Pain from losing is what puts all the flavor into a win

Losing is the worst.

Cougar Nation suffered through BYU’s first loss at No. 15 Texas Tech. It was a bit unsettling, especially after enjoying 13-straight wins. The Cougars led 61-52 with 9:26 to go and lost 84-71. Momentum shifted so fast that viewers watching the game on big screens were put at risk for whiplash.

The fact BYU lost is not a giant surprise. The Big 12 is a tough conference and as the football team found out, Lubbock is a tough place to play, and the Cougars were slight underdogs going in. However, the way BYU finished the game ruined a lot of Saturday nights.

Fans live in the moment. It’s not about what happened last week or what may happen next week, it’s about what is happening right now. Shortsighted? Yes. But we are who we are.

Social media was flooded with emotional musings after Saturday’s game: Where’s the defense? Why can’t we hit a 3-point shot? Why did they take Rob out of the game in the second half? What’s wrong with AJ? Is the bench going to give us anything?

And so on.

Fans are bummed, frustrated, upset — and they are not alone. Turns out, there was a lot of losing over the weekend — half of all the teams that played — and there was no shortage of folks who were left bent out of shape.

Across the Big 12, NFL, NBA, tennis, golf, soccer and any other event where someone is keeping score — disappointing performances made for disappointed followers.

In Buffalo, they are still smoldering over a questionable interception that probably cost the Bills a playoff victory against Denver. San Francisco fans are mad that their team didn’t even show up in Seattle. The Texans are hot over the cold conditions in Foxboro where they had five turnovers and the Bears lost to the Beach Boys from LA, despite hosting the Rams on their frozen tundra.

Losing is everywhere. Sometimes it even shows up during a win. Moments after the Broncos victory to advance to the AFC championship game, the team announced quarterback Bo Nix would miss the rest of the playoffs with a broken ankle.

It’s hard to imagine a harder punch to the gut for Denver, but when Nix’s backup, Jarrett Stidham, takes his second snap of the entire season on Sunday against New England, we’ll all be watching to see what happens.

Sports and its emotional rollercoaster of unpredictability fuel our fanaticism. It keeps us interested. We all know when the mortgage/rent is due, when the trash is collected and when our spouse needs a night out, but what we don’t know is what our team is going to do next? It is a ride we can’t resist taking, and the pain of losing is what puts all the flavor into a win.

One year ago, the Cougars reported to their Monday practice on the heels of a crushing 73-72 overtime loss at Utah. BYU responded by winning 13 of its next 15 games before making an NCAA Tournament run to the Sweet 16.

With timely calendaring, the No. 13 Cougars (16-2, 4-1) returned to work Monday with a full week to get things right before hosting Utah on Saturday (3:30 p.m., Fox). Getting things right means getting AJ Dybantsa healthy, getting the 3-point shooters back on target and getting emotionally ready for the additional ups and downs that are sure to come.

This is a BYU team that is built to contend, just ask Villanova, Wisconsin, Miami, Dayton, No. 18 Clemson, and up to the 9:26 mark on Saturday, No. 12 Texas Tech. You can also get a testimonial from No. 2 UConn — but the Cougars do need to get better, with the goal of being at their best in March.

The fish only get bigger after this week. No. 1 Arizona, No. 19 Kansas and No. 6 Houston are all lurking like piranha in the murky Big 12 pond. For BYU, this is a great time to bait the hook, cast it as far as it can go, reel it back in — and repeat the process for as long as it can.

Who knows what the Cougars will catch? Maybe they will lose their line in the fight or just maybe they will bring in the big one? It’s a risk worth taking — and for fans, it’s worth the emotional investment, no matter how it goes — because there is always a chance it might be awesome.

Yes, losing is the worst, but it makes the winning so much better. Together, they are strange bedfellows. A glass can’t be half full without being half empty. The nice thing about losing in January is the ensuing grief is short-lived, especially if you have a team that is built to win.

When the ball gets tipped against the Utes on Saturday at the Marriott Center, the weeping and wailing over what happened in Lubbock will be a distant memory. What really matters for BYU is what happens next.

Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.