I was curious so I decided to do some research on the teams that BYU lost to early in the season and determine if they were losses that wouldn’t hurt the teams chances for the ncaa tournament.
Long Beach State - LBSU is 11-12 overall and 5-3 in their league. They are in third place in the Big West Conference.
Utah - The pukes are 17-6 overall and 6-4 in the pac 12, They are one of 3 teams tied for fourth place. They play Oregon next, who beat them by 20 in SLC.
Colorado - The Buffs have the identical record as Utah at 17-6 overall and 6-4 in the pac 12 league.
Harvard - The Crimson are 9-12 overall and 1-4 in the Ivy league. They are tied for last place, lost 4 in a row.
BYU’s losses to Portland and Pepperdine in conference play will not help the Cougars at all. It actually hurts their chances. The loss to St. Mary’s is not bad, but not good either.
The early season losses to Utah and Colorado do not hurt the Cougars chances though they were games in which BYU wasn’t really close. The losses to LBSU and Harvard are obviously terrible. Neither one of those teams has played well, since beating BYU, particularly Harvard, who was supposed to be a decent team. This will damage BYU"s chances significantly.
BYU has to win nearly every one of their remaining games and finish in the top 2 or three of the conference. This is very possible. They also have to make it to the championship of the wcc tournament and either win to make it or lose in a close one and squeak in because they finished league on a long winning streak. Anything else won’t work. The odds are still long, but possible.
I have kind of wondered about that myself, and for the most part had the same conclusion. Losses are just plain bad early in the season. The good side of this is I expect losses will be fairly rare for the next several seasons. There are going to be a lot of serious players here. I am not that worried that Jackson went to Duke. This Bryant kid is just as athletic and if he can discipline to the scheme, could be very big time. The reason I say that is a couple of years we had a player that was very athletic but he always played out of control and eventually transfered because he could not get playing time. Bryant has serious physical skills.
Jeff
So what are you talking about, people not believing you? I don’t see a pattern of not playing well after a big win.
After which big wins did they suffer a loss in the next game?
The loss to Long Beach State after the big win against Utah Valley? or was it the loss to Utah after the big win against Belmont? Maybe it was the loss to Colorado after that huge win against Utah State…No, it must have been the loss to Harvard after that hugely important win against Central Michigan… then again, maybe it was the loss to St. Mary’s after that significant win against Northern Iowa. Wait, I’ve got it now, it’s the loss to Pepperdine after beating wcc powerhouse LMU.
Maybe it was that ONE loss they had to Portland after the Gonzaga win… that has to be the ONE time you are talking about.
All games are big wins when trying toake it to the dance. The fact is we win Thirsdays and then lose Saturday’s. Gonzaga was a big win. So was SMU.
We are good but bipolar.