In a week from Tuesday, the BYU Cougars men’s basketball team will begin a season that carries with it as much anticipation as has been in the program in a long time.
New head coach Kevin Young has brought an NBA pedigree to Provo and he’s infused the roster with a level of talent not seen there in many years, but will the Cougars even make the NCAA Tournament this season after being picked to finish ninth in the ridiculously tough Big 12 Conference?
Last week, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, widely seen as a foremost expert on “bracketology,” released his final preseason predictions for the 68-team Tournament field, and BYU is in as a 9 seed.
Nine Big 12 teams are in Lunardi’s bracket, with the Cougars essentially considered the eighth-best, although there is a wide gap between them and the top seven.
The top seven — Kansas (1 seed), Houston (1 seed), Iowa State (2 seed), Arizona (3 seed), Baylor (3 seed), Texas Tech (4 seed) and Cincinnati (5 seed) — are all at least a 5 seed.
Kansas State is the only Big 12 team that can be considered lower than BYU in the field, but that’s just barely the case. Lunardi has the Wildcats on the 9 seed line like the Cougars but among the “Last Four Byes,” while BYU is safely in the field (the other three teams in the Last Four Byes section — Saint Mary’s, Ole Miss and Maryland — are 10 seeds).
While specific opponents Lunardi has teams playing are very unimportant at this point given that no team has played a real game yet, he has the Cougars facing 8 seed Mississippi State in the first round in the West regional, with the winner playing the winner of Houston and Colgate.
That, of course, would mean two Big 12 teams squaring off early in the tournament.
Beside BYU, Lunardi has Weber State in the field as the Big Sky Conference’s automatic bid even though those Wildcats were picked to finish just fourth in the conference (Lunardi has Weber State playing 2 seed Gonzaga in the West regional).
BYU will play an exhibition game Wednesday night at home against Colorado Christian that is open to the public but will not be televised, with tip time scheduled for 7 p.m.
The Cougars will officially open the season Nov. 5 at home against Central Arkansas.
Weber State, meanwhile, beat Adams State 83-63 in an exhibition game at home Monday night and will officially open its season Nov. 4 at home against Northwest Indian College, with tip time scheduled for 7 p.m.