BYU Basketball Receives At-Large Bid In 2025 NCAA Tournament
Mar 16, 2025, 4:19 PM | Updated: Mar 17, 2025, 1:56 am
BYU basketball received an at-large bid in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. The Cougars finished with a record of 24-9 in the 2024-25 season. (Brice Tucker, Deseret News)
(Brice Tucker, Deseret News)
PROVO, Utah – BYU basketball is officially in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
The Cougars received an at-large bid as a 6-seed into the field of 68 and will be playing VCU. BYU-VCU will be played in Denver, Colorado.
BYU basketball draws the VCU Rams in the NCAA Tournament
VCU is the Atlantic-10 Champions, as was Duquesne a season ago. The Rams defeated George Mason on Sunday for the A-10 Title.
.@BYUMBB is a 6-seed in the NCAA Tournament 👀🤙 pic.twitter.com/UtOBRTDwol
— KSL Sports (@kslsports) March 16, 2025
VCU finished with a 28-6 record.
BYU’s bid into the 2025 field marks the program’s 32nd NCAA Tournament appearance. It’s also the second consecutive year BYU has received an at-large bid.
It’s BYU’s third consecutive appearance, where they land a 6-seed.
BYU will enter the NCAA Tournament looking for their first win since 2012.
Under first-year head coach Kevin Young, BYU put together a 24-9 record. They finished in fourth place in the Big 12 Conference, which is rated by many predictive metrics as the third-best league in college basketball this season.
The bulk of BYU’s resume was built in February and March. BYU closed out the season, winning nine of its final 10 games. The lone setback was against No. 1 seed Houston on March 14 in the Big 12 Tournament Semifinals.
BYU finished the 2024-25 season 8-7 against Quad 1 opponents, determined by the NCAA’s NET rankings. They also had a record of 6-2 against Quad 2 opponents.
BYU put together five wins this season against teams ranked in the Top 30 of the NET rankings. The most notable ones were road victories at Arizona and Iowa State. Then, they also had a neutral court win over Iowa State last week in Kansas City.
BYU is led by First Team All-Big 12 selection Richie Saunders. The junior standout is averaging 16.0 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.2 steals this season. He received the Most Improved Player Award in the Big 12 Conference
Saunders is shooting 43.3% from three-point range this season.
Three-point shooting is a strength of BYU once again entering March Madness. BYU is 36th nationally in 3-point percentage at 37.1%. They boast the 27th-ranked scoring offense in the country, averaging 81 points per game.
On the defensive end, BYU is ranked in the Top 70 in KenPom’s adjusted efficiency metrics.
Other key players for BYU include guards Egor Demin and Dallin Hall, along with center Keba Keita.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X: @Mitch_Harper.
