BYU’s loss to Alabama will sting, but Kevin Young’s future bright – Deseret News

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After BYU’s loss to Alabama, there’s a feeling that head coach Kevin Young was just kicking the tires this year.

Instead of the end of a season, it may be the start of a new era for Cougar basketball.

Young started the season with a learning curve and ended it with valuable NCAA Tournament experience after his first year as a major college coach at BYU.

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On Thursday night in the Sweet 16, No. 6 seed BYU stepped into the bright burning sun of No. 2 seed Alabama’s bomb show and blinked.

Nobody’s ever had 25 3-pointers rained down upon them in NCAA Tournament history until BYU did in New Jersey as it lost to Alabama 113-88.

“The future at BYU is incredibly bright,” said Young. “I think anyone that pays attention to the sport would agree with that.”

—  BYU coach Kevin Young

Historic and amazing.

For both teams.

BYU decided to go under Alabama’s ball screens. That opened the door for the nation’s top shooting team to light them up bonfire style.

Now, Young wants to make sure it never happens again.

Unless it’s his guys doing the bombing.

Alabama came into the BYU game with 6-of-21 and 7-of-17 shooting from distance in a pair of NCAA tourney wins. As the No. 1 2-point shooting team, Young’s staff emphasized stopping that aspect of Alabama’s attack and analytically believed a struggling Mark Sears and Company would cool off.

They never did, and Sears made 10 treys.

No shame in losing to a blistering-hot team like that. All-American Sears was on fire while Cougar Trevin Knell’s 3-pointer just 10-seconds after intermission earned him a technical foul.

It was that kind of night for the Cougars.

This weekend, Young returns to his office with far more credibility as a college coach than he came in with last April when he replaced Kentucky-bound Mark Pope.

His team finished 26-10. His program has a clear identity and blueprint….

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Source link : https://www.deseret.com/sports/2025/03/28/byu-sweet-16-loss-to-alabama-will-sting-but-kevin-young-future-is-bright/

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Publish date : 2025-03-28 18:37:00

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