Focus on toughness, togetherness, has spurred No. 23 BYU’s remarkable turnaround

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BYU center Keba Keita (13) celebrates with teammate forward Mawot Mag during game against Iowa State, Tuesday, March 4, 2025, in Ames, Iowa. | Charlie Neibergall, Associated Press

A lot of teams would have collapsed after giving up a 21-point lead on the road in one of the most hostile environments in all of college basketball and being on the wrong side of most of the whistles down the stretch in Ames, Iowa, on Tuesday night.

But these BYU Cougars have shown the past month that they are not an ordinary team in building a seven-game winning streak, five of those victories of the Quad 1 variety, to earn a top-four seed or better in next week’s Big 12 tournament and put themselves squarely in the Big Dance.

After the Cougars (22-8, 13-6) edged the Cyclones 88-85 in double overtime, coach Kevin Young told the BYU Sports Network there was a change of mindset a month ago, on Feb. 1 when BYU beat UCF 81-75 in Orlando, after trailing 40-38 at halftime.

“We had a little situation in Orlando at halftime, in the locker room, where enough was enough in terms of teams punking us, pushing us, not letting us hold space, taking the ball from us,” Young said. “And I think since that moment we have grown a ton in that area, and we are really imposing our will on teams now.”

The Cougars still committed a whopping 29 turnovers against ISU, one of the best teams in the country at getting takeaways. But they made up for it with a relentless effort in the rebounding department, out-boarding the home team 52-24 at Hilton Coliseum, where it is now 33-2 the last two years.

Keba Keita’s chase-down block of an attempted dunk was emblematic of that new mindset, Young said.

“He never gives up on plays,” Young said. “That’s the attitude our team has really adopted. … Iowa State made it extremely challenging for us. But I think our group has really grown, and we clearly have more room to grow in that area. But to be able to gut one out in this place, I don’t know what their home record…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/focus-toughness-togetherness-spurred-no-233000817.html

Author : Deseret News

Publish date : 2025-03-05 23:30:00

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