Can sizzling Cougars stay hot on Arizona road swing?

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BYU guard Dallin Hall dribbles the ball down the court during a game between BYU and the Kansas Jayhawks at the Marriott Center on the campus of BYU in Provo on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. Next up for the Cougars is a game with No. 19 Arizona Saturday in Tucson. | Brice Tucker, Deseret News

First-year coach Kevin Young’s BYU Cougars have been the toast of the college basketball world the past few days after Tuesday’s stunning 91-57 conquest of Kansas at the Marriott Center in Provo.

Various blogs, podcasts and segments on national sports shows have mentioned BYU’s historic margin of victory over one of the blue bloods of college basketball. More importantly, the Cougars have moved to the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble.

In the latest Bracket Matrix projections, BYU appears in all 108 surveyed brackets. In the primary sorting tool for the Big Dance, the NCAA’s NET rankings, BYU is in the top 30 for the first time this season. It is also at No. 30 in the all-important Kenpom.com ratings.

In ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi’s newest Bracketology projections, BYU is on a 9 seed line, but listed in the bracket as an 11 seed for reasons related to BYU’s no-Sunday-play policy.

As Young said after BYU blew out the Kansas schools, it is a good time to be a fan of the Cougars, who have won three straight and are three games above .500 (9-6) for the first time ever in the Big 12.

How long will the good feelings last?

The red-hot Cougars will find out fast, because they are in Arizona for the next two games, beginning Saturday (8 p.m. MST, ESPN) against the No. 19 Arizona Wildcats at sold-out McKale Center in Tucson. After Saturday night’s game, they will head up the road to Phoenix and stay in the Valley of the Sun until facing the Sun Devils on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. MST, ESPN+) in Tempe.

Young said on his coach’s show Thursday night that this team enjoys spending time together and is looking forward to the longest road trip of the season.

“It could be a good bonding moment as…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/sizzling-cougars-stay-hot-arizona-000000722.html

Author : Deseret News

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

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