Granted, the media did cause higher expectations, but so did the team. Look at how they started the season: A win over a top 100 kenpom team (princeton) and an average margin of victory of 23 points. Then the valpo loss happened, a heart breaker three point loss to a decent team. Then UVU happened. BUT they turned it around and beat USU by 14 a couple of days later.

After that the team went 8-3, with the three losses coming to kenpom top 100 teams. The average margin when winning, 15 points, when losing 7 points.

Going into san diego this team was 12-5 with only UVU as a head scratcher. There were no real close games that shouldn't have been and UVU was nearly two months prior.

I think the biggest mistake was that neither the fans, nor the media saw (or accurately portrayed) how big of a loss kyle davis was. Then nick emery got injured, then he got sick. Then LJ rose got injured. The tiny bit of depth BYU had, was gone, and with it, the season.