looks, but I was just trying to be more physical with the ball and stop making stupid turnovers.”

If there was another stat — aside from points off turnovers — that symbolized the game, it was UC’s 12 fast break points, to BYU’s two. Nothing fires up a home crowd more than a steal and fast break dunk, and UC had plenty of those.

Nothing comes easy for this BYU offense anymore. The Cougars shot 41% from the floor, 29% from 3-point range and almost got to free throw line as much as the Bearcats, but couldn’t deliver much there, either.

They were 13 of 19 from the charity stripe.

Dybantsa was 8 of 11 from the line, and was greeted with chants of “overrated” or “Boozer is better” at almost every appearance at the line.

Cincinnati continued to pour it on late — Celestine popped a 3-pointer with 56 seconds remaining and his team up by 19 — but Young had nothing but praise for the Bearcats, who are playing like a team that could do some damage in the Big 12 Tournament.

BYU is not.

“You got to give Wes (Miller) tons of credit,” Young said. “He was feeling like I’m feeling right now a couple weeks ago. He’s a competitive guy.

“He’s a good coach, and he’s done a good job of finding a rhythm with this particular group that he’s playing with right now.”

Offensive rhythm is no longer in BYU’s vocabulary. Dybantsa, who reached 20 points or more for the 23rd time this season, and Wright are Young’s only options. An issue moving forward is that some guys are regressing instead of improving, guys such as Mihailo Boskovic and Keita.

Of course, awful starts also continue to plague the Cougars. There always seems to be a different reason for BYU’s first-half struggles, and on this night it was turnovers. The Cougars committed 10 in the first half, which Cincy turned into 13 points.

Dybantsa pressed too much in the first half, and committed five turnovers to go with eight points, two rebounds and four assists.

He was 3 of 11 from the field in the first half, 0 for 4 from 3-point range.

Young went with his seventh different starting lineup this season, to no avail. Cincinnati went on a 14-2 run early in the first half to take control, get the crowd involved, and force Young into burning a timeout to stop the bleeding.

BYU trailed by as many as 16 points, 37-21, with just under five minutes remaining in the half before Kostic hit some shots late in the half to make it 43-31 at the break.

The Cougars tightened their defense in the final minutes of the first half, but couldn’t sustain it into the second half.

So the Cougars turn their attention to Saturday’s home finale against No. 16 Texas Tech, which was upset by TCU on Tuesday night in Lubbock.

Young said his message to the Cougars after the discouraging loss was a simple one.

“I just want our guys to continue to believe in each other and believe in themselves,” he said.

Not many others are doing that right now, for obvious reasons.