PROVO — Opportunity. That was the early theme expressed by BYU men's basketball coach Dave Rose from the very minute the Cougars hit the Marriott Center hardwood in November.

With center Trent Plaisted turning professional a year early, that left only senior Lee Cummard and junior Jonathan Tavernari as BYU's two returning starters.

Behind them, sophomore guard Jimmer Fredette and junior Chris Miles were really the only other two Cougars with returning experience. Sophomore Jackson Emery came off the bench as a freshman, but was fresh off a mission at the start of this season and the Cougar coaches were contemplating giving him a redshirt season to get his basketball legs back.

But despite all the inexperience the Cougars had, they still managed to win their first 10 games, finish the year with a 25-8 overall mark and win a share of a third-straight Mountain West Conference title with a 12-4 league record.

"It's a huge sense of accomplishment when you consider what we lost (Plaisted to the NBA draft, Nick Martineau and Chris Collinsworth to missions) and we were still able to win a share of the conference for the third-straight year, get in the national polls for the third-straight, win 20-plus games for a third-straight year and go the NCAA Tournament for a third-straight year," Rose said. "I'm proud of how the guys responded to the challenge."

Of BYU's eight losses, the Cougars were really only out of two games. A 19-point loss at New Mexico was BYU's worst defeat, but the hardest to swallow was the 79-66 loss to Texas A&M in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Philadelphia. With the Aggies making their first 10 shots, the Cougars fell behind 26-8 in a hurry and never recovered.

But in losses to Arizona State, Wake Forest, Utah, UNLV (twice) and San Diego State in the MWC Tournament, the Cougars had a chance to win every one of those games.

The Cougars lost to Arizona State when a final flip shot by Abouo at the buzzer was ruled late. They were ahead of Wake Forest until the final 90 seconds and lost to Utah in Salt Lake in overtime. Two of BYU's losses were by one point and another by two points.

The Cougars had a nice win in early December over Utah State at EnergySolutions Arena, they came from behind to beat Tulsa on the road a couple of weeks later, and had an incredible come-back win at San Diego State that was part of a 9-1 stretch to finish the conference schedule.

Some, however, feel those accomplishments were lessened when the Cougars lost in the MWC Tournament semifinals and then lost their eighth-straight NCAA Tournament game.