Coach Kevin Young says regaining confidence is the key to getting Cougars out of tailspin

CINCINNATI — Coach Kevin Young’s BYU basketball team is in a tailspin right now, losing three straight games and nine of its last 13 to tumble down the Big 12 standings and into a first-round conference tournament game next week in Kansas City, regardless of what happens Saturday against No. 10 Texas Tech at the Marriott Center.

After unranked and reeling BYU was thoroughly thrashed 90-68 by a much-improved Cincinnati team late Tuesday night at Fifth Third Arena in front of more than 12,000 jubilant fans and a national television audience, Young said the antidote to BYU’s current situation is quite simple.

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In addition to playing harder, better and with more effort, Young said his injury-depleted squad needs to regain the confidence that carried it to a 16-1 start overall and 4-0 start in Big 12 play.

“I think our confidence is a little bit shook right now as a group,” Young said. “I just want our guys to play with more belief, more inner belief, more belief in themselves, belief in each other.”

Young said that when things are going well in sports, players and coaches feel like they are on top of the world. When they are not, “it feels like the world is caving in,” Young said.

Obviously, the Cougars’ late-season collapse has affected confidence, and some have questioned if the will to win and the effort are there after star forward Richie Saunders sustained a season-ending knee injury against Colorado.

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The Cougars (20-10, 8-9) were slipping before Saunders’ injury — but they were mostly competitive in the 84-71 loss to then-No. 15 Texas Tech in Lubbock, the 90-82 loss to then-No. 14 Kansas in Lawrence, among other games. Their weaknesses, and utter lack of defense in some cases, were really exposed in the 99-92 loss at Oklahoma State on Feb. 4.

But Tuesday night in Cincinnati was BYU’s worst loss of the year, in terms of effort and margin of defeat.

“You have to be able to manage that, and that’s part of going through a…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/coach-kevin-young-says-regaining-221500749.html

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Publish date : 2026-03-04 22:15:00

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