The Wildcats made BYU earn it, but in the end, A.J. Dybantsa was inevitable. The freshman phenom broke the Big 12 Tournament freshman scoring record and the record for most field goals in a game in a game that wasn’t decided until midway through the second half. BYU also set the Big 12 record for points scored in a game. This was a historically bad defensive team, and now they have the records to prove it!
Kansas State got the game it needed out of BYU in the first half. P.J. Haggerty and Note Johnson were hitting shots, and the Cougars’ defense was giving up shots. The game was played at the perfect pace for an upset, namely, fast. While the offense was humming in the first half, the defense was the opposite of humming (screaming perhaps?) Everything Haggerty and Johnson could do, Dybantsa, Rob Wright, and Kennards Davis could do, and do with a lower level of difficulty. You could tell K-State was in a full sprint, and the Cougars still had another gear.
At the end of the first half, things fell apart for Kansas State. P.J. Haggerty put the Wildcats up 49-43 with 1:28 remaining in the half and went to the locker room down one. It really was a microcosm of the season; things were going well, focus was lost, and a hard-earned lead was erased in 90 seconds.
The second half saw the Cougars and Wildcat play tag for the first ten minutes of the half. BYU would stretch out a lead, and then K-State would reel them back in and close the gap to 5-7 points, then BYU would stretch the lead out again. Eventually, the Wildcats’ shots stopped falling, and after that happened, they stopped reeling. A.J. got wherever he wanted on the floor, and when the Wildcats doubled, they were punished by a barrage of three points. At the end, the score didn’t necessarily reflect how close the game was until BYU put it away in the last 10 minutes.
I’ll give this team credit. Unlike several games this season, they came out, played with passion, and you could almost…almost…. see the high scoring vision this team had in the preseason. In the end, they put up 91 points, which should win 95% of college basketball games. Unfortunately, this game fell solidly in the 5% where the other team puts up 105.
Thus ends the cursed 2025-26 basketball season.
As always, hope springs eternal in the mind of the college basketball fan. I have faith 2027, at the very least, won’t be this bad.
Now, to find a new head coach!