Patrick Kinahan: Big 12 basketball locals headed in opposite directions


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Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS
  • BYU basketball is on track for an NCAA Tournament berth under coach Kevin Young.
  • Utah struggles with consistency and may miss the NCAA Tournament for the fourth year.
  • Coach Craig Smith's job could be at risk if Utah fails to improve.

SALT LAKE CITY — Separated by only two games in the Big 12 standings, BYU and Utah basketball appear headed in opposite directions starting the second half of conference play.

At 6-4 (15-6 overall), the Cougars are on track for an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament in Kevin Young's rookie season as head coach. After starting out at 1-3, BYU is only a 1-point overtime loss to Utah away from a six-game winning streak.

The Utes (12-9, 4-6 Big 12) have yet to prove the ability to consistently play well. They erased an 0-3 start by winning the next three, but have since lost three of the last four games.

A soft nonconference schedule obscured the fact that BYU, which was incorporating several new players, needed time to mesh all the parts together. The coaching staff, most of which arrived at BYU last spring, also needed time to figure out playing rotations.

"I think we are finding our way offensively," Young said. "I think consistently our pace has improved a lot over the last four or five games. I think we are finding some rhythm there," he said. "I think offensively, identity-wise, we are trending in the right direction."

Young experimented with multiple starting lineups through the first two months before settling on a group that includes Mawot Mag in place of touted freshman Kanon Catchings. Mag, a rangy 6-foot-7 senior transfer from Rutgers, has bolstered BYU's defense and hit several big shots in recent games.

"I think defensively we are continuing to explore matchups, explore coverages, explore how much we want to just keep Mawot on certain guys, versus switching, which we do a lot of," Young said. "So those are areas we are continuing to improve upon."

Trending in the right direction in several NCAA projections, BYU heads into the back half of the conference schedule with plenty of opportunities to solidify an at-large berth. The schedule is stacked with Quad 1 opponents, starting with No. 20 Arizona at the Marriott Center.

At 9-1, the Wildcats are tied with Houston atop the Big 12 standings. BYU will also play ranked opponents Kansas and Iowa State, in addition to a return game against Arizona in Tucson.

"I look at (tournament projections) from time to time, but we really do just try to go one game at a time and just look at the next game that is in front of us. That has served us well," Young said. "Hopefully, we stack up enough wins to put ourselves in the tournament.

"Obviously, I am aware, and I do say to the guys that we have work to do. We don't get into the nuts and bolts of what that looks like, but I think our guys are smart enough to know that we've got to continue to play good basketball and win games."

Utah, which also padded the win total with an easy nonconference portion, likely is facing a fourth consecutive season under Craig Smith without making the NCAA Tournament. The Utes haven't played in the tournament since 2016 and only twice in the last 16 seasons.

In his fourth season as the coach, Smith probably will need his team to win the Big 12 Tournament next month to gain the automatic berth. Another trip to the NIT or no postseason play could put his job in jeopardy.

Through the 10 conference games, Utah is 13th in scoring at 64.7 points per game. The Utes also don't have a player in the top 25 in points per game.

Leading scorer Gabe Madsen, who averages 15 points a game, has yet to find a shooting rhythm since conference play began. East Carolina transfer Ezra Ausar has averaged 15 points over the last five games, which includes 1 point against Houston.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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CollegeSportsBYU CougarsUtah Utes
Patrick is a radio host for 97.5/1280 The Zone and the Zone Sports Network. He, along with David James, are on the air Monday-Friday from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.

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