Joe Lunardi Has BYU Playing in Salt Lake in Latest Projections

On Tuesday, ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi updated his NCAA Tournament projections. BYU was projected to be a five seed playing McNeese State. Perhaps most

Casey Lundquist | Jan 23, 2024

On Tuesday, ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi updated his NCAA Tournament projections. BYU was projected to be a five seed playing McNeese State. Perhaps most notably, BYU would play in Salt Lake City during the first weekend of the tournament. In Lunardi's projection, the winner of BYU-McNeese State would take on the winner of Duke-Akron for a chance to advance to the Sweet 16.

BYU in the Polls

On Monday, the new AP poll for college basketball was released and BYU dropped one spot from no. 20 to no. 21 after splitting games last week against Iowa State and Texas Tech. The Cougars, who are 2-3 in conference play, host no. 4 Houston on Tuesday night.

BYU is one of seven Big 12 teams in the AP top 25. They are joined by Houston (4), Kansas (7), Oklahoma (11), Baylor (15), Texas Tech (20), and Iowa State (23).

This is a critical week for BYU hoops. After hosting the Houston Cougars on Tuesday, BYU will host the Texas Longhorns on Saturday. Those two games represent a rare opportunity for BYU to spend an entire week at home. These two games are swing games on BYU's schedule. At minimum, it feels like BYU needs to split this home series. An 0-2 record this week would have BYU near the bottom of the conference with a 2-5 record. A 2-0 record this week would put BYU at 4-3 and competing for an upper seed in the conference tournament.

Below is the full AP top 25.

UConn
Purdue
North Carolina
Houston
Tennessee
Kentucky
Kansas
Auburn
Arizona
Illinois
Oklahoma
Duke
Wisconsin
Marquette
Baylor
Dayton
Creighton
Utah State
Memphis
Texas Tech
BYU
FAU
Iowa State
Colorado State
New Mexico

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Published Jan 23, 2024

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.