BYU Basketball: Cougars only path to Big Dance is WCC tourney title

BYU basketball has no path to an NCAA Tournament at-large berth. Their only shot is to win the WCC Tournament in Las Vegas.

The bubble has burst for BYU Basketball.

After a shocking loss to Loyola Marymount and a close defeat in The Kennel to Gonzaga two weeks ago, and then yet another crushing loss to San Diego over the weekend, the Cougars’ at-large hopes for the NCAA Tournament are all but gone.

The LMU loss is by far the worst loss of the season for the Cougars, all but tanking their tournament chances by itself.

A win against Gonzaga in Spokane could have put a spark of life in their at-large resume. They played well against the Zags, but couldn’t make the plays down the stretch to pull out the win.

Now the list of possible big wins for BYU is too small to make up for their bad losses.

BYU Cougars Basketball

In the four games the Cougars have played against Top-50 RPI teams, they’ve fallen in all four. They’ve all been competitive, but close doesn’t count. This isn’t horseshoes or hand-grenades.

The Cougars do have three wins against Top-80 RPI teams (Utah, Illinois State, Utah Valley), but that’s not going to cut it with a selection committee that tends to favor one or two marquee wins over a handful of good ones.

And those wins definitely aren’t enough to make up for the flop against LMU or San Diego. The Lions are not a good team, and that loss is a glaring red mark on the Cougar resume. The Toreros are hoving around the .500 mark in league play, giving the Cougars yet another ill-afforded loss.

With only two games left in the regular season, there’s only one game left that could move the needle in BYU’s favor: the season finale against Gonzaga in the Marriott Center.

Even a win in that one probably wouldn’t move the needle enough.

Finally Time for a Tourney Title?

There’s really only one feasible path for the Cougars to make the Big Dance: winning the WCC Tournament.

Not the greatest odds in the world, especially considering that BYU has never been able to win a conference tournament under Dave Rose, and considering they’ll have to take down two Top 15 teams to do it.

But there is some hope.

This is a talented Cougar team that can play with anyone. They’ve proven their ability to go toe-to-toe with the top teams they’ve faced, but their lack of experience has led to a lack of consistency and those bad losses.

But as noted above, they’ve already gone toe-to-toe with both St. Mary’s and Gonzaga.

They took the Gaels to overtime in the Marriott Center, and they were within six points down the stretch against that same St. Mary’s squad in Moraga.

The Cougs were within four points with less than a minute to play against the Zags in The Kennel. They’ve proven they can hang with the big boys, but haven’t been able to close those games out.

Blame it on lack of experience, blame it on mental mistakes. Whatever you blame it on, the Cougars aren’t that far away from turning those close losses into wins.

They’ve got some growing to do, and they’d better do that growing before they head to Sin City.

It’s their last chance.