BYU Basketball Lands Bid In Lunardi’s Pre-Season Bracketology

PROVO, Utah – The last time BYU basketball heard its name called on Selection Sunday for the NCAA Tournament was in 2015. It would have been called again this past March had it not been for the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus pandemic.

The Cougars move forward to a 2020-21 season that is quickly approaching. BYU opens practice on October 14th and begins preparation for a year that features a roster with many new faces but loads of potential and upside.

BYU in Pre-Season Bracketology

ESPN’s lead Bracketologist, Joe Lunardi, already recognizes potential and upside from BYU in his preseason Bracketology forecast. Lunardi has BYU in his field of 68, seven weeks before the start of the season on November 25th.

NCAAM Bracketology – ESPN. Seven weeks from tonight… 🏀😁 https://t.co/uL3N0o4hLF

— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) October 7, 2020

Joey Brackets tabbed BYU in the “First Four” as an 11-seed with a matchup against Providence in Dayton in his Bracketology forecast.

BYU would probably take that in a heartbeat. The path towards securing an at-large bid is always difficult when outside of the power conferences, but this year will pose even more challenges due to fewer out of conference games. Leaving programs like BYU with fewer opportunities to play quadrant one teams.

“If you were gonna ask me a scheduling philosophy right now, I think we feel some pressure because of what we’re going through,” said BYU head coach Mark Pope in a Zoom call with the media last month. “Danny Gavitt (NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball) came out and said, hey, NCAA selection is probably going to be less fair than it ever is. Not on purpose. Just as a manifestation of the fact that we’re not going to have as much cross competition.

Mark Pope on the work being put in to piece together the non-conference schedule after the NCAA announced the Nov. 25 start date.

“It’s super fun because it’s madness and chaos.”#BYU #BYUHoops @kslsports pic.twitter.com/JJvFoV26Fg

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) September 17, 2020

“Even if the season goes off without a glitch, we’re still missing four games of potential competition against people from different areas of the country. So I think the biggest pressure we’re feeling right now is we want to play the hardest schedule we can possibly play. We want to play the best teams we can possibly play. If that means we’re flying to Florida and New York safely, to play games, we’ll do it. If it means we can do it by driving down the freeway [to play in-state games], we’ll do it.”

According to a report from Jon Rothstein of CBS, BYU has emerged as a candidate to play in the Legends Classic, a multi-team event that features UConn, Vanderbilt, and USC. BYU had non-conference games scheduled against rival Utah, Oregon, and Arizona State from the Pac-12 Conference before the scheduling shakeups took place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. BYU is working on getting all of those games back on the non-conference schedule.

Outlook for BYU hoops in 2020-21

BYU returns five players who saw action during last year’s run to a No. 18 ranking and 24-8 record. Senior guard Alex Barcello steps into a leadership role this season. Guard/Forward Connor Harding is one of the most versatile athletes on BYU’s roster.

Pope added some heralded newcomers to his roster, starting with forward/center Matt Haarms who turned down Kentucky and Texas Tech to sign with BYU. UVU transfer Brandon Averette brings cat-quick moves according to Pope, and four-star recruit Caleb Lohner has the potential to be an immediate contributor on opening night.

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m., KSL Newsradio). Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.