BYU plays ugly, comes up short in loss to Long Beach State

For those who stayed up to watch the BYU Cougars take on the Long Beach State 49ers, they were subjected to a truly ugly and hard-to-watch basketball game by both teams. Between the turnovers, poor free throw shooting and continuous offensive fouls, Cougar fans everywhere were pulling their hair out while watching this game. Ultimately, BYU has nobody to blame but themselves as they dropped a close game to LBSU, 66-65.

The Cougars played the sloppiest game I've seen in a long time. The team stat line of 22 turnovers, 41.9 percent shooting, 5-for-21 from three (23.8 percent), and 8-for-21 from the free throw line (38 percent) pretty much sums up this game.

While holding LBSU to just 31 percent shooting, the Cougars gave up 16 offensive rebounds and conceded some really easy baskets or failed to take advantage of LBSU mistakes many times. This included not securing a crucial rebound at the end of the game with a chance to win.

While this game was hard to watch, not all was bad. Corbin Kaufusi played a fantastic game with 17 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Jamal Aytes provided a huge lift off the bench with 8 points and 3 rebounds, while Kyle Collinsworth was solid with 12 points, 12 rebounds, and 6 assists. Jordan Chatman was also good off the bench for 8 points, including a couple buckets BYU really needed.

While many fans will point to the officiating, including the six offensive fouls called against the Cougars and multiple head scratching calls defensively, BYU has nobody but themselves to blame. On the bright side, this could be a great learning experience for a young team to grow. Dave Rose and his staff have their work cut out for them, but if they can get the team that showed up for about 7 minutes in the second half to be there consistently, this could be a very fun team to watch.