Is a lineup change in the works for wobbling, No. 16-ranked BYU?

BYU basketball coach Kevin Young said Tuesday that he spent Sunday and Monday watching every defensive possession the Cougars have participated in during their eight Big 12 games to date after the 90-82 loss to Kansas last Saturday at packed-to-the-gills Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas.

Obviously, the second-year coach is searching for answers as to why his No. 16-ranked squad gets off to such bad starts and plays so poorly in first halves of games when it faces some of the top teams in the country, such as now-No. 11 Kansas, No. 1 Arizona and No. 13 Texas Tech.

What about a starting lineup change? Could that be a solution?

Young, whose team is 5-3 in Big 12 games, 17-4 overall, and has lost two straight games for the first time since Feb. 8, 2025 (Arizona and Cincinnati), said he and his staff have definitely considered it, but are leaning toward staying the course.

“Yeah, I think everything’s on the table, as far as considerations. We’ve analyzed it quite a bit,” he said in his weekly press briefing Tuesday. “Gut feel is we are not going to make a lineup change. But yes, in terms of analyzing it to that degree, yes, we’ve analyzed it to that degree.”

BYU’s starting lineup in almost every game this season has been Keba Keita, AJ Dybantsa, Richie Saunders, Kennard Davis Jr. and Rob Wright. Saunders and Wright have started in every game. Abdullah Ahmed (1), the injured Dawson Baker (2), Mihailo Boskovic (1) and Khadim Mboup (1) are the other players on the roster with starts.

One of the problems is that while the Cougars have one of the best starting fives in all of college basketball, they have one of the weakest benches. Injuries to Baker, UC Riverside transfer Nate Pickens and former Corner Canyon star Brody Kozlowski have left Young with very few good options.

“If I see one more analytic about how we’re the best offensive second-half team in the country, I’m going to throw up,” Young said after the Kansas game in which the Cougars fell behind 53-33 at the break.

BYU is 351st (among 361 teams) in the country in bench scoring, as its reserves average 12.57 points per game. The Cougars are not alone in the Big 12, however, as Texas Tech ranks 355th (11.09), Kansas ranks 350th (12.8) and Houston ranks 308th (16.95).

Young also acknowledged that BYU’s defense “has been poor the last several games,” particularly in the first half of games. Arizona shot 50% in the first half en route to 44 points, while Kansas shot 64% from the field and 75% from 3-point range (9 of 12) en route to 53 first-half points.

“The ball has been finding the right people in a lot of instances, but we’ve got to do a better job of getting out to contest there and so forth,” Young said.

Oklahoma State is tough at home

The Cougars departed Tuesday afternoon for Stillwater, Oklahoma, where they will face the dangerous Oklahoma State Cowboys on Wednesday night (7 p.m. MST, Fox Sports 1) at Gallagher-Iba Arena. The Cowboys (15-6, 3-5) are 12-2 at home and coming off a confidence-building 81-69 win over Utah in Salt Lake City.

Young said OSU gets out in transition better than any team in the Big 12 and will “make the game hard on you” because they are so physical and pressure-oriented on defense.

“They get into you. They’re denying some passes. They’re crawling into the ball,” he said. “Early on in Big 12 play, like the Kansas State game as an example, we had a bunch of turnovers because I think it caught our guys off guard. TCU, I thought we handled it better. So it’s this physical nature of their defense and then their ability to get out in transition (that challenges teams).”

Anthony Roy (17.5) and Parsa Fallah (13.9) lead Oklahoma State in scoring and Fallah (6.3) is its top rebounder. Roy, a transfer from Green Bay, had 26 against Utah, on 8-of-15 shooting.

“They have some high-level shotmakers,” Young said. “They have some guys that can really score the basketball from 3. We have to have our defense more intact than it has been.”

Dealing with a target on their backs

Thanks to last year’s Sweet 16 run, the addition of the No. 1 prep recruit in the country, Dybantsa, and the program’s steady rise in the college basketball world the past three seasons since it joined the Big 12, BYU has gone from the hunter to the hunted in many ways.

Obviously, Young has noticed. In fact, after being asked about teams circling the Cougars on their calendars now — as Oklahoma State surely has done — Young said that a reporter must have “bugged the coach’s huddle at the end of practice” because that’s exactly what they talked about Tuesday.

“I literally just said that to the team 10 minutes ago, that that’s a compliment,” Young said. “Guys get up for (BYU). You get tired of seeing BYU on ‘Big Monday’ or ‘College GameDay,’ or AJ Dybantsa this, or Richie Saunders that, or Rob Wright this.

“Keba Keita, defensive player of the year watch (list), or whatever thing he just got,” Young continued. “So you get sick of it. There’s a human element to it. If you play a good game against BYU, that’s gonna mean something. And like I said, that’s a compliment.”