Showdown with No. 8 Houston provides opportunity for No. 16 BYU to find itself

Looking through a creative lens, you can find a connection to almost everything, and that includes the recent struggles of the BYU basketball team, the near disaster of Apollo 13, and Houston.

It is nearly 56 years since the spacecraft ran into trouble on its mission to the moon. It will also be 45½ hours between BYU’s 99-92 loss at Oklahoma State and the time the No. 16 Cougars tip off against No. 8 Houston in Provo on Saturday (8:30 p.m. MST, ESPN).

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BYU’s journey is not a life-threatening drama that the astronauts on board Apollo 13 faced, but the Cougars do share a scenario of having an unexpected problem show up that threatens their mission, with limited time to fix it.

After an oxygen tank exploded, the astronauts of Apollo 13 had six days to chart a course back to Earth before they would run out of air. Losers in four of their last five games, BYU has six weeks to breathe life back into its high hopes for the NCAA Tournament.

The crisis facing Apollo 13 was technical. BYU’s issue is mostly mental. The Cougars need an identity. They need to come to terms with what kind of team they want to be and then go be the best version of it.

In recent weeks, the defense has weakened, critical rebounds have become elusive, and the gap has widened between shot taking and shot making. The guys haven’t quit. The fight is still there, but when playing with wounded confidence, their hesitancy to connect, react and respond is illuminated and exposed.

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As opposing Big 12 defenses have shown, the Cougars need more than the Big 3 and yet they need more from them at the same time. AJ Dybantsa, Richie Saunders and Rob Wright III are the engines that make BYU go.

On any given night, any one of them can steal the show, as Dybantsa did with 36 points at Oklahoma State. Saunders scored 33 last Saturday at Kansas — but BYU lost both games and it has been a while since all three have played big on the same night.

Likewise, consistency from Keba Keita and Kennard Davis…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/showdown-no-8-houston-provides-184246248.html

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Publish date : 2026-02-06 18:42:00

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