Kevin Young was a first-year coach at BYU last year and inherited a non-conference schedule that allowed his Cougars to feast on cupcakes.
Last year's campaign started with Central Arkansas, UC Riverside, Queens University, and Idaho, and over the course of 11 non-conference games, the Cougars faced just three quality opponents -- Ole Miss, NC State, and Providence.
In basketball, as in life, a diet consisting mostly of cupcakes leaves you lethargic, slow, and operating well below your peak. If last year's nonconference schedule was one chock full of fattening pastries, this year's opponents are the basketball version of a perfect diet designed in a food science lab.
BYU's slow Big 12 start last year
As stated above, while it was fun last year watching the Cougars annihilate lesser opponents by 20-plus points in most non-conference games, those easy contests left BYU woefully unprepared for the rigors of the Big 12 conference season.
After beating Arizona State to kick off conference play, the Cougars went on to lose four of their next five games. They got destroyed by 31 at Houston, dropped close games to Texas Tech and TCU, beat Oklahoma State, then saw the season sink to its lowest point with a overtime loss in Salt Lake City against a pretty bad Utah team.
It took last year's talented but unprepared Cougars going 2-4 in Big 12 play before they figured things out, winning 13 of their next 16 games including the Big 12 Tournament, then reaching the Sweet 16.
Coach Young referenced BYU's creampuff preseason schedule as one of the main reasons for the team's slow start last year.
That issue got fixed this year.
BYU's difficult, strategic 2025-26 non-conference slate
This year's nonconference slate for Kevin Young's squad sounds more like a run through the NCAA Tournament than just ramping up for conference play. Through nine games BYU has the No. 9 strength of schedule in the country.
The 8-1 Cougars have already faced, and vanquished, the likes of Villanova, Wisconsin, Miami, Dayton, and Clemson. Their only blemish was a two-point loss against No. 3 UConn in a largely pro-Huskies crowd in Boston.
Those are good teams, and this year's iteration of BYU basketball is learning some good lessons. Against Villanova and Dayton the Cougs learned how to win close games against quality opponents. In double-digit wins against Wisconsin and Miami, AJ Dybantsa & Co. learned how to hold on to leads and close teams out. Against Clemson (a buzzer-beater win) and UConn (a two-point loss), they learned they can't sleepwalk their way through the first halves of games and expect to win.
Let's hope they remember that last lesson, in particular, given some of the Cougs' inexplicably slow starts this year. After feasting on cupcakes early last year, Kevin Young's squad started Big 12 conference play a little lethargically.
After grinding their way through a top-end nonconference schedule this year, the BYU Cougars have been adequately nourished in preparation for a Final Four run.