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PROVO — Before BYU's latest regular-season home finale, the 20th-ranked Cougars will pay special tribute to their seniors.
But like most senior night celebrations in college basketball since COVID-19 affected the 2020-21 season, Saturday night will be complicated for BYU (21-9, 9-8 Big 12).
Three players are expected to be honored by head coach Mark Pope and his staff before the weekend's tipoff against the Cowboys:
- Spencer Johnson
- Jaxson Robinson
- Tredyn Christensen
Of the three, only Johnson is out of eligibility; and the graduate senior, licensed realtor and father to newborn baby Joey with his wife Izzy plans to pursue a professional basketball career later this summer.
Christensen has been injured for most of the year, most recently appearing on the Cougars' bench in street clothes and a knee brace. Robinson, meanwhile, has a year of eligibility that he could utilize as a result of the pandemic, but his stock among NBA draft personnel has been steadily rising as he's led BYU's scoring output off the bench with 13.8 points per game on 42.5% shooting.
"If he's a first-round draft pick, he's got to go," Pope said of Robinson in response to a question about his remaining eligibility. "We'll find that out more later. But short of that, it's just about recruiting and helping him explore where his heart is and where he can get it. It's an exciting time for him. He's a terrific player with a terrific upside."
Absent from the list is Noah Waterman, the 6-foot-11 transfer from Savannah, New York, by way of Niagara and Detroit Mercy who has averaged 9.9 points and 5.7 rebounds per game for the Cougars.
Waterman has been listed as a senior all year, but he has openly sought a waiver from the NCAA for a medical redshirt from his first season at Niagara, when the forward played in just eight games prior to an injury in 2019-20.
Don't take Waterman's lack of a senior-night appearance as a final decision on the waiver — that's yet to be decided, Pope said. But it's trending in the Cougars' favor to bring back the post in 2024-25.
"It's not final, but we have high hopes," Pope said. "High hopes are just what they are."
For Johnson, Saturday night will mark the final game in the Marriott Center for BYU, a top-20 team in KenPom and top-15 team in the NET that has reportedly clinched an NCAA Tournament berth by every major college basketball bracketologist with a 21-9 record and 9-9 record in the first two quadrants and no Quad 3 or Quad 4 losses.
It will also be a revenge game against an Oklahoma State squad (12-18, 4-13 Big 12) that handed BYU a road loss (that was in the Quad 3 territory for a day) back just three weeks ago.
The American Fork High graduate's path to BYU was nothing if not circuitous. But the 6-foot-5 wing who spent time at Weber State, Utah Valley and Salt Lake Community College — with a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Italy, for good measure — wouldn't have it any other way.
"This Spencer Johnson," as Pope likes to say, has been on a journey.
"There have been a lot of ups and downs along the way," Johnson said before Thursday's practice, shortly after the Cougars arrived at the Provo Airport around 3 a.m. following a road loss to No. 6 Iowa State. "Last season, it felt like we had a lot of ups and a lot of downs. … But this year has been incredible, and I think we proved to ourselves and a lot of our fans that BYU is going to be here for the long haul in the Big 12. It's been awesome to see, at a personal level, that when you stick with something and keep working then success comes."
Despite the circular motion, Johnson spent four years at BYU, and never opted to transfer in the age of the transfer portal, even when he averaged just over five minutes per game in his first two seasons with the Cougars.
But by not running away, Johnson learned a valuable lesson about persistence, especially when he became a starter in 22 of 25 games last year and averaged 10.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game as arguably BYU's most consistent player in their first year in the Big 12.
What lessons did he learn along the way?
"I think the answer is not always to run away from hard things," Johnson said. "The portal is there for a reason, and it's good to be able to get out of some situations, if you need a fresh environment, but I really liked it here. Even though I wasn't starting those first two years, I eventually started playing, and I wanted to work into it. I didn't want to run away and find a place to start right away. It was worth it to me to work through it and to be surrounded by all these great people here."
After Saturday's regular-season finale (7 p.m. MST, ESPN+), BYU will head to Kansas City to open the Big 12 tournament Tuesday at the T-Mobile Center.
