Is this the year BYU finally makes it to the Final Four? – Deseret News

DENVER — After the speakers boomed out “pump-it-up songs,” in the words of Trevin Knell, and enough water was splashed around to fill a swimming pool, the theme that emerged from the BYU locker room after the Cougars edged Wisconsin 91-89 Saturday night to make it to their first Sweet 16 since 2011 was that there is still business to finish.

“We’re not satisfied,” said backup guard Trey Stewart, one of the keys to BYU’s midseason turnaround.

“We got no limits,” said backup big man Mihailo Boskovic. “If we play our game a whole 40 minutes, and stick to the game plan, we can beat any team in the country.”

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Added senior Fouss Traore, perhaps the most underrated of all the Cougars: “We can do anything. But, we are not going to focus on what we’ve done. We are going to focus on the next game. That has always been the thing with this team — we always focus on what’s next. We feel like we can beat anybody we are going to play against.”

BYU’s first Sweet 16 game since it lost 83-74 in overtime to Florida in New Orleans in 2011 will take place Thursday at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, against Alabama, which defeated St. Mary’s Sunday afternoon in Cleveland. The Prudential Center is the home of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and the Big East’s Seton Hall Pirates.

“If we play our game a whole 40 minutes, and stick to the game plan, we can beat any team in the country.”

—  Mihailo Boskovic

Remarkably, sixth-seeded BYU (26-9) is just two wins away from erasing one of the most dubious and nagging labels in the school’s athletic history. The Cougars have appeared in more NCAA tournaments — this is their 32nd appearance in the Big Dance — without making it to the Final Four than any school in the country.

Could this be their year?

“Absolutely,” said guard Dawson Baker, who was ejected from the game in which BYU never trailed with 3:11 remaining for committing what officials deemed to be a flagrant two foul.

“It is surreal in the moment to realize you can be one of those Final Four teams after two more wins. I think we are all looking at the stars right now, but we just gotta stay in the moment. That means take it one game at a time, one practice at a time.”

A camera set up in BYU’s locker room at halftime to catch the Cougars’ celebration ended up catching Baker’s personal celebration when Mawot Mag forced Wisconsin star John Tonje to badly miss a last-second shot that would have tied the game. The video has gone viral.

“I have never been ejected before,” Baker said. “Maybe when I was little my dad ejected me because I wasn’t playing hard. But other than that I have never been ejected from a game.”

This is where the team’s maturity and experience needs to take over, said Stewart, who is good at keeping things light and fun and then flipping the switch when it needs to be flipped.

“I mean, we have had expectations of ourselves all year, at least internally, of what we can do,” Stewart said, noting that on a preseason video the team made the players listed “win the national championship” as their primary goal.

“We all said that. We all had to make sure our actions reflected that. So all through the year we have been preparing to play for the national championship. That’s obviously the goal in this NCAA Tournament,” Stewart continued. “So we are happy to be in the Sweet 16. It is awesome. That’s just a steppingstone. We really have a lot of life left in us, so I am excited to go see how we play.”

It will be BYU’s third trip to the Sweet 16 in the tournament’s modern era. Remarkably, BYU is now 2-0 as a 6 seed facing a 3 seed after never trailing against the Badgers. Actually, BYU hasn’t trailed since VCU led 19-17 midway through the first half of Thursday’s first-round game.

Baker hit a 3-pointer to put BYU ahead 20-19, and the Cougars haven’t trailed since, a span covering almost 70 minutes of game time.

“We have a really strong belief in each other that whatever (adversity) comes, we are going to be able to handle it,” said Baker, a junior who said he “hasn’t had any thoughts about (whether he will be back at BYU next year).

Wisconsin, which lost to Sweet 16 entrant Michigan in the Big Ten tournament championship game, had not allowed more than 88 points this season before giving up 91 to the Cougars. BYU has won 37 straight games when scoring 80 points or more, dating back to last season.

The Cougars have also won 54 straight games when leading at halftime.

“Words can’t even describe how great this feels,” said Mag, the Rutgers transfer. “There’s a lot of emotion, a lot of excitement, and a lot of belief. Everybody here from top to bottom works hard. To see that, to see us win, it means a lot. Hard work does pay off.”

Richie Saunders said there was belief during the last timeout with 13 seconds left and Young was telling everyone they had won close games against top-flight competition before and could do it again, and that same belief will accompany the Cougars to New Jersey.

“It was just belief in each other, belief in what we have done and belief that we can do it again,” he said after scoring a team-high 25 points to become one of the cult hero personalities to emerge from this year’s tournament due to his NIL deal with Ore-Ida, the maker of tater tots.

If you haven’t heard, Saunders’ great, great grandfather F. Nephi Grigg, co-founded Ore-Ida and invented the Tater Tot.

What’s the ceiling for this team? Saunders said it will stick to its mantra of “stacking days” and not worry about any limitations.

“Yeah, let’s keep moving. I don’t know the ceiling. That’s something I could talk a lot about, right, is the ceiling. But I am grateful for the experience we have had all year that has led us to this point. We are super balanced. That’s who we are,” Saunders said. “And as we have another opportunity … we are ready and we will be ready.”