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PROVO — Noah Waterman made a lot of commitments during the offseason.
But one of the biggest ones involved some off-the-court adjustments that have proven big for No. 19 BYU men's basketball during a 6-0 start and the program's first Associated Press Top 25 ranking in two years.
The 6-foot-11 senior from Savannah, New York, faced plenty of challenges in his first year transferring to BYU from Niagara and Detroit Mercy, with plenty of them off the basketball court while averaging 4.6 points and 2.8 rebounds in 33 games with 14 starts.
Waterman buckled down, got back in the gym (and the weight room) over the offseason and set out to play a bigger role for the Cougars in 2023-24.
So far, so good.
The senior has started all six games for BYU during its 6-0 start, averaging 12.5 points and a team-high 6.8 rebounds per game that include a career-best 24 points in last week's 77-49 win over Arizona State en route to MVP honors at the Vegas Showdown.
In scoring, Waterman leads BYU's starting five while sixth-man star Jaxson Robinson has averaged a team-high 15.3 points in an equal 22 minutes per game off the bench. Both transfers, there's a reason the duo are finding success early for the team rated top-10 by KenPom.com and top-five in barttorvik.com's rankings that eliminate preseason bias.
"He made some life decisions in the spring that were just remarkable," BYU coach Mark Pope said of Waterman. "He got into this fall quarter, he made it a point to stay five days ahead in every single class, and he's made a lot of commitments in his life that are new, that are incredibly exciting, and we're seeing the fruits of it. His urgency and intensity has been really special."
It's still early in the 2023-24 college basketball season, and the toughest conference in the country still awaits the Cougars in the Big 12, where BYU was picked to finish 13th out of 14 teams.
. @BYUMBB 🤝 @byuwbbpic.twitter.com/NRcC9hbBXx
— BYU Men's Basketball (@BYUMBB) November 28, 2023
But for now, the Cougars are one of just three NCAA Division I teams with a 6-0 start each by the men's and women's basketball programs. The BYU men are one of six AP-ranked teams from the Big 12, while the women received two votes in the latest poll.
In an offseason marked by the departures of Gideon George and Rudi Williams to graduation, and Tanner Toolson (Utah Valley) and Braeden Moore (Oral Roberts) to the transfer portal, the Cougars brought in a handful of replacements like Charlotte center Aly Khalifa, UC Irvine scoring wing Dawson Baker, and four-star freshman Marcus Adams Jr.
But only Khalifa has played through the first six games, with Baker nursing an injury and Adams waiting on a waiver for eligibility from the NCAA after transferring from Kansas and Gonzaga before his freshman season.
That's left the returning veterans to pick up the slack — and Waterman has been happy to oblige. All he needed was a little time.
"When I first got here last year, it's always hard to find a place in a new team," Waterman told BYUtv Tuesday. "It was kind of hard for me to adjust the first year. I really let my highs take me really high and my lows take me really low. I had to learn how to just stay neutral."
Waterman has been more even-keeled during BYU's hot start, scoring in double figures in four of six games wile shooting 50% from the field and 46.7% from 3-point range. But he's always had that ability to go off, according to teammate and traveling roommate Trevin Knell.
"Noah's always had that edge to him and that dog in him," he said. "It's fun to see him have that confidence to just let loose and play the way we know he can play. He's an intricate piece to our program, a person who we know when we need a shot, he's there. When we need a rebound, he's there. He's that guy who is always there for us."
Waterman's year-plus in Provo hasn't always been easy for the son of Kim Waterman who grew up in the northeast. He's had to learn to adapt to a new system, new culture, and often jokes about the cold of Utah winters — after growing up in frigid upstate New York.
While off-the-court adjustments helped his academic and social game, his biggest change — and the reason for his constant inclusion in the starting lineup — isn't a big secret.
"A lot of hours in the gym, for real," he said. "We had a lot of hard summer workouts, and my emphasis was just focusing on defense and not letting my offense affect my defense. So my rebounding and defense just rolls over to the offense."
BYU hosts Fresno State in a neutral-site game Friday at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City (7 p.m. MST, ESPN+).
