Aly Khalifa has No. 14 BYU in passing lane as Big 12 play approaches

PROVO — Aly Khalifa doesn't remember where he first saw it (probably from someone on Twitter, he admits), but the nickname sat right with him, unlike previous attempts.

One college basketball observer tried to call him "The Egyptian Nightmare," but that didn't seem appropriate for the 6-foot-11 big man from Alexandria who came to BYU by way of Charlotte after years in the NBA Global Academy in Australia. Another tried to suggest "Prince Aly," which isn't as problematic but also didn't feel quite accurate for the vision-heavy specialist called by some the "best passing big man in the NCAA."

But when he saw "The Egyptian Magician," he stopped and liked the tweet, officially giving the name his stamp of approval.

"I didn't see myself as a nightmare; I wish I was," the soft-spoken Khalifa said with a grin. "But it just shows how the fans view me and really appreciate what I'm doing with the team. I really love it, and I'm enjoying that right now."

With his 9-point, four-assist performance in last Friday's 101-59 win over Bellarmine, Khalifa ascended to the pharaoh's throne, too.

The stretch-center who shoots .400 from the field and .333 from 3-point range leads the country in assist-to-turnover ratio, a whopping 17-to-1 margin (17.00) that is nearly triple his closest competitors, Utah State's Darius Brown II (5.82) and Michigan State's Tre Holloman (5.43).

Khalifa has not committed a turnover since the Cougars' 95-86 win over North Carolina State back on Nov. 24. That's six straight games without a giveaway, a loose ball off the foot, a steal by the defense or an offensive foul by the near-7 footer.

The junior isn't alone, either. Through 12 games, BYU leads the country in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.25) and assists per game (22.2) after ranking 181st and 64th, respectively, in the same categories a year ago.

Khalifa deserves some credit there, too.

"His 16-to-1 turnover ratio is one thing we definitely didn't have last year," point guard Dallin Hall said, playfully joking with his teammate seated next to him. "He brings a lot of things; Aly is, in my opinion, the best passing big man in the world. You can't replicate it; you can't find it anywhere else. What he does is special, and I don't think it's just because he limits turnovers. It's the kind of passers he is making. It frees us up a lot as shooters as teams have to press out and space the floor. … We never were able to make the kind of cuts we have this year because of Aly's passing ability."

Clearly through an 11-1 start, the 14th-ranked Cougars' emphasis on taking care of the ball is paying off with just 9.8 turnovers per game and a plus-3.4 turnover margin ahead of Saturday's nonconference finale against 7-5 Wyoming (4 p.m. MST, ESPN+). The schedule will soon get much more difficult, with a Big 12 that includes nine of the top-40 teams in KenPom.

But the basis of success is there, in large part due to Khalifa.

"I really believe he brings another 25-30% to our offense," BYU coach Mark Pope said. "It's the end of everything that is fully live, where usually it isn't. It just opens up a whole new space for us to attack. His size, when he walks out on the floor, we look like we fit a little bit size-wise. And his IQ expands throughout the whole court, even defensively. His knee limits his mobility right now, but his IQ makes up for it as he talks through rotations."

For as extreme as his impact on the court has been, one of two Division I transfers on the BYU roster has made just as big of an impact in the locker room.

"He's got a humility and a joy about him that is really special," Pope said. "He brings in a whole different worldview than most of our guys have that is part of the beautiful growing process in college. He's a big-time piece."

Khalifa helps fuel an offense that ranks 12th nationally in KenPom to go with a ninth-rated defense and No. 4 overall rating in the predictive metric to go along with a top-five NET rating. The Cougars are currently rated as high as No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, staying home in the Salt Lake regional by ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi, and have at least one coach believing they have enough to contend for a national title.

"You might think I'm crazy, but that's a team that could win the national championship," Bellarmine coach Scott Davenport said after last week's loss. "Mark it down, on Dec. 22, I'm saying it right now: that team could win it all.

"They have everything you need, and their best players didn't even play," Davenport added, referring to top rebounder Fousseyni Traore and leading scorer Jaxson Robinson. "I know they had the Utah loss, but never mind that one. Some nights, the ball doesn't go in the basket. But I'm telling you, in my opinion, that team has everything you need to win it all."

High praise, but Khalifa also realizes what high praise means in December, as opposed to March.

"I feel like March is still a long, long time (off)," the junior said. "It's still, what, three months? But obviously, we want to be the best team we can be. Right now, we're just taking it game-by-game and trying to believe in ourselves that we can be really good. But we've got to take it game-by-game and see what happens."

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