Lee Cummard Reflects on BYU WBIT Run and Identifies the Area That Cost Them a Championship

Lee Cummard knows exactly what his BYU women's basketball team accomplished this season, and he is not about to let one lopsided championship loss cloud the bigger picture.

The Cougars reached the WBIT title game in Cummard's debut season as head coach, finishing with a 26-12 record that included both a Big 12 semifinal appearance and a run to the championship of the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament. It was the first time in school history BYU had reached both a conference Final Four and a major postseason championship game in the same year.

'We have done some really good things and set a good foundation and standard that we want to approach things by,' Cummard told the Deseret News. 'I feel like we were spoiled with the group that we had this year. We have some really good things in place. We are not starting from ground zero, schematically or culturally, we have things we can build on.'

The championship game itself was a harsh reminder of the gap between where BYU is and where it wants to be. Columbia's veteran-laden roster, featuring juniors and seniors who had played together through two consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, handled the young Cougars with relative ease in an 81-64 victory. Columbia was first to every loose ball, more physical in every facet of the game, and utterly in control from start to finish.

That contrast in experience and physicality stood out most to Cummard as he assessed the defeat.

'We just have to get tougher, just be a little more physical in how we play the game,' he said. 'Columbia is the most physical team we played this year. Their toughness of being first to the ball, their urgency for almost anything - how they screen, how they cut, how they pass the ball, how they checked into the game - I was really impressed with their mindset.'

The irony is that BYU showed tremendous mental toughness throughout the very same game. Trailing by 27 points in the fourth quarter, the Cougars refused to fold. They clawed back to within nine points in the final minute before ultimately losing by 17. It was, in miniature, a reflection of their entire season: knocked down, but never knocked out.

After a February loss to Cincinnati dropped them to 17-10, the Cougars found another gear, winning nine of their final 11 games heading into the postseason. Cummard credited the team's growing ability to play on instinct rather than overthinking.

I think we got to a place near the end of the season where there was not as much thinking and instead just more instinctual playing, he said. That is something you can build on as an individual player and as a program, where schematically we know exactly what we do.

The roster construction for Year 2 is already taking shape. Underclassmen accounted for 74 percent of BYU's scoring and 85 percent of total assists this season, led by All-Big 12 First Team selection Delaney Gibb and standout freshmen Sydney Benally and Olivia Hamlin. That core will be supplemented by high school recruits, returned missionary Kailey Woolston, and transfer portal additions.

Cummard referenced UCLA head coach Cori Close's philosophy that talent is the floor and character is the ceiling as a guiding principle for how to approach adding new pieces without disrupting what made this season special.

Perhaps the most significant asset from this year's run is simply irreplaceable: experience in high-stakes situations. BYU played eight win-or-go-home games between the Big 12 tournament and the WBIT, winning six of them.

You can never simulate tournament reps, Cummard said. I do not want to say the pressure mounts, but you feel it. You get a higher-quality opponent. I felt it going into that championship game, so I can imagine the players felt what was on the line. You cannot simulate that.

I am just glad that the work our group put in got rewarded. It kind of establishes a cause-and-effect mindset where if our inputs can be this, there is a result, and if we can improve those inputs, we can go even further.