BYU Is Trending Up In NCAA Tournament Projections, National Polls
Feb 11, 2020, 2:48 PM
BYU celebrates a win over Saint Mary’s in an NCAA basketball game in Provo at the Marriott Center on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2020. BYU won 81-79. (Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News)
(Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News)
PROVO, Utah – BYU basketball and the NCAA Tournament haven’t gone hand in hand the past few years. The Cougars haven’t been to the Big Dance in five years, but barring an epic collapse at the end of this season, BYU is well on their way to getting back to the field of 68.
After another perfect week, BYU finds themselves at 19-7 overall on the season –matching last year’s win total– and 8-3 in the West Coast Conference.
BYU hoops' main rankings (change from Monday):
Primary sorting tool:
NET 23 (E)Predictive:
KenPom 17 (-1)
ESPN BPI 20 (-1)
Sagarin 26 (E)Results-based:
ESPN SOR 34 (E)
KPI 41 (E)SOS:
NCAA 33 (-1)
Sagarin 71 (+1)
KenPom 59 (E)
ESPN BPI 68 (E)— Greg Wrubell (@gregwrubell) February 11, 2020
BYU’s NET ranking is currently at 23 in the country and their KenPom rating is at No. 16. Great metrics to make it into the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team. Because of those high rankings, the Cougars find themselves on basically every bracketology projection currently available online.
The Bracket Matrix which compiles all of the different Bracketology projections has BYU listed as a No. 8 seed if the NCAA Tournament started today. Some projections have BYU as high as a 6-seed, the lowest being an 11-seed.
In this week’s AP Top 25 poll, BYU is in the receiving votes category sitting at No. 29. Just four spots from appearing in the Top 25 for the first time since the 2011 team that advanced to the Sweet 16.
ESPN (Joe Lunardi)
No. 7 BYU vs. No. 10 Purdue in St. Louis
CBS (Jerry Palm)
No. 8 Houston vs. No. 9 BYU in Indianapolis
Updated CBS Sports NCAA bracket projections have Houston as 8-seed in Midwest Region, facing BYU in a rematch from November. pic.twitter.com/zAA3Rj2Xkw
— Joseph Duarte (@Joseph_Duarte) February 10, 2020
FOX (Mike DeCourcey)
No. 8 Wisconsin vs. No. 9 BYU in Indianapolis
NCAA.com (Andy Katz)
No. 6 Colorado vs. No. 11 BYU in Los Angeles
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 pm) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.
