Resilient BYU basketball has made right adjustments in first Big 12 season

PROVO — Say what needs to be said about this BYU men's basketball team, but the No. 25 Cougars have proven resilient.

Once reliant on the 3-point shot, BYU has also won games by turning to a two-man post rotation of Aly Khalifa and Fousseyni Traore, won another game from the free-throw line, and held No. 11 Baylor to seven offensive rebounds for a 20-4 edge in second-chance points en route to Tuesday's 81-72 victory over the Bears.

Find a way to win? These Cougars are doing it, which is why the once-13th picked team in the Big 12 preseason coaches poll finds itself on the cusp of 20 wins as it heads to Kansas State (15-11, 5-8 Big 12) Saturday afternoon (12 p.m. MST, ESPN+).

"I think our teams have always been pretty good at responding," BYU coach Mark Pope said just five days removed from a 93-83 loss to last-place Oklahoma State. "Going into the season, we talked about not riding too high or too low. We've talked a lot as a team and an organization about how maybe the biggest challenge of this league is just to come out fresh every day because of the competition level. These guys have really embraced that; whatever happened on Tuesday, it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters if we come to the next game fresh."

Winning on the road hasn't come easy, which is why the Cougars (19-7, 7-6 Big 12) aren't looking over a Kansas State squad that has lost seven of its last eight games after a 62-56 loss Monday evening at Texas.

The Wildcats are led by Cam Carter's 15.2 points per game and Tylor Perry's 15.1, but rank 181st nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency in KenPom (and 16th in adjusted defense).

Still, BYU learned how hard it can be to win on the road in the Big 12 last weekend against Oklahoma State — a loss that jumped into Quad 2 territory and hasn't fallen since the Cowboys' subsequent 80-76 win Wednesday night over Cincinnati.

But with their backs against the wall, the Cougars earned one of the biggest wins of the season against the Bears — and did so in an untraditional way to move above .500 in conference play for the second time this year and likely lock up an NCAA Tournament bid for the first time since 2021.

"This league is so competitive that everything turns on a game," said Pope, who was named to the Naismith Men's Coach of the Year late-season watchlist Friday morning. "One of the things I was really proud of in this Baylor game was there were several instances during the course of the game that could've gotten us really distracted. But even in points where I felt like my staff got overly emotionally invested and distracted by the game, my guys were dialed in. It was really cool … and let's hope that is a space that we will continue to grow in."

Even with just five games left in the regular season, there's still a lot of basketball to be played. BYU may have to adjust as early as this weekend, too.

Senior guard Spencer Johnson's wife, Issy, gave birth to the couple's first child, a baby boy, Thursday afternoon after going into labor a week before the expected due date. The Cougars had already planned to come home after Saturday's noon MST tip — Pope said the team charter would likely have the squad back by 7-8 p.m., giving them nearly two days at home before flying out to Lawrence, Kansas, for Tuesday night's tip.

But Johnson's own availability for the first leg of the trip may be questionable. The every-game starter from American Fork is averaging 10.5 points and 5.7 rebounds per game for the Cougars, including 6 points, three assists and a game-high nine boards in BYU's win Tuesday.

If the team has to adjust, they'll do it again — for good reason.

"It's an incredibly exciting time right now now for Spencer; it's almost unbelievable," said Pope, who joked that the Johnsons may name the child "Mark" in his honor. "It's almost in comprehensible to think about it. Baylor Tuesday, firstborn son Thursday, Kansas State Saturday, Kansas Tuesday. Could you have a better life?"

Editor's note: BYU men's basketball play-by-play radio broadcaster Greg Wrubell first reported via X, formerly Twitter, Friday evening that Johnson made the trip with the team charter after the birth of his oldest child.

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