Confidence took long time at Y.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Having won its regular season conference championship, the BYU basketball team feels this year was special. Just how special will be determined this week in the NCAA tournament.

But to put things into perspective, consider this: It needs to win just two games to rank among BYU's best ever. Other than 1981, when BYU went to the Elite Eight, no other Cougar team has won more than one NCAA Tournament game. Which means, of course, that while BYU has a nice history of attending the tournament (21 invitations), it has a scanty history once it gets there (11 wins, 24 losses).

There are the usual theories as to why BYU has rarely been a strong tournament performer, such as a lack of quickness and athleticism.

Yet the 1981 Cougars weren't the quickest or most athletic team in the tournament, either.

"Yeah, we've had some strong teams over the years. I think of the team when Mike Smith was a senior (1989). How did those guys get beat?" said former Cougar Fred Roberts. (The '89 Cougars went 14-15 and missed the post-season). "They were fantastic. There were a couple of other teams that were very good. Why we couldn't get past that, I don't know. I guess sometimes we've gone to the tournament and felt like, OK, we're here, we can be really good, but in the second game we've played like we're afraid to lose instead of saying we're going to win this thing. I don't think it's a capability issue."

Roberts, who played 13 years in the NBA, knows whereof he speaks. He was on that legendary '81 team that featured two other NBA-bound players — Danny Ainge and Greg Kite. That's why he continues to refer to the Cougars as "we." Part of the reason the Cougars played so well that year, he theorizes, is that the WAC was unusually tough. Utah had Tom Chambers and Danny Vranes, while Wyoming had Charles Bradley and Bill Garnett — all future NBA players. BYU finished third in the WAC that year.

Roberts watched Ainge's winning drive against Notre Dame that sent the Cougars to the quarterfinals from the bench, having fouled out. "I was watching it from the front row," he said.

Roberts says when the Cougars called time out, trailing by one with only seconds left, everyone knew Ainge would get the ball; the plan was for him to take it as far as possible, where he would likely pull up for a jumper. Instead, he saw an opening and drove all the way to the basket.