19. BYU (15-5)
Recent seasons hadn’t been kind to a BYU program that had underachieved in the WCC. Now members of the Big 12, life is entirely different and this Cougars team is different as well. They’ve played great basketball most of this season, even with a bit of struggle against their new conference mates. How would they fare this week getting to play two of the tougher Big 12 teams in their home arena?
The week had an underwhelming start, as the Cougars fell 75-68 to a very strong Houston squad. Noah Waterman led the charge with 17 points and BYU did shoot decently, but just didn’t have enough to pull the upset. Things were better on Saturday, as they’d prevail 84-72 over Texas. They benefited from 17-point efforts from both Waterman and Jaxson Robinson as BYU shot 64% from the field as a team.
Sitting here at 3-4 in the Big 12 isn’t exactly what BYU was hoping for, but they could certainly be in a worse position. This program was middle of the pack at best in the WCC last season and looks significantly better. The offense in particular has been outstanding and efficient in recent weeks and they’ll only need that to continue. BYU’s next two games are away from home, starting next weekend in Morgantown against West Virginia.