NIT Championship

At a current 15-7 with a likely two more losses before the dance invitation get sent, BYU is almost certainly going to do better than last year and do something special. They will probably get an NIT invite, stay at home until the final four in Madison Square Garden and then win there.

The two most likely losses are Gonzaga at home and Gonzaga in the tournament.
While Gonzaga at home is the more questionable of the two another slip up in conference play with fill in even more admirably.
Gonzaga in the tournament is almost a given unless BYU loses to SMC or somebody else first. Either way a loss in Vegas adds up to another loss.

Nine losses adds up to an NIT invite.

Given the level of competition the team has played and the teams offensive capabilities they are not likely to play any team in the NIT that can contain them enough to offset their defensive lapses and thus BYU will likely have its first NIT Championship since the great Stan Watts.

Rose built, and Pope enhanced, a great offensive team.
Pope has done an amazing job at getting the defense back to respectable, but back to respectable is not a dance team. The combination of great offense and respectable defense does not add up to the future achievements that Pope and his seven seniors want.

Could we all be surprised? Could the team figure out how to play defence while keeping the offense so hot. I am sure Pope and his staff will be trying.
Just not enough time in the schedule to finish working out the kinks and to impress the committee enough to dance.

The pie in they sky tournament championship is as always an exceptional circumstance that BYU has not obtained since the early Cleveland years…Pope looks to be better than Cleveland so maybe this year the fairy dust will land…

I expect BYU to win out except for the Zags and finish 2nd-then get an invite if they don’t get knocked out early in Las Vegas. Tough loss, but it’s not like they rolled over and died. This team still has more heart than I’ve seen in years and Pope will get them back up and playing hard

The Pacific Win was big. A loss to a good team at their place isn’t as bad as a loss at home. But, we are back on the bubble. 21 straight points? Just a couple of baskets and a stop during that stretch and we win. Tough one but I’m glad you are seeing what I’m seeing even though you didn’t watch the game either. Poor defense in the second half.

Nice write up Harold but…

A team that is #23 in Ken Pom. does not sit out the big Dance. BYU just went through the toughest part of the WCC schedule and is tied for 2nd with 3 losses. Every team in the WCC outside of BYU must play road games against the upper tier of the WCC EXCEPT BYU.

Right now BYU is sitting at a 10 seed with no bad losses. I suspect we will see them at a 8 seed before the season is over

I hope you’re right, Chris, but a small correction: BYU is in a 4-way tie for third with 3 losses. St Mary’s is alone in second with 2 losses.

No votes for the Cougs in the AP or Coaches poll this week, although they’re still standing pretty firm in the Saragin computer rankings at 36 and the 36th toughest schedule in the nation. St Mary’s is at 33 with the 104th toughest schedule.

The loss to San Francisco was hard to stomach, but I agree with you: BYU had very good stats for the game. San Francisco’s guy couldn’t miss, and that was the difference.

Heart does help. Heat helps too. But the only thing that really matters to the committee is the wins. Plenty of meat in the schedule but not compared to the BIG10/12/East conferences…

Just win out which includes SMC this week. Basically every loss makes it more difficult-so you’ve had your loss so win out with the exception of Gonzaga, but that would be a great win. I can see 3 more losses for SMC, which is the key team to finish ahead of. If you’ve played the 36th schedule in the country and finish in 2nd place in the WCC you will be dancing

The reason I keep posting that BYU has no bad losses and that our worst loss of the year was to a surging @BSU (now 3nd in the MWC) and a Stomp down of Nev, 2nd in the MWC, BYU is safe fro now. When you look at SMC, they have two bad losses in WCC play with a horrendous tail end, boy do they look shaky. Buckle up.
TJ, Barchello, Childs, Toolson and co will be dancing.

Just looked at ESPN BPI
BYU is #28. SMC #32
That would be a #6 seed today…no one has BYU as a #6 seed but they do have BYU at a 7-10 seed everywhere and we can improve, our schedule says we can move up. Time for a big run.

If we want to get ticky tacky. Childs suspension and finger contusion have cost BYU wins.
Going back to the first nine games, BYU would of won
at home, SDSU
@BSU.
@Utah.
Would have lost to Kansas

Finger contusion games:
The SMC loss would be a Win.
Losses to Gonzaga and SF

BYU would be ranked and have a 3 loss record. any arguments?

the only minor quibble I would have for your counterfactual is that I suspect the Gonzaga game might have been different. more like a 50-50.
So two or three losses.
Definitely ranked.
Definitely dancing.

However they currently have 7 losses and before the tournament committee meets will almost certainly have 9 losses perhaps 10.
a 10 loss BYU team will have fun dominating the NIT…I would expect a long series of blow-outs. First at the Marriott Activities Center at BYU and then at Madison Square Garden in NYC.
If they can do what JonTavernari says and win out, then they will go to the big dance maybe even make it to the second weekend…If I were betting though…Madison Square Garden.

I think if Childs didn’t have that injury, SF would have been a win as well.

What they are saying is the way teams are picked today BYU is still in the NCAA Tournament. Another bad loss and they would be outside looking in. Pepperdine is a must win and I think SM is too at home.

If the teams were being picked today, I would agree Pope’s boys would be in.
But the committee will begin meeting after the regular season. They will be making decisions during the course of the conference tournament season. They make their final decisions if necessary in the hour or two after the big conferences finish their final games on selection Sunday.

BYU will have 9 games of regular season and one or more of the tournament season before the selection committee makes their picks.

We just have to go 9-0. I still think Childs has a couple more weeks before he will be close to 100%. Hope he’s good enough to win big this week.

Harold: Seven to nine loses is usually an NIT bid when playing in the WCC. We shall see.I agree with Sr. Burton that Pope has this team playing with more heart than in many years. But unless BYU can beat SMC tonight and/or Gonzaga either at home or in Vegas 7 to 9 loses seems to add up to an NIT bid.
The lack of power players constantly in the lineup like Yoeli Childs, who after his nine game NCAA suspension and then his finger injury has cost BYU dearly. Pope is a great coach, but can his Cougars finish out stronger and make it into maybe a three bid WCC NCAA tourney?

This is the reason I think Baxter is in this year.
Two games against the Zags and whatever team with bigs in the dance.
If Pope can get him clicking with the rest of the team and enhance the power play enough the Cougs can have a really special season end instead of the NIT…

How about listening to Baxter’s own reason. He’s only going to be here 3 years. Next year may be his last.

Apologies for not making myself clear, I was writing about Pope’s reason for playing Baxter not Baxter’s reason for wanting to play.
Admittedly, Baxter’s stated limited intention to be at the collegiate level must be taken in to account, but the coach must weigh different things than the players.

If Baxter is ready to play and Baxter is letting Pope know his intentions, then why not play him if he can help this year? Makes no sense to hold him out until next year if next year is his last year.

Not a Chance…BYU will dance and get the best seed since the Jimmer years