Can Cougars derail ‘hottest team in the league’ when Kansas State visits Saturday?

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BYU Cougars head coach Kevin Young watches a shot go up against the Oklahoma State Cowboys during an NCAA men’s basketball game held at the Marriott Center in Provo on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News

Three weeks ago, Saturday’s game against Kansas State for the NCAA Tournament bubble-squatting BYU Cougars looked like a much-needed breather between the longest road trip of the season and a showdown with one of the blue bloods of college basketball, Kansas.

Well, as the great Bob Dylan sings: Things have changed.

After edging Cincinnati in their Big 12 opener and then dropping six straight games, the Wildcats have reeled off six straight wins and are now tied with the Cougars (16-8, 7-6) in the conference standings with seven league games remaining.

But that’s not all. Kansas State (13-11, 7-6) has defeated three nationally ranked teams during that stretch — Iowa State, Kansas and Arizona, including a jaw-dropping 80-61 win over the Cyclones in Ames. BYU is coming off a much-needed road split, bouncing back with a 73-69 win over West Virginia on Tuesday after a demoralizing 84-66 loss at Cincinnati.

Tipoff is at 7 p.m. MST at the Marriott Center.

“We know we still have work that we gotta continue to do, with the hottest team in the league coming in here, Kansas State,” BYU coach Kevin Young said on his coaches show Thursday night. “We are just hoping we can build off that (West Virginia win) and go take care of the next one.”

Young said Kansas State’s staff — led by third-year head coach Jerome Tang — should be credited for reviving a team that also had some struggles in nonconference play. Kansas State went hard to the transfer portal after the 2023-24 season, bringing in eight transfers, and it has taken awhile to develop chemistry and cohesion.

Illinois graduate forward Coleman Hawkins, who reportedly received a $2 million NIL deal, has helped engineer the turnaround, along with former Michigan point guard Dug McDaniel.

Only three players…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/cougars-derail-hottest-team-league-221658969.html

Author : Deseret News

Publish date : 2025-02-14 22:16:00

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