BYU men’s basketball has seen some record individual performances this season, but a concerted team effort will be needed for a place in tournament championships.
Kyle Collinsworth broke the NCAA single-season triple-double record with his fifth in the Cougars’ Feb. 7 win over LMU.
Tyler Haws became BYU’s second all-time leading scorer on Jan. 31 against Santa Clara. He is currently only 69 points away from overtaking Jimmer Fredette as Cougar basketball’s scoring king.
But as a team, BYU faces an uphill battle in achieving its season goal of returning to the NCAA Tournament this March. The Cougars are 18-8 overall and 8-5 in conference play, currently putting them behind Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference Standings.
BYU looked promising at the start of the season, only narrowly losing to nationally ranked San Diego State and Utah. But recent conference losses to Pepperdine, Saint Mary’s and San Diego appear to have derailed their chances for an NCAA Tournament bid. The Cougars can no longer rely on impressive individual performances alone if they are to regain momentum to have a fighting chance at making it to the Big Dance.
BYU men’s basketball has made the NCAA Tournament twice since switching to the WCC in 2011. The Cougars made it to the first round of the tournament in 2012 after finishing third in the conference standings. Following a one-year Tourney absence, BYU made it back to the first round after finishing second in the conference.
The 31 teams that win their respective conference tournaments automatically qualify to compete in the NCAA Tournament. The remaining 37 spots are filled by teams invited by the NCAA selection committee. Invitations are distributed based on national rankings, regular-season performance, strength of schedule and overall body of work.
At least two WCC teams have competed in the NCAA Tournament since 2012. Three teams made the tournament in 2008, when Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s and San Diego obliterated conference competition. Those teams’ conference records were 13-1, 12-2 and 11-3 respectively, with fourth-place Santa Clara following at 6-8.
The current WCC standings don’t suggest such a disparity between upper-tier and lower-tier teams, making the possibility of three teams qualifying for the tournament appear unlikely. It also isn’t guaranteed that two WCC teams will qualify, and there have been four years where only the conference champion has made the NCAA Tournament.
But the Cougars’ window for participating in March Madness hasn’t closed just yet. They can still punch their ticket by winning the upcoming WCC Tournament in Las Vegas. Though the BYU men’s team hasn’t won a conference tournament championship since the 2001 team won the Mountain West Conference finals, head coach Dave Rose remains optimistic.
“We’ve just got to get better,” Rose said after the Cougars’ road loss to Saint Mary’s on Jan. 17. “We’re right there, and I have total and complete confidence in this team that we can make some great things happen this year.”
The make-or-break games of the regular season are the upcoming battles against Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga, both whom the Cougars lost to in their first meeting this season by five points or less. Winning both would conceivably give them an outside shot of receiving an NCAA Tournament invitation. If BYU tightens up its defense and focuses on rebounding, winning is attainable. Scoring hasn’t been a problem for BYU, as Collinsworth’s and Haws’ stats have shown.
“In most of our losses, rebounding was one of the main issues,” Rose said after winning at Santa Clara. “We definitely brought it tonight in that aspect. Hopefully we can keep building.”
BYU still has a clear path to the NCAA Tournament; it’s just entirely uphill. The Cougars will begin their attempt to defy the odds March 5–10 at the WCC Tournament.
