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BYU basketball: Cougars falters late against another ranked team

Where were those refs from, out of curiosity? BYU lost that game Wake didn't win it. When BYU went cold, they were ice cold and nothing would drop! Fun game though.

"But despite their glossy 11-2 record, the Cougars haven't shown that they can beat the nation's best."

Nothing new, the BYU basketball program is following in the footsteps of its football program: Beat up on lesser teams but can't beat ranked teams.

I went to the game. BYU got homered by the horrible officiating. Every time wf drove to the hoop there was an automatic foul. As long as byu allows biased officiating from the acc friendly officials and pac 10 officials to ref their games, this is what the results will always be.

byu can beat up weak teams in football and basketball, but vs decent teams they are impotent

Not to worry as I hear Timpview HS has a very good basketball team this year.

I look forward to the Utah trolls again this basketball season. They certainly prove the fact that one can function perfect well after a lobotomy. Good boy Ute man, good boy! Now fetch�

I'm a big BYU fan but we did NOT lose the game on officiating. Please do not blame this loss of that. Yes, there were some questionable calls but the refs did not shoot 30% in the second half. BYU did. I have to agree with a couple of posts earlier that state that BYU can't win in the clutch. This is a perfect example of why we can't get out of the first round. We just for some reason can't win the big ones. It was a great game but in the end, it was no different that the A&M game in the first round last year. It was similar to the Arizona State game. Until we can recruit players with ice in their veins, we will continue to lose the big ones. Pretty sad.

We are good but no where near great. Wake Forest is the real deal as they showed, IN THE CLUTCH! BYU is not. We will continue to have good teams but I can't give myself the illusion that we are great.

I still love my Cougs. I still cheer for my Cougs. But we just can't win in the clutch. Bummer.

>>BYU lost that game Wake didn't win it.>>

Typical BYU arrogance. They never "get beat by a better team."

They only "beat themselves" or "were robbed."

This attitude, one that prevents any reflection or improvement, is why BYU will continue to underperform.

The officials were from the Atlantic 10 Conference.

I'm tired of people ragging on the "Quest for Perfection" slogan. Name me a team that doesn't want to win all of their games?

This is NOT shameful or embarrassing. By the way, the basketball team does not have this slogan so please don't insinuate it.

However, a team that does not look to win every game? What is wrong with that? I recall Bronco saying that it wasn't necessarily aimed an being undefeated anyway. He was looking for the players best effort on every play. Obviously that did not happen throughout the season, but is it wrong to try to do your best?

Go crying elsewhere. I'm glad our teams at BYU are trying to be the best they can be. Striving and being are obviously two different things. But you don't get to great if you don't try.

BYU played well, and will earn a top 25 ranking sooner rather than later. Heck, wouldn't be surprised to seem them make the list tomorrow!

Wake's problems (dubious court leadership, poor decision making and the lack of a 3-point threat) will doom them in the NCAAs, but they are a good basketball team and definitely worthy of a 10-15 ranking, so playing them down to the wire is not a trivial accomplishment!

14 members of our family attended the game and were all
rewarded by a great basketball game. Wake is a really good team with talented players but so is BYU. The difference in the game was in the last 10 minutes BYU missed too many free throws and was a little too much in love with the 3 point shot. but i really like this BYU team.
They hustle, play good defence and have a good bench.
Good luck to coach Rose and go Cougars.

Not sure why non-Byu fans jump on here and rip on the cougars. They are the best team in the state and will kill the utes when they play. Will be interesting to see if they can win one in the tourney.

Lee is very similar to Max Hall in that he doesn't show up in big games; in fact, they both play horrible in big games. We all know what Hall did in the 3 biggest games last year vs. Utah, TCU and Arizona but Cummard is just as big of a Prima donna as Hall. Cummard goes 6 for 20 tonight, 2 for 9 vs. USU, and 4 of 8 vs. ASU. If Rose would have put Cummard where he deserved to be, on the pine, we would have won tonight. Cummard couldn't shoot yet he kept throwing it up and he didn't play D at all. He was a complete no show tonight. Thanks for the loss Cummard!

It is funny how the two guys who should be the big time players in big time games fold quicker than a cheap lawnchair when the pressure is on. They are both a disappointment.

I think the NBA scouts were 100% turned off by Cummard and he really hurt himself tonight. Cummard can you say Bball in Europe?

If any of you who get on here and add comments or read them don't understand the quickness factor that hurts the Cougars, you aren't really watching the game. Against Wake Forest, BYU didn't have one advantage in the "Q" matchup. You simply exhaust yourself trying to guard someone who is much quicker, And when that happens, the legs go. And when that happens the shooting percentage falls. Hmmmm...how did the Cougars shoot down the stretch? How many free throws were missed down the stretch?
Hey, they gave all they had, but Cummard and Co. will not win any games like that because in the last few minutes the legs, the defense, the shooting percentage, and the ability to truly compete is gone. Considering how badly they matched up athletically, they played well.
Now, for you folks who are saying the refs lost that game last night for BYU, do you also give the refs credit when BYU wins? It goes both ways doesn't it? Hey, we have a nice team, a team that will do well in the MWC and then get beat out of the big one in the first round. That is our lot!

your quest notations imply you are the only ones who ever obtain it because you are the only ones who ever try, the rest just satisfy with imperfection so they are not "special" it is fine to desire for perfection, but not beat your chest about it.

I wrote last week that this BYU team doesn't have the heart and soul to win big games. Of course I was ground into the dirt by the heals of BYU supporters everywhere. And once again, the team proved me right.
I look forward to the day when the "Y" plays something better than glorified "Church" ball.
The last time they played with some real grit was the Danny Ainge era. Because like him or not Ainge was a Player. Very hard for me to admit by the way.

This whole business of blaming the refs. Shessshhhhh. Get a life. I'm 56 years old, have watched thousands of games, and have yet to see a ref put a ball in a hoop.

I think it's about time to start thinking about "next year".

I agree 100%. BYU athletics seem to always be good, but haven't been able to make the transition to great. Maybe it's the honor code, maybe it's the focus on other things besides sports, football being 5th. Or maybe it's all of us Zoobies drinking too much kool-aid and thinking we are better than we really are.

I'm not into the "officials conspiracy" either, but that tall, balding ref who called a critical foul on Tavernari when the replay clearly showed he didn't touch the guy made me wonder a little.

Great game that Wake Forest won and BYU lost. But it is surprising to me that no one has commented on what seemed to be the problem, keeping our bigs on the floor. Miles out with 5+ minutes and played maybe 17 minutes total? MacGregor fouls out. Abouo fouls out. That left us with guys that should not have been in that position.
The upside is that this will improve over the course of the season but it killed us when we needed to stop their last run and/or score points at the end.
Fun game though, not often I go back and rewatch a basketball game, especially a loss, but I will watch this one just to watch Fredette again.