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Las Vegas
The conclusion of BYU's storied basketball season became clear, even in a victory.
Whenever the end comes — and it could be as soon as next Thursday, judging by the Cougars' struggles in a 64-58 win over Texas Christian — Jimmer Fredette and his teammates will be lamenting how they missed shots they usually make.
There was a lot of that going around Thursday afternoon in this quarterfinal game of the Mountain West Conference tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center.
With guards Jackson Emery and Fredette shooting a combined 10 of 34 from the field, BYU could not subdue the No. 9-seeded Horned Frogs until the final few seconds. If not for Charles Abouo, the Cougars (29-3) could have lost this game.
BYU's believers might find encouragement in the stars' shooting numbers, buying coach Dave Rose's suggestion that managing to win under these circumstances was impressive in its own way. More reasonably, the Cougars will have trouble beating New Mexico in the semifinals unless something changes, and soon.
That game, in itself, is not as important as how it affects BYU's confidence going into next week. As of Thursday, the Cougars certainly did not look like a Sweet 16 team. This performance even raised questions about their ability to handle a No. 14 or 15 seed in the NCAA Tournament, an opponent that's likely to be more talented than TCU.
BYU just is not the same team without Brandon Davies. Other teams believe it, and the Cougars themselves know it, even if they never would say it.
"They're a much different team without Davies," said TCU guard Greg Hill. "He's a big inside presence, brings a lot of attention, which also gets a lot of attention off the key player."
That would be Jimmer, if you're just joining us.
This is not just a depth issue. The fact that TCU's slow pace and zone defense kept Rose from having to substitute throughout the second half actually made BYU's showing more disturbing. If the Cougars can play their best players for all 20 minutes and yet make only 9 of 25 shots, what happens when they have to go deeper?
"They did a good job defensively, but … we had a lot of open shots that we just missed," Fredette said. "Not a lot of times do we miss wide-open shots like that."
Or do they? Fredette and Emery did not appear to be forcing shots, but they sure were missing them. That's the trend lately. And there were about five times when BYU seemingly was in control of this game, only to have the Frogs respond.
Rose refused to apologize for winning, which is fine. His team needs reassurance, not more pressure from him at this point.
"These games are hard to win. … The dark jerseys are winning a lot of games," he said, citing upsets of higher-seeded teams in conference tournaments around the country.
The top-seeded Cougars packed only their white uniforms for this trip, and presumably would not have to wear their blues at least until the Sweet 16, considering their NCAA seeding. But will they need them at all in March? That's highly questionable, at the moment.
This is all pretty simple, you know. The Cougars have to make shots to keep playing this weekend, and the same will apply next week. Otherwise, they'll go home, believing they're better than they showed.
"All we've got to do is go out and play and make shots, play our game, same as always," Fredette said.
Except for Thursday, he should have said.
Twitter: @tribkurt