Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
PROVO — As much as the focus should have been on No. 21 BYU's skid-busting 84-72 win over Texas, the season-long conversation around the University of Texas' contempt for a maligned hand signal in Austin took center stage Saturday afternoon.
Before the game, a handful of BYU students made their way to the front row of the Roar of Cougars' student section with T-shirts that read "H-O-R-N-S D-O-W-N," spelled out letter-by-letter, nine people across, in a corner of the stands adjacent to the Texas' bench.
So Mark Pope, after celebrating a win over a top-40 team in KenPom that snapped the Longhorns' two-game winning streak in Big 12 play, ended his postgame media availability with an unprompted comment.
"From the ROC and from our players and our student body, that's just not us," he said. "That's not how we roll. It was just a miscalculation on a couple of eager kids, which we love the eagerness of these fans, but that's not what we do here. We love all 18,000 in this gym; they were incredible. But just so you know, that's not us."
By the first media timeout, with 13:42 on the clock of a game that BYU (15-5, 3-4 Big 12) led by as much as 17, the students were asked to remove the shirts by officials from the university. They quickly obliged, but not before photos of the incident had been taken and sent around the world on social media.
BYU officials said the request did not come from Texas head coach Rodney Terry, who faced backlash earlier in the season when he confronted UCF players for celebrating the Knights' 77-71 win with the polarizing gesture.
"We never go into games trying to hope to win. We go into games expecting to win," Terry said at the time after calling the gesture classless in the postgame handshake line. "So we don't act like that. We expect to win; we don't jump up and down and act like we won the national championship. We sure don't step on anyone's home court and act crazy and try to show them up in any way. We don't do that. That's what I was angry about, and I was letting those guys know, you don't do that."
The game was the first sellout in Big 12 play for BYU, with an announced crowd of 17,878 — just the second sellout of the season that moved BYU into a tie for ninth place with Oklahoma (15-5) and Texas (14-6) at 3-4 in Big 12 play.
Here's what #Texas head coach Rodney said happened in the handshake line with #UCF:
— Tyler Feldman (@TylerFeldmanTV) January 18, 2024
"About 6 or 7 guys putting the horns down. We don't do that because when you do those kinds of things, it looks very classless."#HookEm | @KVUEpic.twitter.com/qV0nVNgb24
Terry didn't comment on the "horns down" incident after the game — nor was he asked to comment when he met with the media after the game, but he did compliment the Cougars' league-leading crowd, as have several coaches in BYU's first season in the Big 12.
"Great environment today, great atmosphere," Terry said. "You know, BYU fans came in and really supported their team really well and got behind their guys. We know today we were going to get a team ready to play coming off a tough loss to Houston. ... They're a great team."
Texas, which is in its final year of Big 12 play before joining the SEC with Oklahoma for the 2024-25 academic year, is back home Monday to host No. 4 Houston.
BYU has a midweek bye before traveling to West Virginia for a 6 p.m. MST tipoff next Saturday, Feb. 3.
