‘A microcosm of our season’: BYU’s first-round loss to Texas in the NCAAs looked eerily familiar

BYU forward AJ Dybantsa (3) gestures to the crowd after the Cougars were eliminated by Texas 79-71 in the first-round NCAA Tournament game held at the Moda Center in Portland, Ore. , on Thursday, March 19, 2026. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News PORTLAND, Ore.

— Of all the interesting stats that emerged out of BYU’s ultimately disappointing 2025-26 college basketball season, a season that ended Thursday night with a discouraging 79-71 upset loss to the Texas Longhorns in an NCAA Tournament first-round game, perhaps the most telling was the difference in halves. BYU outscored its opponents by just 15 overall points in first halves and by 265 overall points in second halves. “We faced a lot of challenges this year, just like we did in this game.

We battled back. That’s the mantra of this group. They never quit.

” BYU coach Kevin Young “We were a big second-half team, for whatever reason,” said senior center Keba Keita. And they were a mediocre first-half team, at best. The disturbing trend that haunted the Cougars (23-12) almost all season continued at Moda Center in front of a largely pro-BYU crowd, as sleep-deprived Texas took a 46-37 halftime lead and increased it to 68-51 before BYU woke up and made a game of it down the stretch.