BYU losing in 1st round now a habit

I think minutes played on a not-so-deep team caught up with Rose and main guys on his squad. He needed a couple more guys to develop with bigger roles. He had Lamont Morgan on the way for a few games, then he faded him back. Noah Hartsock made great strides from being a missionary last August to Division I hoops in March. Same with center James Anderson. Charles Abouo had his moments but lacked time to build on it.

BYU is a fast-break team that hammered foes early. But then teams started sending everyone back to defend. BYU then relied on jump shots, then tried to build a post game and go inside out.

In the end, Rose tried to get players to the line by having key players drive the lane. At times it worked, but BYU really needed its transition game back in full bloom to effectively get the most out its talent.

As this season wore on, Cummard wore down. So did other key players including Tavernari and Jackson Emery, who made a late-season comeback. Jimmer Fredette never lost his game until spots in Thursday's game. Still, Fredette led the Cougars with 18.

The heart in this team was there, but the legs were not. Lose the legs and there goes the shot.

"There's no quit in this team, and they continue to fight," Rose told reporters after the loss to the Aggies.

"Although we weren't as successful as we wanted to be offensively, and defensively it was a tough assignment trying to guard them, they made some big plays."

Yes, they did.

An opponent starts off 10 for 10, not many teams recover.

Rose is a smart guy. Nobody's been more successful in the MWC's 10-year history, and his winning percentage is the best BYU has ever had.

Asked what his program needs to do to win an NCAA game after seven straight losses, he put it as simple as possible for those who want complex, deeply explored and debated solutions over BYU's narrow recruiting pool, the Honor Code and filtering in and out of missionaries.

The answer?

"I think that we need to play better," he said.

I'll buy that simplicity. Makes sense. This isn't the U.S. economy.

How he fixes it in postseason play remains to be seen. If his team shot like they did against Wake and the Sun Devils, they'd have notched a first-round win Thursday.

Instead, the Cougars stunk it up. Just like a year ago in Anaheim.

In Lexington, Rose's first year at the Big Dance, his squad should have beat Xavier after toying with late leads. But BYU choked.

A pattern? Talent?

"I think that we played a really good team (in Texas A&M)," said Rose.

"I think we had opportunities in this game like we've had in, you know, past NCAA games, and we just didn't make enough to take advantage of those opportunities and ended up on the short end of the stick."

It's a perspective.

But it's also become habit.

E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com