For the third consecutive year, BYU will be a 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament. BYU will open Thursday in Portland and play the winner of Texas-NC State. The game will tip off Thursday at 4:25 MT on TBS.
Texas and NC State will play each other Tuesday evening in Dayton. The Wolfpack are ranked 34 in KenPom and the Longhorns 37. BYU is 23 in KenPom. You can catch odds for the Texas-NC State game and others at FanDuel.
Texas (18-14) and NC State (20-13) come into the tourney on a bit of the slide, both having lost 5 of their last 6 games. Offense is the strength of both teams. NC State rank #20 in KenPom offensive efficiency while the Longhorns rank #13. NC State does it with pace and threes, while the Longhorns run a slower pace and get to the line as much as any team in the country. Texas relies more on its bigs and long wing Dailyn Swain, while the Wolfpack are more perimeter oriented. Both teams are suspect on defense, ranking in the bottom half in their conferences in KenPom defensive efficiency. NC State can force turnovers, but gives up a lot of offensive rebounds and is susceptible at the three-point line. Texas rebounds well, but don’t force many turnovers and their defensive shooting metrics are among the worst in the SEC.
If BYU can get past that, they would likely play Gonzaga in the round of 32. The Zags rely on big man Graham Ike, who is one of the best bigs in the country. The big story will be if Braden Huff is healthy. Huff forms one of the best one-two frontcourt punches with Ike, but he hasn’t played since January with a knee injury. Mark Few has said he hopes to get Huff back by the tournament, but recently said that Huff is unlikely to play the first two rounds. Huff averages 18 points per game.
If BYU gets to the Sweet 16, they would play in San Jose, California.