BYU Basketball: 5 things that will happen IF BYU beats Gonzaga

BYU Basketball will try to do something that only they seem to do on a regular basis, beat Gonzaga in the Kennel.

1.5%

That is the chance that ESPN is giving BYU to beat Gonzaga.

One point five percent.

That is crazy. Some of the things that are more likely to happen than 1.5% include:

• Having your house burn down by the time you are 50 (1.53%)
• Utah Jazz winning the NBA title this year (2.9%)
• Hitting a half court shot for money (2%)
• Getting in a car crash in 2019 (5.4%)
• Breaking a bone this year (2.6%)
• Getting sick from sushi (2.8%)

In other words, it is not very likely to happen. If BYU played Gonzaga 200 times, BYU would be expected to win three times. This is nothing new for BYU. The past four seasons the Cougars have managed to beat the Zags three times in Spokane, one of those times being when Gonzaga was the number one team in the nation.

That being said, obviously there is no expectation that BYU Basketball beats Gonzaga on Saturday. But history should not be forgotten. For whatever reason, BYU does well in Spokane even when struggling to be competitive at home against the Zags.

So what will happen if BYU wins?

1. The two seed becomes a real possibility, three seed probable

After losing to San Fransisco on Thursday, BYU made it nearly impossible to get the desired two seed in the WCC which would keep the Cougars from having to play until the semi-finals in the WCC Tournament on Monday as opposed to having to play in the Quarterfinals on Saturday.  What BYU really wants to do though is avoid the four seed and winning in Spokane would almost guarantee the Cougars getting at worst the three seed if they can take care of San Diego in the final game of the season.

2. BYU Basketball locks up an NIT bid

Right now BYU is on the bubble for the NIT. If conference champions from smaller conferences end up losing their conference championships then the at-large bids will be a really small number, but if BYU wins in Spokane, they will not have to worry whether they will get in or not. As much as fans aren’t pleased with playing in the NIT, the tournament would provide the team with more playing time, experience and practices.

3. For at least one night, it will be great to be a Cougar

I’m not going to sugarcoat this, BYU basketball has had an up and down year and for the most part, BYU fans haven’t had a real reason to be celebrating. Sure, beating Utah was nice and going on a five game win streak felt good, but as far as really good wins or games to brag about on social media, there hasn’t really been anything this year. A win would give BYU fans that kind of win that the football team had against Wisconsin.

4. Yoeli Childs stays?

This is pure speculation, but if BYU goes out losing to San Fransisco, Gonzaga, Gonzaga again in the WCC Tourney and then a loss in the first round of the NIT it would be a tough sell to ask Yoeli Childs to stay. He likely won’t be drafted in the NBA, but he could make some nice money overseas. If BYU basketball is able to pull off the miracle maybe it would be enough to make Yoeli think a bit longer about coming back and playing with the same core of guys as this year. 

5. Confidence boost for the WCC Tourney

It is now obvious that the only way that BYU is making it to the NCAA Tournament is to win the WCC Tourney. That will almost certainly mean beating Gonzaga either in the semi finals or the championship game. BYU beating Gonzaga in Spokane would show the team that they can hang with, and beat the Zags. And given that BYU will once again have a 1.5-3% of winning, they could use every advantage that they could get.