Only last week, many were lamenting the inevitable demise of a BYU basketball program that had once seemed prior for a deep run through March Madness. With a record of 11-6 and the bitter aftertaste of a loss in the Utes' Huntsman Center, the general emotional response was about as one would expect.
BYU was plummeting down the Big 12 leaderboard--not that any reasonable person expected them to sit at the top. A brutal blowout against Houston, humiliating defeats to Utah and TCU, and a heartbreaking loss to Texas Tech sent onlookers into a spiral.
Even Kevin Young's stock value began to falter.
Two wins later, and the Cougars are right back on track. Two dominant W's at Colorado (where the winning seal on road games was emphatically broken) and against a defensively bothersome Cincinnati in Provo have altered the sentiment surrounding the boys in blue--and rightfully so.
Only one week after staring into the bottom of the conference standings, look where the Cougars sit now.
Big 12 Men's Basketball Standings
1. Houston
2. Iowa State
3. Arizona
4. Texas Tech
5. Kansas
6. Baylor
7. BYU
8. UCF
9. West Virginia
10. Utah
11. TCU
12. Cincinnati
13. Arizona State
14. Oklahoma State
15. Kansas State
16. Colorado
In the top half of the conference is ideal position if this team intends on appearing before the NCAA Tournament selection committee to plead their case for inclusion. The field is large, but after losing games against Utah and TCU in the bottom half, the margin for error has shrunk significantly.
This team's strength of schedule is about to become brutal as well, facing off against Baylor on Tuesday with two meetings against top-25 West Virginia, Arizona, and a meeting with Kansas and Iowa State still to come.
Fortunately, BYU basketball is finally starting to gel under Kevin Young. If Egor can continue to grow his confidence, shooters like Knell and Catchings can remain hot, the bigs continue to handle themselves against the elite athletes of the Big 12, and Richie can keep being Richie, this team could be going places.