Richie Saunders leads the way as the Cougars dominate No. 23 Kansas

The lights were bright, the Marriott Center was packed, and the stage was set for one of the most memorable nights in BYU basketball history.

The Cougars were ready, and took full advantage. They dismantled the No. 23 Jayhawks 91-57, who are now 0-2 against the Cougars since BYU joined the Big 12.

In 2021, when BYU announced it was joining the Big 12, it was only a pipe dream that BYU could even compete, let alone finish ahead of Kansas in the conference in its first two seasons. Now, BYU is in a prime position to do just that.

BYU came out of the gates and punched Kansas square in the mouth. Trevin Knell started the game with a corner 3-point field goal to pass 1,000 career points and never looked back. The Cougars led wire-to-wire, and the Jayhawks had no answer for the Cougars offensive attack all night.

Richie Saunders was the star of the game and was perfect in the first half. He knocked down all five of his field goal attempts, including 4 of 4 from the 3-point line. He once again personified BYU's point-five offense to perfection.

"Our pace and transition again. I've said it's what we do best," Saunders said. "When we are playing on attack ... we call it point-five. We have point five seconds to make a read, whether its drive it, shoot it, pass it. I feel like when we do that, it just creates so many open looks for each other."

BYU assisted on all 15 of its made field goals in the first half because they all followed Saunders example.

Saunders finished the game with 22 points and a team +33 in box plus/minus. Knell was just as stellar, scoring 13 points on 4 of 6 shooting from behind the line in the first half, he had 15 points overall.

Mawot Mag also showed his range and connected on 4 of his 5 first half shots including two 3s. The Cougars pushed the pace early and got anything they wanted in transition, especially from the 3-point line. Led by its veteran's BYU jumped out to a 25-10 lead.

"It got away from us real quick," Kansas center Hunter Dickinson said. "I feel like that's where the game was lost."

The Jayhawks made their only real run of the night and cut their deficit to eight, down 25-17, but BYU shut the door due to their incredible 3-point shooting.

The Cougars were 10 of 24 from 3 in the first half, and led 46-26 at halftime against the fifth-highest-rated defense in the country. They finished the night 14 of 36 overall from 3 as they continue to be one of the best shooting teams in the country.

BYU coach Kevin Young had his team executing offensively at its highest level all season. "That's our guys playing the way we want to play," he said.

BYU led 54-29 at halftime, and the game was over. The Cougars exploited every mismatch, ran every action and ran Kansas off the floor. Everything BYU touched turned into into gold.

The Jayhawks came out in the second half and still could still not find any rhythm on offense. The Cougars stifled the Jayhawks offense the whole night. BYU held Kansas to 36% shooting from the floor and had 14 steals, but it was the Cougars offense that had the Jayhawks so deflated.

"That's the best anybody's played against us all season," Self said.

Photo by Wilson Gustaveson

In fact, it's the best any team has played against Kansas in decades. It's the worst loss in Self's tenure as Kansas head coach and the first time ever the Jayhawks have lost to a team by 30 points or more to a team outside of the AP Poll ever.

In front of a national audience on ESPN, BYU had their best performance of the season. Kansas had their absolute worst.

What BYU has been building has been a season long progress. Close losses to Texas Tech, TCU and Utah stung, but did not deter BYU in its ultimate pursuit of being the best possible team in the postseason. The Cougars are still ascending into the team they can be, and the pieces to the puzzle are still falling into place with this deep and connected roster.

" One of my mentors, Monty Williams, said all the time, 'just stack days,''' Young said. "You know, just stack one day after the next and when you get toward later part of the year, it all starts to add up. So I think it's a residual effect of that. I'm really proud of our team for being mature and being able to handle the deeper rotation."

For much of this season the focus has been the talent BYU has played on the floor with Egor Demin and Kanon Catchings garnering attention as NBA prospects. But the story for the Cougars now, after another impressive showing. is how connected this team is. The Cougars talent is now meshing together to make an impressive whole.

Up next for BYU is a rematch against the No. 19 Arizona is Tucson on Saturday.