Sports
Updated Look at BYU Basketball’s Schedule After Week 3 – Vanquish The Foe
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The regular season tipped off exactly 3 weeks ago. BYU was picked to finish 13th in the Big 12 and expectations were low after consecutive fifth place WCC finishes.
Fast forward to today and BYU is 6-0 and ranked 19 in the AP and Coaches Poll with the highest point differential in the country. Big 12 play will be its own beast as it remains the best conference in the country, but BYU is off to an encouraging start.
Teams BYU has Beat
Below are the KenPom rankings of the 6 teams BYU has beat.
Houston Christian — 358
San Diego State — 22
Southeastern Louisiana — 250
Morgan State — 344
Arizona State — 100
NC State — 55
Houston Christian, SE Louisiana, and Morgan State will all likely be Quad 4 games. The other three will be worth monitoring if they are Quad 1/2. A Quad one game is versus a top 30 team at home, top 50 on a neutral floor, and top 75 on the road. Quad two is versus a top 75 team at home, top 100 on a neutral floor, and top 135 on the road. All use the NET rankings, which will be released in December.
SDSU and NC State should for sure be at least Quad 2. If SDSU can be top 30 and NC State top 50 they would slide into Quad 1 wins. For Arizona State, I’m just hoping they can be a top 100 team so they can be a Quad 2 win.
Of those three teams, only NC State has notable games this coming week. The Wolfpack have road games this week at Ole Miss (Tuesday) and Boston College (Saturday). Neither of those are great opponents, but two road P6 tests isn’t easy. Two wins from NC State would help pad that win for BYU early in the season.
Upcoming Non-Conference
BYU has 7 non-conference games remaining. Utah is the biggest obstacle standing between a potential 13-0 record for BYU heading into Big 12 play. Utah is 3-2 on the season which includes neutral court losses to Houston and St John’s, both respectable losses. Their best win is versus Wake Forest on a neutral floor. Utah travels to Moraga to play Saint Mary’s tonight. The Gaels have started off the season slow, but are coming off a 34-point win over a solid Davidson squad. A road win for the Utes would be impressive.
Two under-the-radar games I’m watching for BYU are Evansville and Bellarmine. Evansville was 5-27 last year and 332 to start the season in KenPom, but they have raced out to a 6-0 start. They have two tough games this week versus Missouri State and Northern Iowa, and if they can at least split that they’ll have some confidence going into BYU December 5. They are a team BYU should beat handily, but they could catch BYU in a look ahead spot since they are the game right before BYU plays Utah.
Bellarmine is another one I’m monitoring. The Knights are just 2-5, but they’ve sprung some P6 upsets the last few seasons and have played good teams tough to start the year. They lost to Washington by 34, Kansas State by 8, and lost to West Virginia yesterday by 4. Again, a team BYU should handle, but one BYU doesn’t want to to sleep walk through.
Fresno State has a couple good big guys and a good lead guard who could cause BYU some problems, but they haven’t been particularly impressive in their 3-2 start.
Below is the KenPom rankings of BYU’s remaining non-conference opponents and how much they’ve moved since last Sunday.
Fresno State, 12/1 (SLC) — 157 (-38)
Evansville, 12/5 — 199 (+41)
at Utah, 12/9 — 45 (-12)
Denver, 12/13 — 247 (+17)
Georgia State, 12/16 — 173 (+28)
Bellarmine, 12/22 — 217 (-13)
Wyoming, 12/30 — 187 (-4)
Big 12
The Big 12 remains the best conference with 6 teams in the latest AP Poll. Six teams are undefeated — most of any conference — and West Virginia is the lowest ranked KenPom team at 105. The Mountaineers and Oklahoma State are both 3-3, and UCF is 4-2 after a home loss yesterday to Stetson. The Big 12-Big East battle gets started Thursday, which BYU is not a part of. Below are the matchups.
November 30 — Texas Tech at Butler
November 30 — Creighton at Oklahoma State
December 1 — Iowa State at DePaul
December 1 — Houston at Xavier
December 1 — UConn at Kansas
December 1 — St John’s at West Virginia
December 2 — TCU at Georgetown
December 5 — Texas at Marquette
December 5 — Providence at Oklahoma
December 5 — Villanova at Kansas State
December 5 — Seton Hall at Baylor
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