BYU Basketball Poised for Historic Season with New Talent

PROVO, Utah — The upcoming basketball season promises to be the most anticipated in BYU history, with several national outlets placing the Cougars in the preseason top 10.

Expert opinions are high on BYU as they bring in elite talents like AJ Dybansta and Rob Wright, among others. However, it’s the returning talent that may propel the Cougars to a historic two-year run.

In a recent projection, ESPN‘s Joe Lunardi featured BYU as a 3-seed in his way-too-early bracketology. If the Cougars remain successful, they could face the 14-seed South Dakota State in the first round. A victory would lead them to a matchup against the winner of the Kansas–San Diego State game in the second round.

Lunardi’s projected NCAA field includes eight teams from the Big 12, four of which are top-three seeds. The projected seeds are as follows: Houston at #1, Arizona at #3, Iowa State at #3, and BYU at #3. Other notable teams include Kansas at #6, Texas Tech at #6, Cincinnati at #8, and Baylor at #9.

BYU’s basketball program has never reached the Final Four. Their deepest NCAA Tournament run occurred in the 1980s, led by Danny Ainge, when the Cougars made it to the Elite Eight. Since then, they have only advanced to the Sweet 16 twice, including last season.

If BYU manages to progress to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament again, it would mark the first time in program history that they have achieved two deep runs in consecutive seasons.

Published 23 hours ago, Casey Lundquist, the publisher and lead editor of Cougs Daily, has covered BYU athletics for four years. During this time, he has published over 2,000 stories, reaching more than three million readers. Follow him on social media at casey_lundquist.