Hunting and hoisting shots — early and late, inside and out — was the order of the day for BYU and Wisconsin in their thrilling second-round NCAA Tournament game on Saturday evening in Denver.
That was supposed to be the main priority — just let ‘em fly — because … what’s this? … yeah, that’s what it was, what it turned out to be. A deliberate shot-fest. It’s what these teams do.
Stopping those shots was attempted now and again — as more of an afterthought.
Except for the last jumper that was taken. Stopping that was everything.its
Wisconsin’s John Tonje, who had led the Badgers back from multiple double-digit deficits in the second half, scoring 37 points en route, had the ball in his hands in the final seconds, down two. He maneuvered around, passing up an open deep shot that might have won it, but instead drove toward the baseline, falling away to the right side. Cougar Mawot Mag was defending, aggressively but without fouling. The ball launched upward, spinning toward the hoop … and … and … and … it dropped off line and short, allowing BYU to embrace its biggest victory of the season, its biggest victory of many seasons, by the count of 91-89.
The Sweet 16 is the Cougars’ reward.
“I’m happy for our guys and our fans,” a jubilant Kevin Young said in the immediate aftermath. “What a great basketball game.” Later, he called it, “Unbelievable.”
(John Leyba | AP) BYU head coach Kevin Young, top right, celebrates as time runs out in the second half against Wisconsin in the second round of the NCAA college basketball tournament Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Denver.
Said Richie Saunders, who scored 25 points in the win: “I’m getting a little choked up. … This is something I dreamed of.”
Now, he can dream on.
While it sounds like the most obvious and obtuse, the most rudimentary and ridiculous of analyses for any college basketball game, let alone this one, it remained the truth here: The team that accurately made the most of those shots won.
Nobody had to be Mike Krzyzewski to deduce that.
But a game played on simple and pure terms can sometimes be a rocket to ride. And this was one of those times, just as a whole lot of people had projected it would be. What only some of those people had projected in their brackets and in their pronouncements from behind a studio desk was BYU advancing to a round it hadn’t seen since 2011, in this particular case the 6-seed beating a 3-seed to make that move. But that’s precisely what happened.
Anyone who follows BYU basketball knows how infrequently opportunities like this are created. And the Cougars are freaked out of their minds — at least briefly — over their shedding and shucking of bad BYU habits of the past. Habits like getting eliminated.
That was avoided here, early on in what looked like a contest that could end up a romp, BYU playing some of its best basketball for 30 or so of the game’s 40 minutes. When the Cougars move the ball, delivering it around the floor, to the right place at the right time for the right reason, it really is a stunning thing to watch. When Egor Demin hits Dawson Baker and Baker hits Richie Saunders and Saunders hits Trevin Knell for a buttery 3, you figure somewhere John Wooden is looking down and smiling, thinking, “That’s the way my game should be played.”
Brigham Young forward Richie Saunders, left, drives past Wisconsin forward Steven Crowl during the first half in the second round of the NCAA college basketball tournament Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/John Leyba)
A tip of the cap to Young for managing that. The question was, could the Cougars do it enough to overcome a team that often replicated a similar sort of artistry on attack?
It could … barely.
The Cougars definitely got the pace of play and the resultant shots they wanted for most of the game. And they gained comfortable advantage from that, taking their handful of 14-point leads in the second half. Over most of the initial half, BYU controlled both the tempo and the game itself. Collectively, it took on the appearance of a pilot wedged behind the wheel of a jet-fueled dragster burning down a quarter-mile track. The Cougars led, 47-36, at the break.
“I love the pace of the game,” Young said into a TV camera at one early juncture. He even added that his team’s defense looked “connected.”
Even so, through that span, spilling over into the second half, there was a feeling like it was a matter of time before the Badgers, who averaged 80 points a game this season, would not only start making their shots, but also make a strong run.
They did, even as the Cougars defended a bit and rebounded a lot, especially on the offensive glass. BYU was aggressive at both ends, playing free, at times drawing whistles against them that the Cougars disagreed with. One such example came when Saunders missed a short jumper, rebounded, shot it again with contact, but got no call. He subsequently committed a foul himself in frustration.
Such is life in a win-or-walk tournament.
It got scrappy, what with the refs calling technical fouls on both teams, and late in the game, Baker, who elbowed a Badger in the tenders, got thrown out of the game when that elbow was ruled a Flagrant 2 foul. Young refused to comment on that call in the postgame. That was a significant stretch as Wisconsin was doing what it could to close the gap.
Close the gap, it did.
At one late juncture, BYU led, 72-59. The Cougars held an 11-point lead with just more than six minutes remaining, a 10-point lead with just more than three minutes left. That’s when the flagrant foul occurred, followed by made Wisconsin free throws and possession. A Demin 3 kicked the margin back up, but careless BYU turnovers followed, even on a simple inbounds pass from Demin that bounced out of bounds. Wisconsin shaved the lead to two points, thanks to BYU’s sloppy largesse and Tonje’s shooting. A shanked Dallin Hall shot on a drive gave the Badgers their chance to tie or win in the final possession described up top.
So it was that a defensive play — by Mag — made the difference in a game that was wholly offensive. To reiterate, when BYU plays offense in its own version of the proper manner, it is a beauteous sight to behold. When it goofs up, ugly isn’t quite the word. Ooooooogly is.
BYU sports, then, both Beauty and the Beast, more commonly now with Beauty taking the prize.
It ended up being attractive enough for just long enough against Wisconsin. The Cougars shot a fraction shy of 50 percent, 46 percent from deep, and nearly 94 percent from the line. The Badgers hit at a 42-percent clip, 34 percent from beyond the arc. BYU out-boarded Wisconsin, 41-32. Most impressively, the Cougars racked up 21 assists.
Comely enough offensive play that was to send BYU where it rarely goes, where it’s rarely gone. “We couldn’t stop them at all in the second half,” said Young. (Except for … well, you know, that last time.)
Yeah, the coach nodded, “Our guys found a way.”
Added Knell: “This was super remarkable, something I’ll remember forever.”
Said Saunders: “Words can’t really describe it.”
