NCAA Basketball: Kansas dominance, overrated FSU, and more weekly takeaways

8) Pay attention to BYU

Saint Mary’s is almost always the second team you talk about when discussing the West Coast Conference and Gonzaga, but BYU is the clear second best team in the conference this year and will be extremely dangerous in the NCAA Tournament.

Led by the elite duo of TJ Haws and Yoeli Childs (who form one of the nation’s most lethal pick-and-rolls, by the way), the Cougars have one of the nation’s elite offenses, ranking in the top five in adjusted offensive efficiency. They lead the country in three-point shooting and have eight different players that shoot over 38 percent from long-range. With a presence like Childs in the middle, too, they’re incredibly tough to stop.

That offense has helped BYU post a 21-7 record so far, yet you could argue they’re even better than their record indicates. Five of their seven losses came without Childs in the lineup, three of their seven losses came in overtime, and three were against top four teams (San Diego State, Kansas, Gonzaga).

The Cougars do have two Quad 1 wins in their back pocket, too, having beaten Houston on the road and Utah State on a neutral court. They’ll likely be in the at-large conversation, assuming Gonzaga wins the WCC Tournament, so those wins hold even more importance.

All the metrics really like this group, too. They’re No. 13 in KenPom, No. 21 in the NET rankings, No. 24 in Sagarin, and No. 17 in BPI, all of which the selection committee looks at.

There’s an extremely good chance that BYU would earn that at-large bid and, once in the NCAA Tournament, their offense and three-point shooting will make them an extremely dangerous group no one will want to face.