Oklahoma State beat No. 16 BYU 99-92 at home, and it was a great example of how to change your defense. Coach Steve Lutz figured out how to stop AJ Dybantsa and BYU’s deadly ball screen game. The win gave the Cowboys their first Quad 1 win of the season and sent the Cougars to their third straight loss. But behind that win was coach Lutz’s main defensive worry, which he opened up on in the postgame interview.

“Well, we needed to figure out what we were going to do with that middle ball screen with AJ Dybantsa. That was my biggest thing because my man went to the rim a couple times, and I’m like, ‘Holy smokes, we’ve got to figure that out.’ That was the most important thing.

“Secondly, I talked a lot about rebounding, and we did a much better job in the rebounding department in the second half. I think we were minus seven at halftime, and we ended up tied for the game. Those were the two biggest keys. We didn’t turn them over nearly as much in the second half, but we were very efficient with what we did offensively, and that was a huge key,” Lutz explained.

Lutz’s adjustment focus was directly on BYU’s strong offense. AJ Dybantsa scored 36 points, 12 of which came during a terrible 19-4 run that tied the game at 41 at halftime. Oklahoma State’s rebounding got better, and that changed everything. They were down 61-60 early in the second half, but they scored 38 points to BYU’s 31 points in the last 20 minutes.

The Cowboys forced 16 mistakes by BYU and turned them into 21 points. The Cougars, on the other hand, only scored eight points off their own mistakes. This level of defense, along with better rebounding, changed the course of the game.

Lutz did, however, praise Kevin Young’s ability to adapt to different situations and admit that Dybantsa’s presence made things harder.

“Kevin’s a good basketball coach. His staff does a good job, and I’d never really seen him do that very often. Not with the punch screen down into the flat ball screen. We had a good crowd tonight, and it was very loud. So it was hard for our guards and our bigs to execute our ball screen defense, and obviously, they made us pay for that last two minutes of the half. Anthony Roy went for 30 tonight,” Lutz said on The Field of 68: After Dark.

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The reason this upset was so impressive was that Kevin Young’s BYU teams had never lost when they scored 90 or more points. The 99 points Oklahoma State scored against them were the most anyone scored against them all season. Anthony Roy scored 30 points, and Jaylen Curry scored 18. The bench scored 28 points to BYU’s 9, showing that Oklahoma State had weapons all over the court. The Cowboys have won 26 games when they score 81 points and 13 games at home. The Gallagher-Iba Arena is a big help.

BYU’s tournament hopes take a hit after losing to Oklahoma State

But this loss is different for BYU. This wasn’t a game against a top-ranked team from the country or a clear tournament team. Oklahoma State is right on the edge; they are not a top-15 powerhouse. That makes the loss on Wednesday hurt more than the other two losses. The Cougars were the favorites, so tournament committees and analysts will look at this loss in a different way.

The timing is terrible. BYU was expected to be a 4-seed in the tournament bracket before the game. This loss will definitely drop them down, and Kevin Young’s team won’t have any easy wins coming up. Now, every game counts. The Cougars can’t ignore the defensive problems that showed up on Wednesday. They need to fix problems quickly, or their seed will drop even more.

Their next game is against Houston on Saturday, and it looks like they have to win again. The problem is that BYU hasn’t beaten Houston since both teams joined the Big 12 in 2023. That’s a worrying trend going into this important game. The Cougars are up against some of the toughest teams left on their schedule, and their confidence is low right now.