NCAA Basketball Panic or Patience: Are BYU, Florida and Texas NCAA Tournament teams?
BYU Cougars (7-4)
It has been an emotional roller coaster for the Cougars, going from a near-upset to top-10 Nevada to start the season to dropping a pair or road games to mid-majors, to just beating a couple of in-state rivals this past week.
Despite the ups and downs for BYU as a team, Yoeli Childs has been consistently great. He’s averaging 23.6 ppg and 11.4 rpg on the season and is coming off a three straight 31-point efforts. The problem in the four losses has been the contributions from his teammates.
TJ Haws is averaging over 16 ppg, but the junior has had awful games, such as his 1/9 shooting performance in the loss to Weber State. And as for the others, they’ve simply underperformed as a unit, causing the offense to come to a complete halt once Childs goes to the bench.
As of right now, BYU isn’t really in the bubble conversation. Wins against Utah and Utah State aren’t as bad as the losses to both Illinois State and Weber State. WCC teams such as San Diego and San Francisco have better at-large resumes for the NCAA Tournament. So should Cougar fans already be preparing for the NIT?
Patience
One of the biggest problems that BYU has had has been consistent shooting from players not named Childs or Haws. They get a major boost with the return of Nick Emery, who sat out the first nine games of the season due to NCAA violations. He’s a good shooter, defender, and solid third option on offense that’ll take some pressure off of Childs.
As far as the Big Dance is concerned though, the amount of opportunities are starting to run out. Only Mississippi State represents a key non-conference game that’ll move the needle, and it’s hard to expect a win against the No. 1 Gonzaga Bulldogs once conference play starts. And even though the WCC is improved overall, that still creates a situation where BYU will take on more losses, rather than racking up resume-building wins.
But due to other mid-major conferences such as the A-10 an Mountain West being down, the chances of the WCC being a multi-bid league have increased. Can the Cougars be that team? Sure. But the level of urgency has risen, making the rest of the non-conference crucial for them.