BYU Basketball: Three Cougar opponents ranked in preseason polls

BYU Basketball is playing a tougher schedule in 2018-19 than they have in recent years, highlighted by three preseason Top 25 opponents.

BYU Basketball will play four regular season games against teams ranked in the Preseason Coaches Poll, and three of those games will take place against Top 10 teams.

The poll, released on Thursday, has Gonzaga as the highest-ranked opponent the Cougars will face, coming in at No. 4 in the nation. BYU will face the Bulldogs twice, hosting them on January 31st and travelling to Spokane, WA on February 23rd.

Nevada wasn’t far behind the Zags, coming in at No. 9 in the poll. The Cougars will face the Wolf Pack in the first game of the season, squaring off in Reno, NV on November 6th.

The final Top 25 team on BYU’s schedule is No. 19 Mississippi State. The Bulldogs and Cougars will face off in BYU’s final non-conference game on December 29th in Starkville, MS.

Those rankings are pretty similar to the Preseason AP Poll, which was released on Monday. In that poll Gonzaga came in at No. 3, Nevada at No. 7, and Mississippi State at No. 18.

Those four games will be the primary resume builders for the NCAA Tournament. If BYU can pull off a win or two it’ll go a long way in boosting the Cougars’ at-large chances.

BYU will face off in a handful of other good games for their resume, including Houston, Illinois State, Utah, UNLV, San Diego State, and St. Mary’s (twice).

It’s a much tougher schedule than what the Cougars have faced in the past couple of years. It’s an adjustment to the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee’s trend toward emphasizing strength of schedule over number of wins.

BYU’s tougher schedule is also aided by the new 16-game West Coast Conference schedule, which allowed all WCC teams to schedule two more non-conference games.