Not that they were ever bad. Other than the 1-25 year, in which Roger Reid was fired midstream, the Cougars have nearly always been competitive. Just not the best. Now, BYU is headed for its second straight regular season championship. The home win streak is second longest in the nation. The Marriott Center has gone from cavern to coliseum. You want crowd noise? It has noise. Ringing-in-the-ears, go-to-bed-with-a-headache noise.

Most surprising, though, is the way the Cougars have done it. After losing players like Austin Ainge and Keena Young from last year, it seemed they would need more time to rebuild. You don't replace your best player and your team leader just like that.

Except they did.

Just like that.

Hence, BYU is on a major roll. It got confidence early with a win over Louisville and a close loss to North Carolina. It lost a game it felt it should have won against Michigan State. By the time the Cougars met their peer group, they were next to perfect. There was that one inexplicable 29-point loss at UNLV, but they made that up by routing the Rebels by 26 last week in Provo.

Wednesday, a determined Utah team made the Cougars sweat. With two minutes to go, it was still a three-point game. But on a night when cloudy weather blocked a lunar eclipse in many parts of Utah, the Cougars did what almost everyone at the Marriott Center had hoped: They came shining through anyway.

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E-mail: rock@desnews.com