{"id":122341,"date":"2026-01-14T04:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T04:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/122341\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T04:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T04:19:13","slug":"no-11-byus-big-12-schedule-ratchets-up-a-notch-beginning-late-wednesday-night-vs-surprising-tcu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/122341\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 11 BYU\u2019s Big 12 schedule ratchets up a notch, beginning late Wednesday night vs. surprising TCU"},"content":{"rendered":"

He wasn\u2019t complaining or whining about it, but second-year BYU basketball coach Kevin Young created a little bit of a national stir Monday in his weekly press briefing when he questioned why the Cougars fell out of the top 10 of the Associated Press Top 25 college basketball poll after winning a pair of Big 12 games <\/a>last week.<\/p>\n

The 15-1 Cougars dropped from No. 9 to No. 11, despite routing Arizona State 104-76 and winning on rival Utah\u2019s court, 89-84, for the first time since 2021.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Winners of 12 straight games and 3-0 in the Big 12, BYU\u2019s schedule gets even more difficult this week, as the Cougars play host to surprising TCU<\/a> (1-2, 11-5) late Wednesday night at the Marriott Center before heading out to Lubbock to face No. 15 Texas Tech on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Certainly, the Cougars won\u2019t drop in next Monday\u2019s poll if they can somehow manage to knock off the Texas schools as the second half of their schedule begins.<\/p>\n

For context, Young made the remarks about BYU\u2019s rankings slide after being asked about the upcoming gauntlet of Big 12 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt that it\u2019s the best league (in the country),\u201d he said. \u201cI think there\u2019s, what, four in the top 10? Someone just told me we dropped to 11, which I still don\u2019t get. I really don\u2019t understand how the polls work, truly.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m not trying to be funny. I mean, we have one loss (to UConn) by two points against the No. 3 team in the country, in their backyard, and we were down two starters,\u201d he continued. \u201cSo I don\u2019t understand how we dropped in the polls. But that\u2019s neither here nor there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Obviously, Young knows that the AP poll is mostly meaningless, and just done weekly to drum up attention for the sport and create conversation and argument. What really matters is the NET rankings, and BYU is currently sitting at No. 9 there, with a 5-1 record in Quad 1 opportunities.<\/p>\n

The Cougars are currently No. 11 in another important metric, Kenpom.<\/p>\n

Two other Big 12 teams are in the top 10 in the NET, with 16-0 Arizona sitting at No. 2 and 16-0 Iowa State sitting at No. 3. Texas Tech is at No. 19 and Wednesday\u2019s opponent, TCU, is at No. 42.<\/p>\n

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And there will be plenty of opportunities for BYU to rise in the NET. Of BYU\u2019s 15 remaining Big 12 games, 10 are currently Quad 1 opportunities, and four are Quad 2 chances. The only remaining Quad 3 game for BYU is Jan. 24 when No. 131 Utah visits the Marriott Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line is, our league\u2019s really hard. Every night is a dogfight. The coaching is tremendous. The talent this year is even better than it was last year, across the board,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n

The same could be said of the entire country. There are a lot of elite teams this year, most notably the two aforementioned unbeaten Big 12 teams, along with 14-1 Michigan, 15-1 Duke, 17-1 Gonzaga, 15-1 Purdue, 16-0 Vanderbilt and 16-0 Nebraska.<\/p>\n

Still, Young has a point \u2014 BYU (3-0, 15-1) is the lowest-ranked one-loss team in the country. And in the 86-84 loss in Boston to UConn, starter Kennard Davis missed the entire game due to suspension<\/a> and starter Keba Keita played just seven minutes, 50 seconds before sustaining a game-ending concussion.<\/p>\n

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Monday, Young conceded that the Cougars could have recorded a double-digit win over the Utes if they could have made their second-half free throws \u2014 they were 19 of 29 from the charity stripe \u2014 but acknowledged conference road wins over rivals are difficult to achieve, regardless of the fact that nearly half of the Huntsman Center was filled with BYU fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you make some of those (free throws) you obviously have a much wider margin of victory,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I was just proud of the way that they were able to find a way to win. \u2026 There was so much emotion in it, so just finding a way to win was good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young said Monday was all about preparing for TCU, which lost a 104-100 overtime heartbreaker at No. 22 Kansas last Tuesday and then fell at home 86-73 to No. 1 Arizona on Saturday. The Frogs\u2019 other losses were to then-No. 6 Michigan (67-63 in Fort Worth), New Orleans, and Notre Dame (87-85 in overtime in Fort Worth).<\/p>\n

Their best wins were over then-No. 10 Florida 84-80 and Wisconsin 74-63 at the Rady Children\u2019s Invitational in San Diego in late November.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey are good. They almost beat Michigan. \u2026 What they did at Kansas was impressive,\u201d Young said. \u201cI\u2019ve watched a lot of their games. Coach (Jamie) Dixon is an experienced coach. Iowa State and Houston get a lot of credit in our league for being tough-minded teams defensively. I think (TCU) has a lot of the same characteristics, and that\u2019s why they are in a lot of (close) ball games that they are in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not trying to be funny. I mean, we have one loss (to UConn) by two points against the No. 3 team in the country, in their backyard, and we were down two starters. So I don\u2019t understand how we dropped in the polls. But that\u2019s neither here nor there.\u201d<\/p>\n

BYU coach Kevin Young<\/p>\n

The Frogs are averaging 80.4 points per game and holding opponents to 68.4 points per game. Forward David Punch leads them in scoring (14.1) and rebounding (7.8) and guard Jayden Pierre chips in 10.9 points per game. Guard Brock Harding averages 6.2 assists per game.<\/p>\n

TCU\u2019s roster includes two players with strong local ties \u2014 guard Tanner Toolson<\/a>, who is averaging 18.3 minutes per game, and center Adam Stewart, who has appeared in only four games.<\/p>\n

Toolson, the son of former BYU standout Andy Toolson, averaged 3.5 points in six games for BYU in 2022-23 before transferring to Utah Valley<\/a>. He entered the transfer portal after two solid seasons at UVU and landed in Fort Worth after getting several other power conference offers.<\/p>\n

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Stewart is from Waller, Texas, but played high school basketball his junior and senior seasons at Salt Lake Academy in Utah<\/a>. The 6-foot-11 sophomore served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Europe before joining TCU in 2024.<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, Stewart\u2019s parents \u2014 Rich and Rebekah \u2014 are now Young\u2019s neighbors in Utah, the coach said Monday.<\/p>\n

As for Tanner Toolson, who drew some BYU interest for the second time when he entered the portal out of UVU, Young said he knows the family well and \u201ctalked to him\u201d before the 6-foot-5 guard from Washington state picked the Horned Frogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a tough young man. He plays really gritty. \u2026 Great young man, great family,\u201d Young said. \u201cHe\u2019s been a part of some of the big wins that they\u2019ve had. So it\u2019ll be fun to compete against him. I wish him the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Except on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

\"TCU<\/p>\n

TCU guard Tanner Toolson shoots during game against Kansas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Lawrence, Kan. | Charlie Riedel, Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He wasn\u2019t complaining or whining about it, but second-year BYU basketball coach Kevin Young created a little bit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[30025,8147,315,17321,9197,21825,3118,116,118,117,8164,305,53175,53176,3116,53177,1924,10985,3110,853,27,3111,3124,3134],"class_list":["post-122341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-abilene-christian-wildcats","tag-arizona-state","tag-big-12","tag-byu","tag-cougars","tag-david-punch","tag-florida","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-horned-frogs","tag-kansas","tag-kevin-young","tag-marriott-center","tag-michigan","tag-ncaa-basketball-game","tag-nebraska","tag-new-orleans","tag-purdue","tag-tcu","tag-texas","tag-the-cougars","tag-uconn","tag-wisconsin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}