No. 17 BYU basketball pressing all the right buttons as Big 12 Tournament approaches

PROVO — There's peaking at the right time, and then there's whatever BYU men's basketball is doing as the postseason arrives on college basketball's 2024-25 season.

The Cougars, who moved up to six spots to No. 17 in the final Associated Press Top 25 of the regular season released Monday morning, didn't let the emotions of senior night, the ninth-longest active winning streak in the country, or an emotional rivalry game with Utah get to them in an 85-74 win over the Runnin' Utes in the regular-season finale.

Dawson Baker had 15 points in BYU's eighth consecutive victory, which is only surprising in that it isn't surprising.

The former leading scorer at UC Irvine has been one of a handful for rotational players coming off BYU's bench this year, a bench that has uniquely stretched to include nine-, 10- and 11-man rotations as the second-year Big 12 programs figures itself out in real time under first-year head coach Kevin Young.

But in winning an eighth consecutive game and clinching a No. 4 seed in the Big 12 Tournament this week in Kansas City, the Cougars (23-8) reached the best regular-season winning percentage in four years at 74% with the longest winning streak in conference play since 2019-20.

"Our group is confident because of the wins and the way that they work," Young said. "The practice that we had yesterday was one of the most impressive things I've seen since I've been coaching. These guys were so dialed in and intense yesterday, that I feel like they're mentally in a space that is ready to take on the world. As a head coach, that's a great feeling."

The Cougars are approaching the postseason as one of the hottest teams in the country, with three double-digit scorers, nine that average at least 6 points per game, and a legitimate Big 12 player of the year candidate in Richie Saunders, who is averaging a career-high 16.0 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.2 steals per game while also leading the team on defense.

KenPom's predictive metrics rank BYU as the No. 24 team in the country, including the No. 12 adjusted offensive efficiency; NET has the Cougars at 26th; and barttorvik.com rates the team from Provo as the second-best team in the country (behind only No. 1 Duke) since BYU's eight-game winning streak began Feb. 11, with the third-best adjusted offense and 32nd-best adjusted defense.

All of that for a team picked to finish ninth in the Big 12 by league coaches in October. See? The media aren't the only ones capable of making poor picks.

"I have a weird relationship with expectations," Young said. "I think they're very limiting, so I never put a benchmark on what I thought we could or couldn't do. It became pretty obvious for me early on that we could be a good basketball team, and the more I saw other teams in the league and the country, I felt like we have what it takes to be one of the best teams of the country."

At one point in league play, BYU was 1-3 and 2-4 ahead of a road trip to Colorado. You know what happened then since an 83-67 win over the league-worst Buffs. But what you may not know was what happened with Saunders around that time, at a church building on a Sunday, when things weren't going as well.

"It just shows so much perseverance for my guys," Saunders told BYUtv. "We were 1-3 in conference, and I was sitting at church ... so down. Like, how in the world are we going to turn this around? I didn't want to be done; I didn't want to give up and move on to next year 3-4 games in.

"I'm just super proud of our guys for moving forward after that. We came every day, and we were working. To finish the regular season like this is so cool; I'm just so happy, especially for our seniors. It's awesome."

Yes, the Cougars sent their four seniors — Trevin Knell, Fousseyni Traore, Mawot Mag and Trey Stewart out of American Fork — home with the best senior night imaginable. But they aren't done yet, all four insisted after Saturday's game.

BYU has a bye to Thursday's Big 12 tournament quarterfinals, where a potential rematch with fifth-seeded Iowa State could await the Cougars just over a week after an epic 88-85 double-overtime game in Ames.

A win there could lift the Cougars into a top-five seed in the NCAA Tournament, and some regional preference that could have them opening the tournament in Denver (if ESPN's Joe Lunardi is to be believed).

From sulking in a pew to riding the highs of an eight-game winning streak as March arrives, it's also a credit to the first-year coaching staff, one of those seniors said.

"We have had a couple of rough halves but then the adjustments have been great," Stewart said. "It's kind of like the first half of the season; we were kind of understanding things and then our coaches came in and made adjustments."

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