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PROVO — The next stop for BYU basketball: the top 15.
The Cougars climbed up five spots after Friday's win over Fresno State, shooting up to No. 14 in the Associated Press Top 25 released Monday. BYU is one of six ranked teams from the Big 12, and one of four 7-0 teams in the latest top 25 by the national panel of sportswriters and reporters compiled by the AP.
The Cougars, who also rank 13th in the USA Today Coaches Poll, are one of 14 unbeaten teams in NCAA Division I men's basketball.
Led by leading scorer Jaxson Robinson (16.6 points per game) and Spencer Johnson (12.4 points, 5.3 rebounds), BYU is off to its best start since Jimmer Fredette had the Cougars jump out to a 10-0 start during the 2010-11 season. It's just the third time since the turn of the century that BYU has started 7-0, as the Cougars lead with a roster of five players averaging double-figure scoring (Robinson, Johnson, Trevin Knell, Noah Waterman, Fousseyni Traore) and two more with 9-plus points per game (Richie Saunders, Dallin Hall).
"We're a deep team," Johnson said after Friday's 85-56 win in the Delta Center. "A lot of dudes can play, a lot of dudes can shoot. It feels awesome to be a part of."
The Cougars also rank eighth in KenPom with both a top-15 adjusted offense and adjusted defensive efficiency, and are third in BartTorvik.com's ratings that eliminate preseason bias.
But perhaps most importantly, BYU came in second nationally in the first release of the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ratings, the primary metric used to calculate NCAA Tournament berths. The Cougars' 7-0 record includes a Quad 1 win against San Diego State and two Quad 2 neutral-site victories against North Carolina State and Arizona State in Las Vegas.
Houston, BYU, Arizona, Creighton and Purdue make up the top-five teams in the NET, with Baylor at No. 6. Seven Big 12 teams are in the NET's first top-20, with only UCF, Oklahoma State and West Virginia rated outside the top 100.
Utah ranks 39th in the NET, making this weekend's rivalry tilt in Salt Lake City a Quad 1 matchup.
Following Purdue's 92-88 loss to Northwestern, Arizona (7-0) climbed up one spot to No. 1 in the AP Top 25, followed by a top-five that also includes Kansas (7-1), Houston (8-0) and UConn (7-1), with the 7-1 Boilermakers dropping to No. 4.
POLL ALERT: Arizona hits No. 1 in the AP Top 25 men's basketball poll for first time since 2014; Gonzaga and North Carolina crack the top 10.
— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) December 4, 2023
Full poll: https://t.co/ZJG5mgWrsapic.twitter.com/hffKUyv5gp
The Big 12 is also represented by No. 6 Baylor (8-0), No. 12 Texas (6-1) and No. 19 Oklahoma (7-0), which shot up six spots after entering the top 25 a week ago alongside BYU.
San Diego State, which lost its only game of the year to the Cougars in the second game of the season, is back in the AP Top 25 at No. 25.
Big 12 schools TCU and Cincinnati are among the teams also receiving votes.
BYU returns to the Marriott Center to face Evansville at 7 p.m. MST Tuesday on ESPN+. The Cougars will then head north to face rival Utah at 5 p.m. MST Saturday at the Huntsman Center.
