Young optimistic about Cougars as team looks to bounce back

Coming off back-to-back losses to Arizona and Cincinnati, urgency has started to kick in for the Cougars.

BYU will finish off their two-game road trip as they take on the West Virginia Mountaineers Tuesday night. The Cougars will need to overcome a 6-6 start in conference play if it is going to have any chance of reaching its goal of making the NCAA tournament.

“I’m very confident in our ability to do that, we know what's at stake,” coach Kevin Young said in his weekly press conference.

BYU has shown many times this season that they can play with the best of them in this conference but being able to put it all together for the Cougars has become a scarce occurrence.

BYU held a 42-39 halftime lead against the Bearcats on Saturday but Cincinnati quickly separated itself in the second half as they went on a 18-0 run after they trailed the Cougars 44-43.

“Our defense definitely needs to get better, ” said Young.

Young believes that for the team to reach its goals, the defense must improve overall. Additionally, the Cougars need to finish possessions more effectively, rebound better, and limit turnovers to avoid putting their defense in difficult positions.

Young believes his team can finish strong as they enter the latter part of the team’s Big 12 schedule.

“Control what you can control,” said Young. “When we do the things that we want to do, we are a good basketball team and when we don’t, we come up short.”

The Cougars will have their hands full as they face West Virginia guard Javon Small, who Kevin Young said is “one of the most dynamic guards in the league.” Small is averaging 18.9 PPG and 5.3 APG while also shooting 42.4% from the field.

“He’ll challenge us and we’ll have to make sure we do a better job on him than we did the Cincinnati backcourt,” said Young.

The Mountaineers also boast one of the best defenses in the country as they are ranked No. 16 in opponent PPG, allowing just 63.6. They will be without All-American guard Tucker DeVries, who was recently ruled out for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury. DeVries is the son of first year West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries.

BYU enters Tuesday's contest with an identical record as the Mountaineers as both teams sit at 15-8 with an identical record of 6-6 in conference play.

With the Cougars currently projected to be one of the last four in according to Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology, there is little room for error.