BYU's NCAA Tournament Odds Are Slim Ahead of Selection Sunday

BYU's NCAA Tournament odds shrunk when it lost to San Francisco in the WCC Tournament

With one day remaining before Selection Sunday, the BYU men's basketball team is holding out hope for a NCAA Tournament bid. In late January, BYU had a 77% chance of making the NCAA tournament according to Team Rankings. Then the Cougars lost four consecutive games to Santa Clara, Pacific, San Francisco, and Gonzaga.

The Cougars rebounded from the four-game losing streak by winning five of their last seven games. BYU had an opportunity to bolster its resume in a Q1 game against San Francisco in the WCC Tournament, but the Cougars couldn't produce enough offense in a 63-75 loss. In total, BYU's NCAA tournament chances have dropped from 77% in late January to 1.5% as of the time of this article according to Team Rankings.

Alex Barcello vs UCLA NCAA tournament

According to ESPN's bracket expert Joe Lunardi, BYU is among the "Next Four Out", meaning BYU is six spots away from the field of 68. 

Jerry Palm of CBS Sports has been bullish on the Cougars and their resume throughout the season. Palm still expects BYU to make a play-in game as a #12 seed against Notre Dame.

Bracket Matrix, a website that compiles 142 of the most popular NCAA Tournament projections on the internet, has BYU included in 10 out of 142 (7%) NCAA Tournament projections. Of the 10 brackets that included BYU in the field of 68, all of them slotted BYU as a #12 seed.

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Casey Lundquist
CASEY LUNDQUIST

Casey Lundquist is the publisher and lead editor of Cougs Daily. He has covered BYU athletics for the last four years. During that time, he has published over 2,000 stories that have reached more than three million people.