BYU Basketball Soars Up KenPom Rankings After Blowout Win

The Cougars posted one of the most dominant victories in program history

Author:
Casey Lundquist
Publish date:
Nov 15, 2023 11:47 PM EST

On Wednesday night, the BYU basketball team put together one of the most dominant performances in program history in a 105-48 win over Southeastern Louisiana. It was tied for the second-largest margin of victory in BYU basketball history. After the game, BYU improved from 27th to 16th in the KenPom rankings. According to Cougars Stats, that is the highest KenPom ranking since Feb 15th, 2020. BYU improved to 3-0 with the win.

To be clear, Southeastern Louisiana is not a really bad team. Earlier this year, the Lions played Auburn competitively just a few days after Auburn took Baylor down to the wire. Additionally, Southeastern Louisiana was picked to finish first in the Southland conference this season. Beating the Lions by 57 points is a pretty remarkable accomplishment for Mark Pope and this BYU basketball team.

Before the game, KenPom predicted a BYU win by a score of 86-67. Since BYU more than doubled KenPom's projected margin of victory, the algorithm increased the evaluation of BYU.

KenPom likes BYU's chances to have a great record going into the conference slate. KenPom picks BYU to win every game on the non-conference schedule except the road game at Utah. KenPom gives Utah a 53% chance to beat BYU with a projected final score of 75-74. KenPom does not have a prediction for the second round of the Vegas Showdown - he won't make a prediction until BYU is assigned an opponent. BYU will play either NC State or Vanderbilt after they take on Arizona State.

If KenPom's predictions come to fruition, BYU could have a 11-1 record going into the conference opener against Cincinnati. If BYU can get to 11 wins before the conference schedule, the Cougars would likely need to win only 7-8 conference games to make the NCAA tournament. KenPom currently projects BYU to finish with a 20-10 record.