Same story for Cougars in NCAAs — quick exit, somebody's career day

BYU’s sixth-straight loss in the NCAA Tournament looked just like the others.

The Cougars simply did not rise to the occasion and allowed an opponent to have great game.

That’s break downs on offense and defense.

A few years ago in Denver against Syracuse, it was a guy named McNamara, who lit up the Cougars from the outside with 40-something points. He hit three-pointers from all over the floor that night.

On Thursday, it was Josh Carter, who led the NCAA in 3-point shooting last year but has been streaky this season. Not on this night. Carter hit a career-high 26 points and his bombs early set the Cougars on their heels.

Over the course of the season, the Cougars have been a good offensive team. They’ve rebounded well and scored atop the league in offensive output and been good defenders against the 3-point shot. But none of that showed in this game.

Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon put it well, “They were daring us (to shoot threes),” said Turgeon. “If I’m on (BYU’s) bench, looking at us in warm-ups, I’m probably thinking the same thing, just because we look so big and strong. It was the right game plan (by BYU). We just happened to make shots.”

That, in a capsule, was the game.

In the end, BYU’s Lee Cummard, the Cougars mule all year when Trent Plaisted and Jonathan Tavernari disappeared in games, looked like he wore down. Just like in the UNLV game, he worked like a dog but it didn’t show in the box score at key times as the drew intense defensive pressure. I think Cummard got tired the past two weeks.

Some folks wonder why Cummard didn’t guard Carter early. Perhaps because by doing so, he may have got in foul trouble and had to sit out the game. BYU cannot afford to have Cummard on the bench, he does so much. So perhaps it became a Catch 22 for Dave Rose. He rode Cummard so long and hard, that he didn’t have anything left in the post season.

After making a 3-pointer with just over three minutes to play, Cummard, I don’t think, took another shot. He didn’t take a shot in the game until almost five minutes had gone by and the Cougars were down 11-0.

The positives from BYU’s season is that they will return a lot of key players for next season. The big departure is that of Chris Collinsworth to a mission to Australia. I believe Collinsworth was working his way into starter minutes. A great rebounder, he is also a fine defender and had some offensive tools to really help next season. Who knows what he’ll be like when he returns. I don’t think Mark Bigelow ever played as well as he did his freshman year when he left for two seasons for a mission. It’s tough.

Fredette’s return will be huge for Rose. He is a player and has a great mind for the flow of a game. The Cougars get back Jackson Emery, a former Mr. Basketball in the state of Utah, who actually played some of the same minutes as Cummard got as a freshman. Nobody knows if Emery will have it when he returns from his two years off. Same for freshman recruit, 6-8 Noah Hartstock.

Anyway, the Dave Rose will have more building blocks this coming season than he had a year ago when he got the Cougars their second MWC title. The next big story to watch for this team is what Plaisted does. He’s got agents telling him he has to come out and take the money. He’s got others telling him he’s not ready, to wait. There is arguments for both cases. He can make a bundle, even in Europe, but anybody who has watched him play knows he has got to spend more time in the oven to be all he can become.