BYU basketball does not have a strong history of success in the NCAA Tournament. This point was painfully driven home when a team led by potential number-one pick AJ Dybantsa and a 5-star point guard, Robert Wright III, couldn't manage to escape 11-seed Texas in the first round of this year's March Madness.
A sobering reminder that BYU hoops is a historical loser at the highest level, and a much-needed one after the highs of the previous season's scrappy roll to the Sweet 16 with a second-round upset of Big Ten champion Wisconsin. That first-year success under Kevin Young may have set unrealistic expectations for the following season, where an unbalanced roster and lack of depth sank the Cougars from the moment Big 12 play really took off.
Building a college basketball program is a serious undertaking, and with a vision as ambitious as the one swirling around Kevin Young's head, there was bound to be some growing pains. In that context, the over-delivering Cougs was almost a bad thing for fan's expectations. This upcoming season, those expectations will be tempered,
Taking a look at this chart of college basketball teams' best postseason accomplishments since the turn of the century, it becomes painfully clear that BYU basketball still has a long way to go before they can be considered a contender for the national championship.
College Basketball teams’ best postseason accomplishment this century 🏆 pic.twitter.com/657ADrdHzl
— College Basketball Report (@CBKReport) June 2, 2026
Seeing programs like St. Peter's, Dayton, Davidson, St. Joe's, Kent State, Temple, Tulsa, George Mason, FAU, Loyola Chicago, and VCU all reaching greater heights than BYU is frustrating, and makes Kevin Young's objective as head coach perfectly clear: break the barrier, and get BYU beyond their historical limits.
If you're going to recruit better than any BYU coach before you, you'd better have the wins to back it up.
BYU basketball hasn't reached the Elite Eight since Danny Ainge went coast-to-coast against Notre Dame in 1981. 45 years ago, if you believe that. They've reached the Sweet 16 twice since 2000, with the Jimmer year and the first year of Kevin Young's tenure being the only times the Cougs have reached that level. With the exception of the Cougs' First Four comeback win against Iona in 2012, BYU basketball hadn't won a tournament game at all since 2011 before last season.
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