BYU’s Three-Game Losing Streak Sends Them Into Bubble Territory
Feb 4, 2022, 10:45 AM
Brigham Young Cougars forward Seneca Knight (24) is called for a foul in Provo on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022. San Francisco won 79-53. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
(Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
PROVO, Utah – BYU basketball faces adversity that they haven’t dealt with in the Mark Pope era. Typically, BYU has been a streaking team at this time of the season, trending up in the Bracketology projections. Unfortunately for BYU fans, that’s not the case for Pope’s squad this year.
Amid a three-game losing streak, BYU is moving down in the latest Bracketology. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has BYU as an 11-seed in his new projection unveiled on Friday.
NCAA Bracketology – Projecting the 2022 March Madness men's field. 🏀🏀 Unrelated: Four years ago today we got the Philly Special. https://t.co/NKCYctvU9F
— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) February 4, 2022
What’s notable about the seeding is that Lunardi has BYU as the last team in the “Last Four Byes” section. This means BYU is hovering around the area of bubble territory, as they are only five spots away from being out of the tournament altogether, according to Joey Brackets.
BYU Basketball trending in the wrong direction
BYU’s latest loss, a 73-59 setback to San Francisco on their home floor, has sent the Cougars tumbling down the metrics. The Dons are also projected in Lunardi’s field of 68, but the dominating fashion that USF crushed BYU has the Cougars trending in the wrong direction.
BYU stares down an upcoming tilt with No. 2 Gonzaga coming up on Saturday to make matters more complicated. After the Zags, BYU goes on the road for a three-game stretch that includes visiting Saint Mary’s.
BYU is 17-7 overall and 5-4 in West Coast Conference play.
What helps BYU is that they are 3-1 against Quadrant 1 teams in the NET rankings.
Last season, BYU earned a six-seed in the NCAA Tournament. They were trending towards a single-digit seed before COVID-19 shut down the entire NCAA Tournament year before that.
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.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.
